Read complete books and articles on: Monster Movies

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16 of the Best Books and Articles on: Monster Movies

as selected by Questia librarians

1.

Immortal Monster: The Mythological Evolution of the Fantastic Beast in Modern Fiction and Film » Read Now
by Joseph D. Andriano, Donald Palumbo. 182 pgs.

Collections: Literature, Entire Library

Monsters figure prominently in classic works of literature as well as in films and stories intended for a wide audience. Since Darwin's time, most of these imaginary beasts have taken the form of natural creatures, rather than supernatural ones. This volume explores both literary and cinematic texts...
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Monsters figure prominently in classic works of literature as well as in films and stories intended for a wide audience. Since Darwin's time, most of these imaginary beasts have taken the form of natural creatures, rather than supernatural ones. This volume explores both literary and cinematic texts that are especially explicit in their depiction of beasts in Darwinian terms, though these same monsters retain an archaic mythological aspect. The myth of Leviathan and Behemoth, for instance, is at the heart of Jaws as much as it is central to Moby-Dick; indeed, Jaws inherits the myth directly from Moby-Dick, as does King Kong. These and other monster tales keep the myth alive by retelling it in the context of biological and cultural evolution. There is a pattern of alternating bestialization and anthropomorphism in many monster tales, suggesting that these images are being displayed in repeated attempts to define who we are in relation to animals. As fables of identity, these tales dramatize our anxieties and,fears concerning our own animal nature and help us come to terms with our own evolution.
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2.

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

Collections: Literature, Entire Library

...different incarnations. If Frankensteins monster articulates the injustice of demonizing...may be found in contemporary slasher movies like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre...
3.

Imps of the Perverse: Gay Monsters in Film » Read Now
by Michael William Saunders. 154 pgs.

Collections: Entire Library

Hollywood movies often portray gay people as being in some sense monstrous. This volume focuses on several filmmakers who have used the trope of the homosexual as monster in a way that subverts traditional cinema. Their movies reveal that the monster can be powerful and attractive, thereby showing...
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Hollywood movies often portray gay people as being in some sense monstrous. This volume focuses on several filmmakers who have used the trope of the homosexual as monster in a way that subverts traditional cinema. Their movies reveal that the monster can be powerful and attractive, thereby showing gay people a way to claim power from being thought of as outcasts and obviating the notion of "fitting in."
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4.

Psychological Reflections on Cinematic Terror: Jungian Archetypes in Horror Films (Includes discussion of monster movies in multiple chapters) » Read Now
by James F. Iaccino. 217 pgs.

Collections: Psychology, Entire Library

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...
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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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5.

Recreational Terror: Women and the Pleasures of Horror Film Viewing (Discussion of monster movies begins on p. 30) » Read Now
by Isabel Cristina Pinedo. 177 pgs.

Collections: Entire Library

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...
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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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6.

Celluloid Mushroom Clouds: Hollywood and the Atomic Bomb (Chap. 5 "Radiation-Produced Monsters: Them! (1954)") » Read Now
by Joyce A. Evans. 212 pgs.

Collections: Entire Library

Celluloid Mushroom Clouds is an historical account of how the movie industry responded to specific economic & political forces over the postwar years. Joyce Evans investigates the transformation of the imagery associated with atomic technology found in Hollywood film produced & distributed between...
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Celluloid Mushroom Clouds is an historical account of how the movie industry responded to specific economic & political forces over the postwar years. Joyce Evans investigates the transformation of the imagery associated with atomic technology found in Hollywood film produced & distributed between 1947 & 1964. Incorporating qualitative & quantitative research methods, over 90 films are analyzed in terms of their historical context & the context of film production & distribution.
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7.

Tracking the Sands of Time: Origin Stories in the Mummy Films, in Journal of Evolutionary Psychology » Read Now
by J. Robert Craig, B. R. Smith. 9 pgs.

Collections: Psychology, Entire Library

...inclusion of this so-called curse in the movies doubtless perpetrated the myth even further...clearly-established origin story telling us where the monster comes from while...
8.

Green Scales and Hot Breath: Godzilla! Again!, in Journal of Evolutionary Psychology » Read Now
by B. R. Smith. 8 pgs.

Collections: Psychology, Entire Library

...their most popular monster films, including...Godzilla, as if the movies following it had...included five giant monsters battling with each...of all the heisei movies"...
9.

Modernity and Subjectivity in the Terminator: The Machine as Monster in Contemporary American Culture, in Velvet Light Trap » Read Now
by Mark Jancovich. 15 pgs.

Collections: Entire Library

...Subjectivity in The Terminator: The Machine as Monster in Contemporary American Culture MARK...utilizing the trope of the machine as monster (frame enlargement). Terminator...
10.

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

Collections: Entire Library

...hyperbolic manifestation of the Other in the "monster" of the horror film suggested to Wood...a scapegoat and to refuse to see the monster as an aberration to be put down...
11.

Screening the Sacred: Religion, Myth, and Ideology in Popular American Film (Chap. 8 "Evolution of 'The New Frontier' in Alien and Aliens: Patriarchal Co-aptation of the Feminine Archetype") » Read Now
by Joel W. Martin, Conrad E. Ostwalt Jr. 194 pgs.

Collections: Religious Studies, Entire Library

...that he reads. The cinema, that dream factory, takes over and employs countless mythical motifs--the fight between hero and monster, initiatory combats and ordeals...
12.

Film, Horror, and the Body Fantastic (Includes discussion of monster movies in multiple chapters) » Read Now
by Linda Badley. 199 pgs.

Collections: Entire Library

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...
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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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13.

The Naked and the Undead: Evil and the Appeal of Horror (Includes discussion of monster movies in multiple chapters) » Read Now
by Cynthia A. Freeland. 320 pgs.

Collections: Entire Library

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.
14.

Songs of Love and Death: The Classical American Horror Film of the 1930s (Includes discussion of monster movies in multiple chapters) » Read Now
by Michael Sevastakis. 209 pgs.

Collections: Entire Library

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...
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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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15.

Handbook of American Film Genres (Discussion of monster movies begins on p. 212) » Read Now
by Wes D. Gehring. 412 pgs.

Collections: Entire Library

"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...
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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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16.

The Complete H. P. Lovecraft Filmography » Read Now
by Charles P. Mitchell. 261 pgs.

Collections: Literature, Entire Library

The influence of science fiction writer H. P. Lovecraft is widely felt in modern literature; authors from Robert E. Howard to Stephen King can claim him as their ancestor. But cinema too has seen Lovecraft's impact, and author Charles Mitchell offers here a comprehensive guide to the dozens of films...
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The influence of science fiction writer H. P. Lovecraft is widely felt in modern literature; authors from Robert E. Howard to Stephen King can claim him as their ancestor. But cinema too has seen Lovecraft's impact, and author Charles Mitchell offers here a comprehensive guide to the dozens of films that are representative of this influence. Mitchell studies the films in detail, analyzing the major Lovecraft elements and examining the fidelity of the films to the original works. Amateur films as well as television productions and foreign cinema are included in Mitchell's scrutiny, revealing the challenge of transcribing Lovecraft to the screen, while at the same time suggesting the potential of Lovecraft's work for future, quality screen adaptations.
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