Horror Zone: The Cultural Experience of Contemporary Horror Cinema

by Ian Conrich (Editor)

Overview

Robin Wood has noted that horror 'has consistently been one of the most popular and, at the same time, the most disreputable of Hollywood genres'. Horror is still immensely popular but its assimilation into our culture continues apace. In "Horror Zone", leading international writers on horror take horror into the world outside cinema screens to explore the interconnections between the films and modern media and entertainment industries, economies and production practices, cultural and political forums, spectators and fans. They critically examine the ways in which the horror genre functions in all its multifarious forms, considering, for example, the Friday the 13th films as a contemporary grand guignol, the new series of Mummy and Blade films as blockbusters, and horror film marketing on the Internet. They also examine the relationship between the contemporary horror film and the theme park ride, the horror film as art house cinema, relationships between pornography and the horror film, set and costume design in horror films such as "The Silence of the Lambs", and the place of special effects in this most reputable of film genres.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781848852624
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	11/30/2009
Pages:	320
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.30(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Ian Conrich is Director of the Centre for New Zealand Studies, Birkbeck, University of London. His books include 'The Cinema of John Carpenter: The Technique of Terror' (2004), 'Film's Musical Moments' (2006), and 'Contemporary New Zealand Cinema' (I.B. Tauris, 2008).

Table of Contents

* Introduction -- Ian Conrich
• Industry, Technology and the New Media
• Dark Rides, Hybrid Machines and the Horror Experience -- Angela Ndalianis (University of Melbourne, Australia)
• High Concept Thrills and Chills: The Horror Blockbuster -- Stacey Abbott, (Roehampton University, UK)
• Bringing it All Back Home: Horror Cinema and Video Culture -- Linda Badley, (Middle Tennessee State University, US)
• Audiences, Fans, and Consumption
• Stalking the Web: Celebration, Chat and Horror Film Marketing on the Internet -- Brigid Cherry, (St Mary's College, UK)
• Attending Horror Film Festivals and Conventions: Liveness, Subcultural Capital and "Flesh-and-Blood Genre Communities". Matt Hills (University of Cardiff, UK)
• Trashing the Academy: Taste, Excess and an Emerging Politics of Cinematic Style -- Jeffrey Sconce (Northwestern University, US)
• Terrifying Toys and Tie-ins: The Material Culture of Horror Cinema -- Ian Conrich (Birkbeck, University of London, UK)
• Manufacture and Design
• They're Here!: Special Effects in the Horror Cinema of the 1970s and 1980s -- Ernest Mathijs (University of British Columbia, Canada)
• Making Up Monsters: Set and Costume Design in Horror Films. Tamao Nakahara (University of California, Berkeley, US)
• Culture Wars: Some New Trends in Art Horror -- Joan Hawkins (University of Indiana, US)
• Boundaries of Horror
• “Parts is Parts”: Pornography, Splatter Films and the Politics of Corporeal Disintegration -- Jay Mcroy (University of Wisconsin, Parkside, US)
• Nazi Horror Films -- Julian Petley (Brunel University, UK)
• Better the Devil You Know: Antichrists at the Millennium -- Mick Broderick (Murdoch University, Australia)
• Feminine Boundaries: Adolescence, Witchcraft and Magic in Contemporary Cinema and Television -- Estella Tincknell (University of the West of England)
• Impaired Visions: the Cultural and Cinematic Politics of Blindness in the Horror Film -- Angela Marie Smith (University of Utah, US)
• Notes
• Bibliography
• Index
•