Download or read book Anatomy of the Slasher Film written by Sotiris Petridis and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2019-05-14 with total page 179 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The term "slasher film" was common parlance by the mid-1980s but the horror subgenre it describes was at least a decade old by then--formerly referred to as "stalker," "psycho" or "slice-'em-up." Examining 74 movies--from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974) to Texas Chainsaw 3D (2013)--the author identifies the characteristic elements of the subgenre while tracing changes in narrative patterns over the decades. The slasher canon is divided into three eras: the classical (1974-1993), the self-referential (1994-2000) and the neoslasher cycle (2000-2013).
Download or read book Anatomy of the Slasher Film written by Sotiris Petridis and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2019-05-10 with total page 179 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The term "slasher film" was common parlance by the mid-1980s but the horror subgenre it describes was at least a decade old by then--formerly referred to as "stalker," "psycho" or "slice-'em-up." Examining 74 movies--from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974) to Texas Chainsaw 3D (2013)--the author identifies the characteristic elements of the subgenre while tracing changes in narrative patterns over the decades. The slasher canon is divided into three eras: the classical (1974-1993), the self-referential (1994-2000) and the neoslasher cycle (2000-2013).
Download or read book Going to Pieces written by Adam Rockoff and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2016-03-04 with total page 223 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: John Carpenter’s Halloween, released on October 25, 1978, marked the beginning of the horror film’s most colorful, controversial, and successful offshoot—the slasher film. Loved by fans and reviled by critics for its iconic psychopaths, gory special effects, brainless teenagers in peril, and more than a bit of soft-core sex, the slasher film secured its legacy as a cultural phenomenon and continues to be popular today. This work traces the evolution of the slasher film from 1978 when it was a fledgling genre, through the early 1980s when it was one of the most profitable and prolific genres in Hollywood, on to its decline in popularity around 1986. An introduction provides a brief history of the Grand Guignol, the pre-cinema forerunner of the slasher film, films such as Psycho and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and cinematic trends that gave rise to the slasher film. Also explained are the slasher film’s characteristics, conventions, and cinematic devices, such as the “final girl,” the omnipotent killer, the relationship between sex and death, the significant date or setting, and the point-of-view of the killer. The chapters that follow are devoted to the years 1978 through 1986 and analyze significant films from each year. The Toolbox Murders, When a Stranger Calls, the Friday the 13th movies, My Bloody Valentine, The Slumber Party Massacre, Psycho II, and April Fool’s Day are among those analyzed. The late 90s resurrection of slasher films, as seen in Scream and I Know What You Did Last Summer, is also explored, as well as the future direction of slasher films.
Download or read book The Slasher Movie Book written by Justin A. Kerswell and published by . This book was released on 2012 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Packed with reviews of the best (and worst) slasher movies and illustrated with a collection of distinctive and often graphic poster artwork from around the world, this book looks at the political, cultural, and social influences on the slasher movie and its effect.
Download or read book Slasher Films written by Kent Byron Armstrong and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2015-06-14 with total page 243 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The slasher film genre got its start in the early 1960s with filmmakers such as Alfred Hitchcock Psycho and Michael Powell Peeping Tom making provocative mainstream films, but it is most associated with the late 1970s and the releases of Halloween and Friday the 13th. They have been frightening and thrilling audiences ever since with their bloody scenes and crazed killers. Over 250 slasher films are presented in this work, each with major cast and production credits, a plot synopsis, and a short critique; interesting production notes are often provided. Some of the films covered include Alice, Sweet Alice, American Psycho, The Burning, Cherry Falls, Curtains, Deep Red, Frenzy, Hide and Go Shriek, Maniac, Prom Night, Scream, Sleepaway Camp, Slumber Party Massacre, and The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. Filmographies are provided for slasher directors, actors, writers, and composers.
Download or read book Body Genre written by David Scott Diffrient and published by Univ. Press of Mississippi. This book was released on 2023-11-27 with total page 255 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this groundbreaking work, author David Scott Diffrient explores largely understudied facets of cinematic horror, from the various odors permeating classic and contemporary films to the wetness, sliminess, and stickiness of these productions, which, he argues, practically scream out for a tactile mode of textural analysis as much as they call for more traditional forms of textual analysis. Dating back to Carol Clover’s and Linda Williams’s pioneering work on horror cinema, film scholars have long conceptualized this once-disreputable category of cultural production as a “body genre.” However, despite the growing recognition that horror serves important biological and social functions in our lives, scholars have only scratched the surface of this genre with regard to its affective, corporeal, and sensorial appeals. Diffrient anatomizes horror films in much the same way that a mad scientist might handle the body, separating and recombining constitutive parts into a new analytical whole. Further, he challenges the tendency of scholars to privilege human over nonhuman beings and calls into question ableist assumptions about the centrality to horror films of sight and sound to the near exclusion of other forms of sense experience. In addition to examining the role that animals—living or dead, real or fake—play in human-centered fictions, this volume asks what it means for audiences to consume motion pictures in which actors, stunt performers, and other creative personnel have put their own bodies and lives at risk for our amusement. Historically grounded and theoretically expansive, Body Genre: Anatomy of the Horror Film moves the study of cinematic horror into previously unchartered waters and breathes life into a subject that, not coincidentally, is intimately connected to breathing as our most cherished dividing line between life and death.
Download or read book The Book of Horror written by Matt Glasby and published by Quarto Publishing Group USA. This book was released on 2020-09-22 with total page 179 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Glasby anatomizes horror’s scare tactics with keen, lucid clarity across 34 carefully selected main films—classic and pleasingly obscure. 4 Stars.” —Total Film? Horror movies have never been more critically or commercially successful, but there’s only one metric that matters: are they scary? The Book of Horror focuses on the most frightening films of the post-war era—from Psycho (1960) to It Chapter Two (2019)—examining exactly how they scare us across a series of key categories. Each chapter explores a seminal horror film in depth, charting its scariest moments with infographics and identifying the related works you need to see. Including references to more than one hundred classic and contemporary horror films from around the globe, and striking illustrations from Barney Bodoano, this is a rich and compelling guide to the scariest films ever made. “This is the definitive guide to what properly messes us up.” —SFX Magazine The films: Psycho (1960), The Innocents (1961), The Haunting (1963), Don’t Look Now (1973), The Exorcist (1973), The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974), Who Can Kill a Child? (1976), Suspiria (1977), Halloween (1978), The Shining (1980), The Entity (1982), Angst (1983), Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer (1990), Ring (1998), The Blair Witch Project (1999), The Others (2001), The Eye (2002), Ju-On: The Grudge (2002), Shutter (2004), The Descent (2005), Wolf Creek (2005), The Orphanage (2007), [Rec] (2007), The Strangers (2008), Lake Mungo (2008), Martyrs (2008), The Innkeepers (2011), Banshee Chapter (2013), Oculus (2013), The Babadook (2014), It Follows (2015), Terrified (2017), Hereditary (2018), It Chapter Two (2019)
Download or read book Misogyny Misandry and Misanthropy written by R. Howard Bloch and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2023-04-28 with total page 230 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1989.
Download or read book Blumhouse Productions written by Todd K. Platts and published by University of Wales Press. This book was released on 2022-05-15 with total page 302 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Blumhouse Productions is the first book that systematically examines the corpus of Blumhouse’s cinematic output. Individual chapters written by emerging and established scholars consider thematic trends across Blumhouse films, such as the use of found footage, haunted bodies/haunted houses, and toxic masculinity. Blumhouse’s business strategies and funding model are considered – including the company’s high-profile franchises Paranormal Activity, Insidious, The Purge, Happy Death Day, and Halloween – alongside such key standalone films as Get Out and Black Christmas, and nonhorror films like BlackKklansman. Taken together, the chapters provide a thorough primer for one of the most significant drivers behind the contemporary resurgence of horror cinema.
Download or read book Writing the Horror Movie written by Marc Blake and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2013-07-18 with total page 270 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Tales of horror have always been with us, from Biblical times to the Gothic novel to successful modern day authors and screenwriters. Though the genre is often maligned, it is huge in popularity and its resilience is undeniable. Marc Blake and Sara Bailey offer a detailed analysis of the horror genre, including its subgenres, tropes and the specific requirements of the horror screenplay. Tracing the development of the horror film from its beginnings in German Expressionism, the authors engage in a readable style that will appeal to anyone with a genuine interest in the form and the mechanics of the genre. This book examines the success of Universal Studio's franchises of the '30s to the Serial Killer, the Slasher film, Asian Horror, the Supernatural, Horror Vérité and current developments in the field, including 3D and remakes. It also includes step-by-step writing exercises, annotated extracts from horror screenplays and interviews with seasoned writers/directors/ producers discussing budget restrictions, screenplay form and formulas and how screenplays work during shooting.
Download or read book Attack of the New B Movies written by Justin Wigard and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2023-04-14 with total page 285 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Since its inception in 1992, the Sci-Fi Channel (later rebranded as SYFY) has aired more than 500 network-produced or commissioned films. Campy and prolific, the network churned out one low-budget film after another, finally finding its zenith in the 2013 release of Sharknado. With unpretentious charm and a hearty helping of commodified nostalgia, the Sharknado franchise briefly ruled the cultural consciousness and temporarily transformed SYFY's original films from cult fringe to appointment television. Naturally, the network followed up with a steady stream of sequels and spin-offs, including Lavalantula and its sequel, 2 Lava 2 Lantula! This collection of essays is the first to devote critical attention to SYFY's original film canon, both pre- and post-Sharknado. In addition to unpacking the cultural, historical and critical underpinnings of the monsters at the heart of SYFY's classic creature features, the contributors offer a variety of approaches to understanding and interrogating these films within the broader contexts of ecocriticism, monster theory, post-9/11 criticism, and neocolonialism. Providing a further entry point for future scholarship, an appendix details a thorough filmography of SYFY's original films from 1992 to 2022.
Download or read book Dreadful Pleasures written by James B. Twitchell and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 1985 with total page 378 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Dreadful Pleasures offers a lively look at those stories that make our hair stand on end--their persistence in our culture, their manifestations in art, and our need for the frissons they provide. James Twitchell traces our fascination with horror from the cave paintings at Lascaux to the "slasher" movies today. Twitchell finds that three particular stories have had a special resonance in our culture: the bloodsucker (Dracula), the deformed creature (Frankenstein), and the transformation monster (The Wolfman, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde). Why have these stories persisted to the point of becoming mythic and to the exclusion of others? Whatever happened to the Phantom of the Opera or the Hunchback of Notre Dame or the Creature from the Black Lagoon? Using a psychoanalytic approach, Twitchell argues that the stories we seek out and preserve are th ones that carry certain information as well as horror. These myths, he contends, warn their adolescent audiences of the dangers of careless sexual behavior: they seem to say--subliminally--that sex itself is not horrible, but sex with certain people is. Whether discussing the engravings of William Hogarth or The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Twitchell is consistently insightful, provocative, and entertaining. Film buffs and scholars literary critics and devotees of the Gothic novel will all welcome this study. About the Author: James B. Twitchell is Professor of English at the University of Florida, Gainesville. His previous books include GThe Living Dead: The Vampire in Romantic Literature and Romantic Horizons: Aspects of the Sublime in English Poetry and Painting.
Download or read book Men Women and Chain Saws written by Carol J. Clover and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2015-05-26 with total page 276 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Examining the popularity of low-budget cinema, particularly slasher, occult, and rape-revenge films, the author argues that, while such films have been traditionally understood as offering only sadistic pleasure to their mostly male audiences, in actuality they align spectators not with the male tormentor but with the females being tormented--particularly the slasher movie's "final girls"--Who endure fear and degradation before rising to save themselves.--Adapted from publisher description.
Download or read book Horror Film written by Murray Leeder and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2018-01-25 with total page 289 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An introduction to the horror film genre.
Download or read book Recreational Terror written by Isabel Cristina Pinedo and published by State University of New York Press. This book was released on 2016-02-24 with total page 198 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.
Download or read book Blood Money written by Richard Nowell and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2010-12-23 with total page 300 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Future historians of the horror genre who ignore Nowell's insights into a major transitional period in the relationship between independent producers and the major studios will do so at their own peril." Kevin Heffernan, author of Ghouls, Gimmicks and Gold: Horror Films and the American Movie Business, 1953-1968 "Challenging numerous myths along the way, this impeccably researched study sheds new light not only on slasher films and cycles, but on the nature, structure and practices of independent production in North America in the 1970s and 1980s. Highly recommended." Professor Steve Neale, University of Exeten "Meticulously researched and forcefully argued... Offers new insights into how films, filmmaking and film marketing operated in the North American film industry of the 1970s and early 1980s." Peter Kramer, University of East Anglia, UK, author of The New Hollywood (2005) Scholars have consistently applied psychoanalytic models to representations of gender in early teen slasher films in order to claim that these were formulaic. excessively violent exploitation films, fashioned to satisfy the misogynist fantasies of teenage boys and grind house patrons. However, by examining the commercial logic, strategies and objectives of the American and Canadian independents that produced the films and the companies that distributed them in the US. Blood Money demonstrates that filmmakers and marketers actually went to extraordinary lengths to make early teen slashers attractive to female youth, to minimize displays of violence, gore and suffering and to invite comparisons to a wide range of post-classical Hollywood's biggest hits---including Love Story and Saturday Night Fever. Richard Nowell is a film scholar who has lectured at leading universities in the UK and Germany. His work can also be seen in Cinema Journal the Journal of Film and Video, and Post Script.
Download or read book Horror Noir written by Paul Meehan and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2014-01-10 with total page 311 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This critical survey examines the historical and thematic relationships between two of the cinema's most popular genres: horror and film noir. The influence of 1930s- and 1940s-era horror films on the development of noir is detailed, with analyses of more than 100 motion pictures in which noir criminality and mystery meld with supernatural and psychological horror. Included are the films based on popular horror/mystery radio shows (The Whistler, Inner Sanctum), the works of RKO producer Val Lewton (Cat People, The Seventh Victim), and Alfred Hitchcock's psychological ghost stories. Also discussed are gothic and costume horror noirs set in the 19th century (The Picture of Dorian Gray, Hangover Square); the noir elements of more recent films; and the film noir aspects of the Hannibal Lecter movies and other serial-killer thrillers.
