HORROR
Horror cinema is a hugely successful, but at the same time culturally illicit, genre that spans the history of cinema. It continues to flourish with recent cycles of supernatural horror and torture porn that span the full range of horror styles and aesthetics. It is enjoyed by audiences everywhere, but also seen as a malign influence by others.
Brigid Cherry provides a comprehensive overview of the horror film and explores how the genre works. Examining the way horror films create images of gore and the uncanny through film technology and effects, Cherry provides an account of the way cinematic and stylistic devices create responses of terror and disgustin the viewer.
Horror further explores the role of horror cinema in society and culture, looking at how it represents various identity groups and engages with social anxieties, and examining the way horror sees, and is seen by, society. A range of national cinemas both historical and recent are discussed, including canonical films such as:
The Curse of Frankenstein
Night of the Living Dead
Ginger Snaps
Suspiria
Halloween
The Evil Dead
Candyman
Saw
Ringu
Nosferatu
Brigid Cherry is a senior lecturer at St Marys University College where she teaches courses on film and popular culture. Her research into horror film audiences and fan canons has been recently published, alongside articles on Candyman, Hellraiser, and Interview with the Vampire.
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HORROR
BRIGID CHERRY
LONDON AND NEW YORK
First published 2009
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
270 Madison Ave, New York, NY 10016
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2009.
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2009 Brigid Cherry
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Cherry, Brigid, 1957
Horror / Brigid Cherry.
p. cm. (Routledge film guidebooks)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Horror filmsHistory and criticism. I. Title.
PN1995.9.H6C44 2009
791.43'6164dc22
2008034974
ISBN13: 978-1-134-04938-7 ePub ISBN
ISBN 13: 978-0-415-45667-8 (hbk)
ISBN 13: 978-0-415-45668-5 (pbk)
ISBN 13: 978-0-203-88218-4 (ebk)
ISBN 10: 0-415-45667-3 (hbk)
ISBN 10: 0-415-45668-1 (pbk)
ISBN 10: 0-203-88218-0 (ebk)
For Brian, who always knows the right movies to watch
CONTENTS
FIGURES AND TABLES
FIGURES
1.1 | The Shaun of the Dead poster signposts the films generic hybridity. |
1.2 | Laurie, the resourceful final girl of Halloween. |
2.1 | Expressionist shadows in Nosferatu. |
2.2 | Sam Raimis use of Dutch angles used for over-the-top effect in The Evil Dead. |
2.3 | Anticipation before the shock of the reveal in Hammers The Curse of Frankenstein. |
2.4 | Sharing the tactile sensation of disgust in Suspiria. |
2.5 | Make-up and prosthetic effects create the skinless Frank in Hellraiser. |
3.1 | Brigitte watches as Ginger transforms in Ginger Snaps. |
3.2 | Ana at the centre of the action in Dawn of the Dead. |
3.3 | Helens gaze is highlighted in Candyman. |
3.4 | The alluring monster of Candyman. |
4.1 | Bens body is thrown on the fire under the end credits of Night of the Living Dead. |
4.2 | The burning corpse of William Brown (28 September 1919, Omaha, Nebraska). |
4.3 | The gay male family in Interview with the Vampire. |
4.4 | Marketing and fictional world collide in the search for the missing students of The Blair Witch Project. |
4.5 | The on-camera confessional of The Blair Witch Project. |
4.6 | Technology is the conduit for horror in Ringu. |
4.7 | Sadako: an incarnation of the vengeful female ghost in Ringu. |
4.8 | Torture is the game in Saw. |
TABLES
1.1 | Categories of cinematic horror |
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The author of a book is never alone when they are writing and there will invariably be too many individuals to thank each by name. Over and above the usual thanks to colleagues and family (you know who you are), I would also like to acknowledge all the students who have taken courses on horror cinema with me over the years, whether at university, at the BFI or at the Filmhouse cinema in Edinburgh. I can honestly say that each and every one of them has been a delight to teach. Their interest, inquiring minds, lively discussion and love of horror have shaped this book.
1
THE HORROR GENRE: FORM AND FUNCTION
A hoard of shambling, decaying corpses hammer at the glass doors of a shopping mall. Three student filmmakers get lost in the woods searching for evidence of witchcraft. A teenage couple are slashed to death after sex. A man chokes on his dinner, writhing in pain as a creature tears its way out of his stomach. A womans eyelids flutter in a state of ecstasy as an undead aristocrat punctures her neck with his fangs and drains her of blood. A scientist mutates into a disgusting half human-half fly creature after he teleports himself in a careless experiment. A journalist watches the ghostly images on a videotape and is doomed to die in seven days. A doctor saws off his own foot in an attempt to escape from a maniacal torturer. A vampire tells a journalist about his life of existential angst. A gigantic, lizard-like, alien creature rampages through Manhattan. A rape victim castrates one of the men who assaulted her.
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