Download or read book Psychos written by John Skipp and published by Black Dog & Leventhal. This book was released on 2012-09-25 with total page 970 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This collection of thirty-eight terrifying tales of serial killers at large, written by the great masters of the genre, plumbs the horrifying depths of a deranged mind and the forces of evil that compel a human being to murder, gruesomely and methodically, over and over again. From Hannibal Lecter (The Silence of the Lambs) to Patrick Bateman (American Psycho), stories of serial killers and psychos loom large and menacing in our collective psyche. Tales of their grisly conquests have kept us cowering under the covers, but still turning the pages. Psychos is the first book to collect in a single volume the scariest and most well-crafted fictional works about these deranged killers. Some of the stories are classics, the best that the genre has to offer, by renowned writers such as Neil Gaiman, Amelia Beamer, Robert Bloch, and Thomas Harris. Other selections are from the latest and most promising crop of new authors. John Skipp, who is also the editor of Zombies, Demons and Werewolves and Shapeshifters, provides fascinating insight, through two nonfiction essays, into our insatiable obsession with serial killers and how these madmen are portrayed in popular culture. Resources at the end of the book includes lists of the genre's best long-form fiction, movies, websites, and writers.
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 225 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 Movies and the Modern Psyche written by Sharon Packer MD and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2007-09-30 with total page 217 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: By looking at the interactions between cinema and psychology, Packer offers readers clear and basic insights into some of the most fundamental reasons why film is such an important influence upon our lives today. Movies and the Modern Psyche first describes the basic concepts of psychoanalysis, experimental psychology, behavioral conditioning, and hypnosis, which have all played major roles in the histories of both film and psychiatry. It then goes on to discuss the recent rise in film therapy, drug treatments, treatment for drug abuse, and the closing of asylums, to show how shifts in treatment techniques, theories, and settings are foreshadowed and fossilized by film. Psychology and cinema are kindred cousins, born at the same time and developing together, so that each influences the other. From the mind-controlling villains that occupy early horror films and Cold War thrillers (like Caligari, Mabuse, and The Ipcress File), to the asylums that house numberless political allegories and personal dramas (in Shock Corridor, Spellbound, One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest, and Girl Interrupted), to the drugs, phobias, and disorders that pervade so many of our favorite films (including, as a small sample, Vertigo, Night of the Hunter, Psycho, Rainman, Fight Club, Requiem for a Dream, and Batman Begins), there is no escaping either psychology in the movies, or the movies in psychology. By looking at the interactions between cinema and psychology, this book offers readers clear and basic insights into some of the most fundamental reasons why film is such an important influence upon our lives today. Movies and the Modern Psyche first describes the basic concepts of psychoanalysis, experimental psychology, behavioral conditioning, and hypnosis, which have all played major roles in the histories of both film and psychiatry. It then goes on to discuss the recent rise in film therapy, drug treatments, treatment for drug abuse, and the closing of asylums, to show how shifts in treatment techniques, theories, and settings are foreshadowed and fossilized by film.
Download or read book The Spark of Fear written by Brian N. Duchaney and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2015-05-26 with total page 215 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The horror genre is continually being reinvented as societal fears evolve. As technology has developed and become ubiquitous in modern life, horror films have effectively played upon our increasing reliance on technology as a source of anxiety. Focusing on advancements from the advent of electricity to the Internet, this book explores how technology--ostensibly humanity's means of conquering fear and the unknown--has become a compelling and abundant source of dread in horror films.
Download or read book The Films of Mel Gibson written by John McCarty and published by Citadel Press. This book was released on 2001 with total page 260 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Rational Fears written by Mark Jancovich and published by Manchester University Press. This book was released on 1996 with total page 370 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This re-assessment of 1950s American horror films relates them to the cultural debates of the period and to other examples of the horror genre: novels and comics.
Download or read book A Year of Fear written by Bryan Senn and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2015-03-26 with total page 561 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This eclectic overview of horror cinema offers up a collection of horror films for practically any occasion and literally every day of the year. For example, the author recommends commemorating United Nations Day (October 24) with a screening of The Colossus of New York, whose startling climax takes place at the U.N. Building. Each day-by-day entry includes the movie title, production year, plot summary and critique, along with a brief explanation of how the film fits into the history of that particular day and interesting anecdotes on the film's production.
Download or read book Star Power written by Aaron Barlow and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2014-08-11 with total page 447 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Stars do have real power, but not all of them wield it wisely. This work explores how a variety of celebrities developed their brands and how celebrity can become a jumping-off point to entirely unrelated activities. Over the past century, a new breed of entertainer has arisen—one where the old division between on-camera talent and the suits behind the scenes has largely eroded. From Mabel Normand and Charlie Chaplin to Lady Gaga and Quentin Tarantino, entertainers have attempted to cross specialties and platforms to new arenas, from politics to philanthropy and more. An ideal resource for general readers as well as students of American popular culture and media at the undergraduate through scholar level, Star Power: The Impact of Branded Celebrity details the new ways entertainers are working in expanded environments to broaden their brands while also providing the history behind this recent trend. The two-volume set comprises four main sections: one that provides historical background, a second on entertainers moving beyond stardom, a third focused on commerce and education, and a final section on cultural missions. The work documents how earlier entertainers "set the stage" for today's stars by exploiting their celebrity to take greater artistic control of their projects and provides articles that depict each artist from a number of perspectives. Readers will understand what motivates the most important contemporary entertainers working today and better grasp the business of entertainment as a whole—how Hollywood works, and who is really in control.
Download or read book Shot on This Site written by William A. Gordon and published by Citadel Press. This book was released on 1995 with total page 284 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How to find the locations used for movies and television shows, from the belltower in "Vertigo" to the baseball field in "Field of Dreams."
Download or read book The Films of Harrison Ford written by Lee Pfeiffer and published by Citadel Press. This book was released on 1999 with total page 264 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This chronicle of Harrison Ford's life and career contains detailed analyses of each film, along with behind-the-scenes insights, casts, credits, original reviews, Ford's comments, and hundreds of photos.
Download or read book Relating Rape and Murder written by Jane Monckton-Smith and published by Springer. This book was released on 2010-08-16 with total page 202 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is about relating the concepts of rape and murder in both senses of the term; that is the way rape and murder are linked and related and also how stories of rape and murder are related or told.
Download or read book Cinema s Sinister Psychiatrists written by Sharon Packer, M.D. and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2012-09-18 with total page 257 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Film history is merged with psychiatric history seamlessly, to show how and why bad depictions of mind doctors (especially hypnotists) occur in early film, long before Hannibal Lecter burst upon the scene. The German Expressionist Dr. Caligari is not cinema's first psychotic charlatan, but he launches the stereotype of screen psychiatrists who are sicker than their patients. Many film psychiatrists function as political metaphors, while many more reflect real life clinical controversies. This book discusses films with diabolical drugging, unethical experimentation, involuntary incarceration, sexual exploitation, lobotomies, "shock schlock," conspiracy theories and military medicine, to show how fact informs fantasy, and when fantasy trumps reality. Traditional asylum thrillers changed after hospital stays shortened and laws protected people against involuntary commitment. Except for six short "golden years" from 1957 to 1963, portrayals of bad psychiatrists far outnumber good ones and this book tells how and why that was.
Download or read book Golden Horrors written by Bryan Senn and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2015-09-03 with total page 529 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the grindhouse oddities to major studio releases, this work details 46 horror films released during the genre's golden era. Each entry includes cast and credits, a plot synopsis, in-depth critical analysis, contemporary reviews, time of release, brief biographies of the principal cast and crew, and a production history. Apart from the 46 main entries, 71 additional "borderline horrors" are examined and critiqued in an appendix.
Download or read book The Films of Al Pacino written by William Schoell and published by Carol Publishing Corporation. This book was released on 1995 with total page 234 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Bullets Over Hollywood written by John McCarty and published by Da Capo Press. This book was released on 2009-04-27 with total page 366 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The gangster, like the gunslinger, is a classic American character-and the gangster movie, like the Western, is one of the American cinema's enduring film genres. From Scarface to White Heat, from The Godfather to The Usual Suspects, from Once Upon a Time in America to Road to Perdition, gangland on the screen remains as popular as ever.In Bullets over Hollywood, film scholar John McCarty traces the history of mob flicks and reveals why the films are so beloved by Americans. As McCarty demonstrates, the themes, characters, landscapes, stories-the overall iconography-of the gangster genre have proven resilient enough to be updated, reshaped, and expanded upon to connect with even today's young audiences. Packed with fascinating behind-the-scenes anecdotes and information about real-life hoods and their cinematic alter egos, insightful analysis, and a solid historical perspective, Bullets over Hollywood will be the definitive book on the gangster movie for years to come.
Download or read book Fantastic Cinema Subject Guide written by Bryan Senn and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2024-10-16 with total page 699 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: About 2,500 genre films are entered under more than 100 subject headings, ranging from abominable snowmen through dreamkillers, rats, and time travel, to zombies, with a brief essay on each topic: development, highlights, and trends. Each film entry shows year of release, distribution company, country of origin, director, producer, screenwriter, cinematographer, cast credits, plot synopsis and critical commentary.
Download or read book Smirk Sneer and Scream written by Mark Clark and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2003-12-31 with total page 269 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: While you may think the old adage about oil and water being unable to mix applies perfectly to the cinema of terror and the craft of great acting, many a grease-painted scare and fluid performance have been combined in the strange alchemy that is the horror film. From the silent mastery of Lon Chaney's The Phantom of the Opera to the cultured cannibalism of Anthony Hopkins in The Silence of the Lambs, the genre has seen an impressive number of noteworthy portrayals, far removed from the stereotypical leering monster and terrified maiden. Part One of this work highlights the stars of this screen style--those whose numerous roles and outstanding performances made their names synonymous with horror cinema. Part Two covers actors who, although not normally associated with the genre, still contributed to its history. Part Three covers the great actresses in horror films and highlights their acting achievement. An appendix lists all the Academy Award nominations and winners in the horror genre.
