Catherine Lester - Horror films for children : fear and pleasure in American cinema

It seems apt that completing a project about horror would feel at times like quite a horrific experience, and not in a fun way. Just like the child characters discussed in the following pages, it was only with the support of a number of crucial allies that I have successfully tackled this monster of a book and emerged relatively unscathed.

I would like to thank all of the people who I had the pleasure to be taught by or work with at the University of Hull and the University of Warwick. It was at the former where my interest in childrens horror and in pursuing an academic career began, and at the latter where this continued to be fostered and developed by a rich and supportive research community. In particular, my eternal gratitude goes to Helen Wheatley for her indispensable guidance and mentorship; I would be content to be even half as good a supervisor to my own students. Thank you also to my colleagues at the University of Birmingham, especially Rob Stone and James Walters, for providing feedback on chapter drafts, for reminding me to be kind to myself when I really wasnt, and most importantly for offering me stable employment in academia when such a thing is increasingly rare. As difficult as producing this book was, it would have been even more so in precarious employment.

Thank you to all the folks at Bloomsbury (and, formerly, I. B. Tauris) for your patience and hard work turning this bundle of words into a real book.

To the friends I made along the way: you know who you are, and your friendship is the most valuable thing I have gained from this long and often ridiculous journey.

To my parents, Michael and Jacqui, thank you for all you have given and done for me, especially letting me watch things as a child that I was almost certainly too young for. I suspect this played a big role in how I ended up here. Similarly, it is hard to imagine that this book would exist without the company of two people who have been my dependable horrific child co-viewers at overlapping stages in my life: my much cooler sister Rosie for being my trusty viewing companion throughout childhood and beyond, and my partner Craig for his unwavering patience and emotional support, for keeping me well fed, and for putting up with all of the research-related (and non-research-related) cinema trips. I appreciated it every single time thank you for everything.

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