Horror Film: A Critical Introduction

Description

Throughout the history of cinema, horror has proven to be a genre of consistent popularity, which adapts to different cultural contexts while retaining a recognizable core. Horror Film: A Critical Introduction, the newest in Bloomsbury's Film Genre series, balances the discussions of horror’s history, theory, and aesthetics as no introductory book ever has. Featuring studies of films both obscure and famous, Horror Film is international in its scope and chronicles horror from its silent roots until today. As a straightforward and convenient critical introduction to the history and key academic approaches, this book is accessible to the beginner but still of interest to the expert. Title Page Early cinema horror? German expressionist cinema and horror’s emergence Silent Hollywood horror The Golden Age: Universal and others, 1931–1936 Censorship and the end of an Era Monsters at war Lewton, ambiguity and ‘quality’ Apocalypses, showy and subtle Spectacle and gimmickry Monster culture and independent horror Meanwhile, in Britain: Hammer and other British horrors Continental horror 1968 A second Golden Age? Comes the slasher The gross and the nostalgic Quality and prestige Son of the slasher The twins of 1999 J-Horror New extremes on both sides of the Atlantic Newer trends The future of an undead genre Defining genre, defining horror Cores and margins Boundaries and genre hybridity Horror (and) comedy Feeding the alligators The return of the repressed The Uncanny Abjection The final girl: Sadistic or masochistic, castrated or castrating? Enter the body From cognitivism to affect Why horror? Why not horror? Pathologized audiences, victimized audiences ‘Think of the children’!: Children and youths as audiences of horror Gender, sexuality and audiences Horror fandoms Cult horror films Debating horror Sound matters A Rocky marriage: Sound fidelity and infidelity Ventriloquism: Voice and body Silence is golden Assaultive sound Ectoplasmic colour Black and white with colour Colour, excess and intoxication Back to black Domesticating colour Horror’s digital variations Lost footage, found The kingdom of pixels In the glitch Analogue echoes The persistence of the uncanny Index