Horror Films

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Horror Films

1.

Horror Films: Current Research on Audience Preferences and Reactions
by James B. Weaver III, Ron Tamborini. 206 pgs.

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Title Page

Contents

Contributors

Preface

Chapter 1: Frightening Entertainment: a Historical Perspective of Fictional Horror

References

Chapter 2: Evolution of the Horror Genre

References

Chapter 3: Content Trends in Contemporary Horror Films

References

Chapter 4: The Economics of the Horror Film

References

Chapter 5: Developmental Differences in Responses to Horror

References

Chapter 6: Gender-Socialization Theory of Reactions to Horror

References

Chapter 7: A Model of Empathy and Emotional Reactions to Horror

References

Chapter 8: An Activation-Arousal Analysis of Reactions to Horror

References

Chapter 9: Sensation Seeking and the Taste for Vicarious Horror

References

Chapter 10: A Uses and Gratifications Analysis of Horror Film Preference

References

Chapter 11: Horror's Effect on Social Perceptions and Behaviors

References

Author Index

Subject Index
2.

Projected Fears: Horror Films and American Culture
by Kendall R. Phillips. 230 pgs.

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Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction

1: Dracula (1931)

2: The Thing from Another World (1951)

3: Psycho (1960)

4: Night of the Living Dead (1968)

5: The Exorcist (1973) and the Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974)

6: Halloween (1978)

7: The Silence of the Lambs (1991)

8: Scream (1996)

9: The Sixth Sense (1999)

Conclusion

Notes

Selected Bibliography

Index
3.

Songs of Love and Death: The Classical American Horror Film of the 1930s
by Michael Sevastakis. 209 pgs.

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This book examines eleven horror films in-depth and their relationships to Romantic Gothic literary conventions--mainly, but not solely, found in works dating from the 18th and 19th centuries. To illustrate the use of these conventions in film, Sevastakis analyzes shots from scenes and sequences of all films discussed. Due to the large quantity of horror films produced during this period, the films in this book have been selected on the basis of their supernatural and preternatural content, and on four conventions predicated on fictional literary models dealing with the villain-hero.

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Copyright Acknowledgments

Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction

PART I THE ROMANTIC AS NECROPHILE

Chapter 1 Dracula: the Amorous Death

Chapter 2 The Mummy: Through Centuries Of Love

Chapter 3 White Zombie: "Death and Love Together Mated"

PART II THE ROMANTIC AS MODERN PROMETHEUS

Chapter 4 Frankenstein: Are Men Not Gods?

Chapter 6 The Bride of Frankenstein: a Friend For the Enemy of God

PART III THE ROMANTIC AS A SYMBOL OF DESTINY

Chapter 7 The Invisible Man: "A Reign Of Terror"

Chapter 8 The Devil Doll: "Three Lives Must Pay"

PART IV THE ROMANTIC AS TORMENTED HERO

Chapter 9 Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde: the Beast In the Man

Notes

Chapter 11 Dracula's Daughter: Vampirism As Psychosis

Conclusion

Bibliography

Index

About the Author
4.

Psychological Reflections on Cinematic Terror: Jungian Archetypes in Horror Films
by James F. Iaccino. 217 pgs.

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In this examination of the psychology of terror, Iaccino uses Jungian archetypes to analyze significant works in the horror film genre. In the past, Jungian archetypes have been used to interpret mythologies, to examine great works of literature, and to explain why sexual stereotypes persist in our society. Here, for the first time, Iaccino applies such models as the "Cursed Wanderers," the "Warrior Amazons," the "Random Destroyers," and the "Techno-Myths" to highlight recurrent themes in a wide range of films, from early classics such as Nosferatu to the contemporary Nightmare on Elm Street and Alien series. With this innovative approach, Iaccino gains a new perspective on the psychology of the often powerful compulsion to be scared.

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Contents

Preface

One: Introduction to the Horror Archetypes

1: Description of the Major Archetypes Used in the Horror Film Genre

Notes

2: An Historical Perspective on the Horror Archetypes

Notes

Two: The Orphan Archetype in Horror

3: From Psycho to the Shining: Victims of Cruel Surroundings

Notes

Three: The Cursed Wanderer Archetype in Horror

4: Vampires: the Lonely Children of the Night, Part 1

Notes

5: Werewolves: the Lonely Children of the Night, Part 2

Four: The Mad Magician Archetype in Horror

6: Frankenstein: the Alchemic "New Age" Creator

Notes

Five: The Shadow Abomination Archetype in Horror

7: From Them! to the Blob: Technologically Produced Behemoths

Notes

Six: The Changing Female Archetype in Horror

8: From Halloween to Aliens: Outdated Martyr to New Age Warrior

Notes

Seven: Avenging versus Random Destroyer Archetypes in Horror

9: The Living Dead Trilogy and Other Tales: Horrific Parables of Destruction

Notes

Eight: More Contemporary Archetypes in Horror

10: From Dr. Phibes to a Nightmare on Elm Street: the Dark Humor Shadow Tricksters

11: From Re-Animator to Lifeforce: the Techno-Mythic Archetypes

Notes

Appendix A: Selected Horror Filmography

Appendix B: Horror Films by Archetype

Bibliography

Index

Cabout the Author
5.

Recreational Terror: Women and the Pleasures of Horror Film Viewing
by Isabel Cristina Pinedo. 177 pgs.

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In Recreational Terror, Isabel Cristina Pinedo analyzes how the contemporary horror film produces recreational terror as a pleasurable encounter with violence and danger for female spectators. She challenges the conventional wisdom that violent horror films can only degrade women and incite violence, and contends instead that the contemporary horror film speaks to the cultural need to express rage and terror in the midst of social upheaval.

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Contents

List of Illustrations

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Chapter One: Recreational Terror and the Postmodern Elements of the Contemporary Horror Film

Chapter Two: The Pleasure of Seeing/Not-Seeing the Spectacle of the Wet Death

Chapter Three: . and Then She Killed Him: Women and Violence in the Slasher Film

Chapter Four: The Cultural Politics of the Postmodern Horror Film

Chapter Five: Race Horror

Afterword

Notes

Bibliography

Films Cited

Index
6.

Film, Horror, and the Body Fantastic
by Linda Badley. 199 pgs.

Book

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This fascinating study relates horror film to recent interpretations of the body and the self, drawing from feminist film theory, psychoanalytic theory, cultural criticism and gender studies. Applying the term "horror" broadly, this work includes discussions of black comedy, thrillers, science fiction, and slasher films. Central to this book is the view of horror as a modern iconography and "discourse" of the body. Badley's thought-provoking analysis of films by directors Tim Burton, Tobe Hooper, George Romero, Ridley Scott, Brian De Palma, David Lynch, David Cronenberg, Jonathan Demme, and Clive Barker, will be of interest to both scholars and students.

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Title Page

Recent Titles in Contributions to the Study of Popular Culture

Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Chapter 1: The Body Fantastic

Chapter 2: Spectral Effects: Postmodern Ghosts

Chapter 3: Frankenstein's Progeny

Chapter 4: Deconstructions of the Gaze

Chapter 5: David Cronenberg's Anatomy Lessons

Chapter 6: Looking for the Mother in The Silence of the Lambs

Afferword

Notes

Bibliography

Filmography

Index

About the Author
7.

The Naked and the Undead: Evil and the Appeal of Horror
by Cynthia A. Freeland. 320 pgs.

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This text examines philosophical aspects of horror films from a feminist perspective. It focuses on a select body of films, demonstrating how the genre is capable of deep philosophical reflection about the existence and the nature of evil.

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Photos

Preface and Acknowledgments

Introduction: Evil in Horror Films -- a Feminist Framework

Part One: Mad Scientists and Monstrous Mothers

Chapter One: Dr. Frankenstein's Progeny

Chapter Two: Women and Bugs

Chapter Three: Monstrous Flesh

Part Two: From Vampires to Slashers

Chapter Four: Seductive Vampires

Chapter Five: The Slasher's Blood Lust

Chapter Six: Feminist Slashers?

Part Three: Sublime Spectacles of Disaster

Chapter Seven: Uncanny Horror

Chapter Eight: Graphic Horror

Epilogue: The Appeal of Horror

Filmography

Index
8.

Skin Shows: Gothic Horror and the Technology of Monsters
by Judith Halberstam. 222 pgs.

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Contents

Acknowledgments

1: Parasites and Perverts: an Introduction to Gothic Monstrosity

2: Making Monsters: Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

3: Gothic Surface, Gothic Depth: the Subject of Secrecy in Stevenson and Wilde

Conclusion

4: Technologies of Monstrosity: Bram Stoker's Dracula

5: Reading Counterclockwise: Paranoid Gothic or Gothic Paranoia?

Conclusion

6: Bodies That Splatter: Queers and Chain Saws

7: Skinflick: Posthuman Gender in Jonathan Demme's the Silence of the Lambs

8: Conclusion: Serial Killing

Notes

Bibliography

Index
9.

Dracula in the Dark: The Dracula Film Adaptations
by James Craig Holte. 161 pgs.

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One hundred years after his creation by Bram Stoker, Dracula is still fascinating us. This study traces the changing nature of film representations of Dracula, from the early silent adaptations to recent popular dramas. Holte suggests that vampire films and Dracula adaptations have become an independent genre, the dark romance, with its own set of narrative conventions and audience expectations combining horror and eroticism. This engaging study provides readers with a natural history of the vampire, an examination of the work of Bram Stoker, a history and analysis of many film adaptations of Dracula, a survey of contemporary criticism and theory, and an extensive annotated bibliography of vampire film, fiction, and criticism.

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Contents

Preface

Introduction: The Shape-Shifter

1: The Source

2: Early Adaptations

3: Resurrection in Britian

4: An Unheavenly Host

5: Not all Fangs are Phallic: Female Film Vampires

6: Conclusions: A Century of Draculas

BIBLIOGRAPHY

INDEX

About the Author
10.

Gospel of the Living Dead: George Romero's Visions of Hell on Earth
by Kim Paffenroth. 195 pgs.

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Contents

Acknowledgments

Preface

1: Night of the Living Dead (1968) 27 Romero's First Look at Hell, Sin, and Human Nature

2: Dawn of the Dead (1978) Consumerism, Materialism, and the Fourth Circle of Hell

3: Day of the Dead (1985) Violence, Perverted Reason, and the Lower Circles of Hell

4: Dawn of the Dead (2004) Limbo and the Partial Victory of Reason and Virtue

5: Land of the Dead (2005) the Deepest Abyss of Hell and the Final Hope

Conclusion

The Meaning and Future of Zombie Movies Notes

Bibliography

Index
11.

Why We Watch: The Attractions of Violent Entertainment (Chap. 7 "When Screen Violence Is Not Attractive")
by Jeffrey Goldstein. 276 pgs.

Book

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America is fascinated by violence - where it comes from in ourselves, how it spreads through society, and what effect it has on the next generation. This collection of essays examines numerous facets of violence in contemporary American culture, ranging across literature, film, philosophy, religion, fairy tales, children's play, photojournalism, and sports. In particular, Why We Watch is the first book to offer a careful look at why we are drawn to depictions of violence and why there is a market for violent entertainment.

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Acknowledgments

Contents

Contributors

Introduction

1: The Appeal of Violent Sports

2: Death Takes a Holiday, Sort Of

3: Immortal Kombat: War Toys and Violent Video Games

4: Violent Delights in Children's Literature

5: Children's Attraction to Violent Television Programming

6: A Test for the Individual Viewer: Bonnie and Clyde's Violent Reception

7: When Screen Violence is Not Attractive

8: The Presence of Violence in Religion

9: The Psychology of the Appeal of Portrayals of Violence

10: Why We Watch

References

Index

Name Index
12.

Taboo and Transgression in the Bad Seed, the Fly, and Psycho, in Journal of Popular Film and Television
by Cynthia A. Freeland. 11 pgs.

Journal Article
13.

The Horror Film in Neoconservative Culture, in Journal of Popular Film and Television
by Christopher Sharrett. 11 pgs.

Journal Article
14.

Horror Film: Creating and Marketing Fear
by Steffen Hantke. 262 pgs.

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Contents

Introduction: Horror Film and the Apparatus of Cinema

Part One: Light, Camera, Editing

Spectral Vampires: Nosferatu in the Light of New Technology

Imaging the Abject: The Ideological Use of the Dissolve

The Camera's Eye: Peeping Tom and Technological Perversion

A Film is Being Beaten: Notes on the Shock Cut and the Material Violence of Horror

Part Two: Marketing, Packaging, Franchising

The Horror “event” Movie: The Mummy, Hannibal, and Signs

“there is Only One”: The Restoration of the Repressed in the Exorcist: the Version You'Ve Never Seen!

Proliferating Horrors: Survival Horror and the Resident Evil Franchise

Simulating Torture, Documenting Horror: The Technology of “nonfiction Filmmaking” in Devil's Experiment and Flowers of Flesh and Blood

Part Three: Theory, History, Genre

A Nasty Situation: Social Panics, Transnationalism, and the Video Nasty

From Sbigs to Mildred's Inverse Law of Trailers: Skewing the Narrative of Horror Fan Consumption

Horror Meets Noir: The Evolution of Cinematic Style, 1931–1958

Queering Consumption and Production In: What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?

Notes

Works Cited

Contributors

Index
15.

Handbook of American Film Genres (Chap. 12 "Horror Film")
by Wes D. Gehring. 412 pgs.

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"More genres, 19 in fact, are discussed than in other standard works. The 14 genres considered here by film scholar contributors other than Gehring include the adventure film, the western, the gangster film, film noir, the WW II combat film, the horror film, science fiction, fantasy, the musical, melodrama, the social problem film, the biographical film, and the art film. The discussion of fine comedy genres by Gehring himself is far more extensive than in other genre studies, embracing screwball comedy, populist comedy, parody, black humor, and clown comedy. . . . Recommended for both undergraduate and graduate collections." Choice

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Contents

Preface

Notes

1: Introduction

Action/Adventure Genres

2: The Adventure Film

Bibliographical Checklist

Selected Filmography

3: The Western

Notes

Bibliographical Checklist

4: The Gangster Film

Notes

5: Film Noir

Notes

Bibliographical Checklist

Selected Filmography

6: The World War II Combat Film

Notes

Bibliographical Checklist

Selected Filmography

Comedy Genres

7: Screwball Comedy

Notes

Bibliographical Checklist

Selected Filmography

8: Populist Comedy

Notes

Bibliographical Checklist

Selected Filmography

9: Parody

Notes

Bibliographical Checklist

Selected Filmography

10: Black Humor

Notes

Bibliographical Checklist

Selected Filmography

11: Clown Comedy

Notes

Selected Filmography

Bibliographical Checklist

The Fantastic

12: Horror Film

Notes

Bibliographical Checklist

Selected Filmography

13: Science Fiction

Notes

Bibliographic Checklist

Selected Filmography

14: Fantasy

Notes

Bibliographical Checklist

Selected Filmography

Songs and Soaps

15: The Musical

Notes

Bibliographical Checklist

Selected Filmography

16: Melodrama

Notes

Bibliographical Checklist

Selected Filmography

Nontraditional Genres

17: The Social Problem Film

Notes

Bibliographical Checklist

Selected Filmography

18: Biographical Film

Notes

Selected Filmography

19: The Art Film

Notes

Bibliographical Checklist

Selected Filmography

Index

About the Editor and Contributors
16.

Eros in the Mind's Eye: Sexuality and the Fantastic in Art and Film (Chap. 9 "The Beast Within: Sexuality and Metamorphosis in Horror Films" and Chap. 10 "Fay Wray: Horror Films' First Sex Symbol")
by Donald Palumbo. 292 pgs.

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This lively collection offers a wide-ranging exploration of the erotic and the fantastic in painting, illustration, and frilm. It covers Western art of six centuries--from medieval woodcuts to contemporary poster art--and the cinema of six decades--from horror classics of the 1930s to recent slasher films--documenting the surprising variety of guises in which sexuality appears in fantasy art and cinema. Among the subjects treated are occult eroticism in Medieval and Renaissance art; the use of fantasy as a vehicle for depicting erotic subjects in periods of sexual repression; the fascination with unconscious and aberrant sexuality in the visual arts since the publication of Freud's theories; movie monsters and aliens as emblems of the submerged id or libido; and monstrous metamorphosis as a symbol of the changes accompanying puberty.

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Contents

Illustrations

Preface

Acknowledgments

1: Occult Eroticism in Fantastic Art of the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries

Notes

2: Disguised Eroticism and Sexual Fantasy in Sixteenth- and Seventeenth-Century Art

Notes

3: Henry Fuseli and Erotic Art of the Eighteenth Century

Notes

4: Mum's the Word: Sexuality in Victorian Fantasy Illustration (and Beyond)

Notes

5: Sex in Surrealist Art

Notes

6: Surrealist Female Monsters

Notes

7: Subliminal Seduction in Fantasy Illustration

Notes

8: And Now, This Brief Commercial Message: Sex Sells Fantasy!

9: The Beast Within: Sexuality and Metamorphosis in Horror Films

Notes

10: Fay Wray: Horror Films' First Sex Symbol

Notes

11: Sexual References in James Whale's Bride of Frankenstein

Notes

12: Sexuality and Identity in the Rocky Horror Picture Show

Notes

13: Dr. Freud Meets Dr. Frank N. Furter

Notes

14: Alien: In Space, No One Can Hear Your Primal Scream

Notes

15: Pilgrims in Space: Puritan Ideology and the American Science Fiction Film

Notes

16: The Power of the Force: Sex in the Star Wars Trilogy

Notes

17: Sexism in Space: The Freudian Formula in "Star Trek"

Notes

18: Sexual Freaks and Stereotypes in Recent Science Fiction and Fantasy Films: Loathing Begets Androgyny

Notes

List of Artworks, Filmography, and Bibliography

About the Editor and Contributors

Index

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