Bryan Turnock
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- February 2021
- ISBN:
- 9781911325895
- eISBN:
- 9781800342460
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3828/liverpool/9781911325895.001.0001
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
Aimed at teachers and students new to the subject, this book is a comprehensive survey of the genre from silent cinema to its twenty-first century resurgence. Structured as a series of thirteen case ...
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Aimed at teachers and students new to the subject, this book is a comprehensive survey of the genre from silent cinema to its twenty-first century resurgence. Structured as a series of thirteen case studies of easily accessible films, it covers the historical, production, and cultural context of each film, together with detailed textual analysis of key sequences. Sitting alongside such acknowledged classics as Psycho and Rosemary's Baby are analyses of influential non-English language films as Kwaidan, Bay of Blood, and Let the Right One In. The book concludes with a chapter on 2017's blockbuster It, the most financially successful horror film of all time, making this book the most up-to-date overview of the genre available.Less
Aimed at teachers and students new to the subject, this book is a comprehensive survey of the genre from silent cinema to its twenty-first century resurgence. Structured as a series of thirteen case studies of easily accessible films, it covers the historical, production, and cultural context of each film, together with detailed textual analysis of key sequences. Sitting alongside such acknowledged classics as Psycho and Rosemary's Baby are analyses of influential non-English language films as Kwaidan, Bay of Blood, and Let the Right One In. The book concludes with a chapter on 2017's blockbuster It, the most financially successful horror film of all time, making this book the most up-to-date overview of the genre available.
Michael Blyth
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- February 2021
- ISBN:
- 9781911325406
- eISBN:
- 9781800342293
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3828/liverpool/9781911325406.003.0002
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
This chapter discusses the cinematic horror landscape at the time John Carpenter's In the Mouth of Madness was first released, explaining why the film was so unfairly neglected in 1995. It is often ...
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This chapter discusses the cinematic horror landscape at the time John Carpenter's In the Mouth of Madness was first released, explaining why the film was so unfairly neglected in 1995. It is often acknowledged among horror fans that the early 1990s was not the strongest period in the genre's history. In fact, it has been argued that the first half of the decade represented one of the most significant lulls that US horror cinema has been witness to, with the volume of film production, box office takings, and overall audience interest hitting an all-time low. Of course, such lulls can only ever really come after a boom, and the previous decade had been a highly prolific and profitable time for the genre. But while the 1980s were littered with innovative horror classics, it is also recognised as the era of the sequel, a time when the franchise reigned supreme and horror cinema became less about striving for new ideas than the increasingly cynical (but lucrative) expansion of those which had come before. Ultimately, not only did In the Mouth of Madness debut during the closing moments of this significant horror depression, it came at a time when no one was expecting great things from its director.Less
This chapter discusses the cinematic horror landscape at the time John Carpenter's In the Mouth of Madness was first released, explaining why the film was so unfairly neglected in 1995. It is often acknowledged among horror fans that the early 1990s was not the strongest period in the genre's history. In fact, it has been argued that the first half of the decade represented one of the most significant lulls that US horror cinema has been witness to, with the volume of film production, box office takings, and overall audience interest hitting an all-time low. Of course, such lulls can only ever really come after a boom, and the previous decade had been a highly prolific and profitable time for the genre. But while the 1980s were littered with innovative horror classics, it is also recognised as the era of the sequel, a time when the franchise reigned supreme and horror cinema became less about striving for new ideas than the increasingly cynical (but lucrative) expansion of those which had come before. Ultimately, not only did In the Mouth of Madness debut during the closing moments of this significant horror depression, it came at a time when no one was expecting great things from its director.
James Marriott
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- February 2021
- ISBN:
- 9781906733711
- eISBN:
- 9781800342101
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3828/liverpool/9781906733711.003.0011
- Subject:
- Film, Television and Radio, Film
This chapter summarises the principle theories applied to the reading of Neil Marshall's The Descent (2005), placing them in the context of the genre's efficacy at addressing the compulsion to ...
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This chapter summarises the principle theories applied to the reading of Neil Marshall's The Descent (2005), placing them in the context of the genre's efficacy at addressing the compulsion to control and manage trauma. On the face of it, The Descent is not quite up to the standard of the horror classics it seeks to emulate. Arguably, the overly frenetic fight scenes and the uneven tone keep The Descent from being a true horror classic. So why should we pay it so much attention? The Descent is interesting historically as one of the most critically and commercially successful releases in the recent British horror boom. Trauma can be revisited and, this time, controlled, through art. While other films explore the trauma of birth through scenes of incubation, hosting, and pregnancy gone wrong, The Descent takes as its central motif a far more universal theme, that of the trauma of being born.Less
This chapter summarises the principle theories applied to the reading of Neil Marshall's The Descent (2005), placing them in the context of the genre's efficacy at addressing the compulsion to control and manage trauma. On the face of it, The Descent is not quite up to the standard of the horror classics it seeks to emulate. Arguably, the overly frenetic fight scenes and the uneven tone keep The Descent from being a true horror classic. So why should we pay it so much attention? The Descent is interesting historically as one of the most critically and commercially successful releases in the recent British horror boom. Trauma can be revisited and, this time, controlled, through art. While other films explore the trauma of birth through scenes of incubation, hosting, and pregnancy gone wrong, The Descent takes as its central motif a far more universal theme, that of the trauma of being born.
