The Horror Film

ISBN-13: 9780582437944 / Angielski / Miękka / 2004 / 254 str.

Peter Hutchings

Opis

The Horror Film is an in-depth exploration of one of the most consistently popular, but also most disreputable, of all the mainstream film genres. Since the early 1930s there has never been a time when horror films were not being produced in substantial numbers somewhere in the world and never a time when they were not being criticised, censored or banned. The Horror Film engages with the key issues raised by this most contentious of genres. It considers the reasons for horror's disreputability and seeks to explain why despite this horror has been so successful. Where precisely does the appeal of horror lie? An extended introductory chapter identifies what it is about horror that makes the genre so difficult to define. The chapter then maps out the historical development of the horror genre, paying particular attention to the international breadth and variety of horror production, with reference to films made in the United States, Britain, Italy, Spain and elsewhere.Subsequent chapters explore: The role of monsters, focusing on the vampire and the serial killer. The usefulness (and limitations) of psychological approaches to horror. The horror audience: what kind of people like hor

Spis treści

1. Defining horror  2. A world of monsters  3. All in the mind? The psychology of horror  4. Terror in the aisles: horror's audiences  5. Dealing with difference  6. The sounds of horror  7. Performing horror  8. Modern horror and the 1970s  9. Slashers and post-slashers

O autorze

Peter Hutchings is a senior lecturer in Film Studies at Northumbria University, Newcastle Upon Tyne.