By Brigid Cherry
Published February 8th 2009 by Routledge – 244 pages
Series: Routledge Film Guidebooks
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.
In this Routledge Film Guidebook, audience researcher and film scholar 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 disgust in the viewer.
Horror examines the way these films construct psychological and cognitive responses and how they speak to audiences on an intimate personal level, addressing their innermost fears and desires. Cherry 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
Halloween
The Evil Dead
Candyman
Saw
Ringu
Nosferatu
This introduction to horror cinema is the perfect guide for any student new to the genre or wishing to study in more depth.
Brigid Cherry is a senior lecturer at St Mary’s 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.
By Jennifer Fay, Justus Nieland
Published November 12th 2009 by Routledge – 288 pages
Series: Routledge Film Guidebooks
The term "film noir" still conjures images of a uniquely American malaise: hard-boiled detectives, fatal women, and the shadowy hells of urban life. But from its beginnings, film noir has been an international phenomenon, and its stylistic icons have migrated across the complex geo-political terrain of world cinema. This book traces film noir’s emergent connection to European cinema, its movement within a cosmopolitan culture of literary and cinematic translation, and its postwar consolidation in the US, Europe, Asia, the Middle East, and Latin America.
The authors examine how film noir crosses national boundaries, speaks to diverse international audiences, and dramatizes local crimes and the crises of local spaces in the face of global phenomena like world-wide depression, war, political occupation, economic and cultural modernization, decolonization, and migration. This fresh study of film noir and global culture also discusses film noir’s heterogeneous style and revises important scholarly debates about this perpetually alluring genre.
Key Films discussed include:
The Maltese Falcon (Huston, 1941)
Stray Dog (Kurosawa, 1949)
Aventurera (Gout, 1950)
Out of the Past (Tourneur, 1947)
Ossessione (Visconti, 1943)
La Bête Humaine (Renoir, 1938)
C.I.D. (Khosla, 1956)
The Lady from Shanghai (Welles, 1947)
The American Friend (Wenders, 1977)
Chungking Express (Wong, 1994)
Justus Nieland is Associate Professor of English at Michigan State University and the author of Feeling Modern: The Eccentriticies of Public Life (2008).
Jennifer Fay is Associate Professor of English and Director of Film Studies at Michigan State University and is the author of Theaters of Occupation: Hollywood and the Re-education of Postwar Germany (2008).
By John White
Published November 24th 2010 by Routledge – 216 pages
Series: Routledge Film Guidebooks
It is a common assertion that the history of America is written in its Westerns, but how true is this?
In this guidebook John White discusses the evolution of the Western through history and looks at theoretical and critical approaches to Westerns such as genre analysis, semiotics, representation, ideology, discourse analysis, narrative, realism, auteur and star theory, psychoanalytical theory, postmodernism and audience response. The book includes case studies of 8 key westerns:
Stagecoach
My Darling Clementine
Shane
The Good, The Bad and the Ugly
McCabe and Mrs Miller
Unforgiven
Brokeback Mountain
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
Including a chronology of significant events for the Western genre, a glossary and further reading, this introduction to an important genre in film studies is a great guide for students.
Selected Contents: Introduction Chapter 1. The Evolution of the Western Chapter 2. Theoretical and Critical Approaches to Westerns Chapter 3. Key Westerns Chronology Glossary Further Reading Index
John White is Lecturer in Film and Media at Anglia Ruskin University. He is co-author of AS Film Studies: The Essential Introduction (2nd edition, 2008) and A2 Film Studies: The Essential Introduction (2nd edition, 2009) and co-editor of 50 Key British Films (2008) and 50 Key American Films (2009).
By Jacqueline Furby, Claire Hines
Published September 7th 2011 by Routledge – 192 pages
Series: Routledge Film Guidebooks
Fantasy addresses a previously neglected area within Film Studies. The book looks at the key aesthetics, themes, debates and issues at work within this increasingly popular genre and examines influential films and franchises that illustrate these concerns. Recent case study film series discussed will include:
Harry Potter (Various, 2001-ongoing)
Lord of the Rings (Peter Jackson, 2001-2003)
Pirates of the Caribbean (Gore Verbinski 2003-2007)
The Chronicles of Narnia (Various, 2005-ongoing)
The authors also consider fantasy film and its relationship to myth, legend and fairytale, examining its important role in contemporary culture. The book provides an historical overview of the genre and its evolution, contextualising each fantasy film within its socio-cultural period and with reference to relevant critical theory.
This is the perfect introduction to the world of fantasy film and offers a spring board to investigations into the links and associations made between film and gender, sexuality, psychology, philosophy, religion and more.
Chapter 1: Introduction to the Fantasy Genre Chapter 2: Theoretical and Critical Approaches to Fantasy Chapter 3: The History and Evolution of Fantasy Film Chapter 4: Key Fantasies and Fantasy Films
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