bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Macbeth and Horror Cinema
Authors: Owens Rebekah
Published: February 2021

This chapter establishes that Roman Polanski's Macbeth used the conventions of the horror genre to represent William Shakespeare's play on screen. It considers how Macbeth is placed in the wider historical context of the horror genre itself. It also examines how Macbeth fits with the Folk Horror The Wicker Man (1973) or slasher classic Halloween (1978) and shows how the film is situated within the history of the horror genre. The chapter illustrates how Polanski managed to combine an eleventh-century setting and William Shakespeare's poetic idiom to illustrate some very modern concerns in Macbeth. It analyses how Polanski used William Shakespeare's play to form a critique of contemporary society, exploiting and anticipating an emerging trend in horror of the film as social commentary.
Narrative Structure
Authors: Miller Giulia
Published: February 2021

This chapter is concerned with the narrative structure of Ari Folman's Waltz with Bashir. It reflects on the differences between Waltz with Bashir's story and plot, as defined by David Bordwell and Kristin Thompson in their seminal text Film Art: An Introduction and looks at how information is revealed to the audience. It also looks at the ten animated interview scenes ordered around in Waltz with Bashir, which allegedly took place in 2006 and are carried out as part of an investigation to help the film's narrator-protagonist to overcome his amnesia about his role during the First Lebanon War. The chapter analyzes Waltz with Bashir's final scene that uses live news footage of the Sabra and Shatila camps and appears to mark the moment when the protagonist is hit by the full emotional force of his memories. It talks about the juxtaposition of live footage with total recall that suggests that Waltz with Bashir moves from unreliable or 'false' memory to 'real' truth.
Waltz with Bashir and Meditations on War
Authors: Miller Giulia
Published: February 2021

This chapter considers Ari Folman's Waltz with Bashir within the broader context of non-animated and animated war films, such as Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now, Mori Masaki's Barefoot Gen, Jimmy Murakami's When the Wind Blows, and Isao Takahata's Grave of the Fireflies. It looks briefly at five other Israel films that deal with the subject of Lebanon: Eli Cohen's Ricochets, Haim Bouzaglo's Cherry Season, Eran Rikli's Cup Final, Joseph Cedar's Beaufort, and Samuel Maoz's Lebanon. It examines how the Israel films use more conventional modes of narrative fiction filmmaking rather than animation or documentary. The chapter looks at the intertexts that allow Waltz with Bashir to be both specific and general as it reflects upon the 1982 Sabra and Shatila massacres. It provides indirect views on other episodes of the twentieth century, such as events in Vietnam, Hiroshima, Korea, and the Holocaust.
Ari Folman’s Other War
Authors: Miller Giulia
Published: February 2021

This chapter looks at Ari Folman's Waltz with Bashir within the context of the Holocaust. It recounts the 1980s and 1990s that marked the emergence of second-generation Israeli cinema that was specifically produced by the children of Holocaust survivors. It also reviews the second-generation Israel films that address the subject of war and critique the Zionist project, which intimates that it had simply replaced the trauma of the Holocaust with a new and different kind of Israeli trauma. It also mentions Ari Folman, a child of survivors, who began making films during the period of second-generation Israeli cinema. The chapter describes Waltz with Bashir as an example of second-generation film-making and as a film that explicitly deals with Lebanon, but implicitly engages with events of the Second World War. It analyzes the function of the Holocaust in greater detail within the context of Israeli cinema of the early millennium and the cinema of second-generation film-makers.
Conclusion
Authors: Miller Giulia
Published: February 2021

This chapter reviews the mechanisms and features that are considered to be unique to Ari Folman's Waltz with Bashir. It explains how animation is used in conjunction with the documentary format and how the construction of plot manipulates the understanding of events. It also looks at the tension between the general and specific that are maintained throughout Waltz with Bashir and examines how the Holocaust narrative is employed. The chapter summarizes the function and significance of Waltz with Bashir and examines the retrospective viewpoint of Folman's film, which creates a narrative of traumatic event first then memory later. It points out how Waltz with Bashir is framed within a recognizable historical and political setting that is specific enough to appeal to an interested audience, though vague enough not to overwhelm the spectator with facts and figures.
Trilogy
Authors: Scovell Adam
Published: February 2021

This chapter discusses the relationships found in three predominant cinematic examples of Folk Horror: Witchfinder General (1968), The Blood on Satan's Claw (1971), and The Wicker Man (1973). The trilogy were all summoned into existence during what can be called the British counter-culture movement, almost acting as signposts for its tidal highpoint of 1968 in Witchfinder and the dying, post-Manson embers of Wicker in 1973. The chapter argues that the trilogy are capable of both interconnection and of standing alone; their themes being permeable and mantra-like in their ease of repetition. This connection is not strictly that of British folklore's purely aesthetic or thematic influence, but is instead linked to certain elements within its narrative happenings; they share a mirrored but ultimately differing birth. The chapter then considers the theory of Folk Horror Chain: a linking set of narrative traits that have causational and interlinking consequences.
RoboCop
Authors: Ahmed Omar
Published: February 2021

RoboCop, Dutch director Paul Verhoeven's first American film, was both a commercial and (surprise) critical hit on release in 1987. Marking its thirtieth anniversary, this book explores the film from a variety of critical approaches, including rereading RoboCop as a Western; the neofascist corporatization of the human body; satire, late-Reagan America and the rise of neoliberalism; resurrection, death, and the figure of the cyborg in science fiction; and the legacy of the film across American cinema and within Verhoeven's own body of work, which includes Total Recall and Starship Troopers, both of which develop further ideological interests about American culture.
Introduction
Authors: Ahmed Omar
Published: February 2021

This introductory chapter provides an overview of Paul Verhoeven's RoboCop (1987). If one were to compile a canon of great science-fiction films, the inclusion of RoboCop would be problematic simply because of the puerile title. Given the way films are inevitably marketed, made palatable for audiences naturally means film titles are transformed to suit commercial inclinations, often conflicting with the content of a film. In terms of high-concept cinema, the title RoboCop is a moribund simplification of the film's existential core. Yet it is such outward simplicity that fosters a contradiction often lurking in Hollywood-genre films like RoboCop. RoboCop's reputation was an early source of ridicule, such was the fate of many violent films of the 1980s when sanitised by the puritanism of the BBC or ITV. Fortuitously, the critical standing of RoboCop has grown over the years, in no small part aided by the intervention of Criterion, a specialist home video label which was first to re-release the film on Laserdisc and then later on DVD in an unrated directors cut. While the Criterion edition of RoboCop has long been out of print, the film's inclusion in the Criterion library accentuates its merit as a seminal science-fiction film; a key American work of the 1980s, overturning familiar genre trappings while its erudite philosophical address transforms the iconic Frankenstein narrative into an altogether more radical, theological work.
American Jesus
Authors: Ahmed Omar
Published: February 2021

This chapter assesses the portrayal of the cyborg in Paul Verhoeven's RoboCop (1987). RoboCop was part of the cycle of 1980 films in which the cyborg was consolidated as a genuinely ambivalent iconographic motif of science-fiction cinema. In many ways, it is the complicated experience of emotion and memory that defines the ubiquity of the cyborg in science-fiction cinema. The chapter then considers the ‘transmigration’ theory of Robotics professor Hans Moravec, who helped pioneer the development of Artificial Intelligence (A.I.). It also discusses religious, philosophical, and mythological dimensions, chiefly the potential of reading the film as an allegory of Christ. Whereas the Christ parable is nothing innovative to the way Hollywood heroism can be read, what makes RoboCop's Christian allegory markedly distinctive is that it takes places in the context of the science-fiction-cyborg-film sub-genre.
First Blood: The Opening of Scream
Authors: West Steven
Published: February 2021

This chapter discusses the first character seen on screen in Wes Craven's Scream named Casey, portrayed by Drew Barrymore, in a sequence generally regarded as an arresting self-contained set piece. It explains how Scream serves as a short film in its own right, priming the audience for the film's principal gimmick. It also describes the way Scream acknowledges the standard role of a prologue in a slasher film, which follow the terrorisation and murder of a short-lived character as a means of establishing the antagonist prior to the introduction of the central characters. The chapter mentions the ominous caller in Scream that is voiced by Roger Jackson who represented the vocals of the killer through a universal, gender-defying voice-changing device employed by the antagonist. It talks about Scream's opening scene and the slasher format that has its origins in an enduring urban legend referred to as 'The Babysitter and the Man Upstairs'.
Ju-On: The Grudge
Authors: Hayes Marisa
Published: February 2021

Takashi Shimizu's Ju-on franchise was a principal instigator in the rise of contemporary Japanese horror and its international popularity at the turn of the millennium. Following the success of Hideo Nakata's Ringu (1998), the first cinematic release of Ju-on: The Grudge in 2002 crystallized Japanese horror's rise to prominence and outlined the new decade's thematic interest in supernatural technology and fear of contagions, while skilfully navigating domestic social concerns, such as Japan's growing elderly population and domestic violence. This book explores the production roots of Ju-on: The Grudge, followed by a critical reading of the film that highlights its essential themes and motifs, in addition to a section on cultural influences, before concluding with a section on Shimizu's continued involvement with the Ju-on franchise and its ongoing legacy. The book serves as an excellent primer for readers without prior knowledge of Japanese horror or the Ju-on film cycle, while providing fresh perspectives on the film that makes it equally appealing to J-horror aficionados.
A Curse is Born – Context and Background
Authors: Hayes Marisa C.
Published: February 2021

This chapter discusses the context and background of Ju-on: The Grudge (2002), starting with a synopsis of the film. Takashi Shimizu's Ju-on franchise was a principal instigator that drove the dissemination of contemporary Japanese horror to global success during the early years of the new millennium. Capitalising on the supernatural folklore that permeates Japan's theatrical and screen legacies, this wave of horror represented a new cinematic export that seamlessly merged the Japanese vengeful ghost tradition with the influence of transnational horror. J-horror brought culturally specific references that were sometimes lost on international audiences, but they also delighted with fresh motifs, aesthetics, and storylines. The chapter then looks at the journey of the Ju-on franchise from television to V-cinema, or direct to video films, to the big screen.
Telling Tales
Authors: Gracey James
Published: February 2021

This chapter analyses the fairy tales, folklore, and the art of oral storytelling that are all woven into the very fabric of Neil Jordan's The Company of Wolves. It outlines The Company of Wolves's fragmented narrative structure, which exists within the dreams of a sleeping adolescent girl that is comprised of stories told to her by her Granny. It also talks about how The Company of Wolves plays with the form of the fairy tale and its ideas regarding initiation, redemption, and personal and social progress in order to explore the changes and uncertainties of growing up. This chapter explores Jordan and Carter's process of demythologising culturally constructed notions of gender and identity by retelling the very fairy tales that helped establish such notions. It examines the role played by fairy tales in conditioning communities, and how certain tales were repurposed through literary adaptations to educate and instruct different types of audiences.
The Films of Terence Fisher
Authors: Dixon Wheeler Winston
Published: February 2021

Tracing the entire career of the British director Terence Fisher, best known for his Gothic horror films for Hammer — such as The Curse of Frankenstein (1957) and Dracula (1958) — this book covers not only his horror films, but also his film noirs, comedies, and early apprenticeship work to create a full picture of Fisher's life and work. Brimming with rare stills, interviews, and detailed analysis of Fisher's films — both for Hammer as well as his earlier work — this is the ultimate “one-stop” book on Terence Fisher, both in his horror films, and his entire body of work, as well as his legacy to the British cinema.
A Working Director
Authors: Dixon Wheeler Winston
Published: February 2021

This chapter talks about the completion of Four Sided Triangle, which was received as just another science-fiction programmer at the time, and marked no immediate advance in Terence Fisher's status as a director. It discusses the importance of rehearsal to Fisher, sp much that even in his lowest budgeted films, he always insisted on some time to work with the actors on the floor. It also describes how Fisher rehearsed the actors just before the cameras rolled and shot the scene immediately when he was happy with the results. The chapter recounts Fisher's method of working on a film in 1973, from the first day of shooting onward. It looks at Fisher's work in television, such as his directorial work on an episode of Colonel March of Scotland Yard in 1956, a half-hour detective series with occasional supernatural overtones.
Satellite Projects
Authors: Dixon Wheeler Winston
Published: February 2021

This chapter briefly considers some of Terrence Fisher's less successful projects during the second half of his career, which are not considered wholly accomplished works. It examines films that are outright failures but also not a bad batting average for a director like Fisher. It also mentions The Mummy from 1959, which was Fisher's stylish yet curiously empty remake of the original 1932 Universal film that was directed by Karl Freund. The chapter cites writer Lawrence Alloway, who was impressed by Christopher Lee's makeup as the title character in The Mummy, but also correctly noted that the film concentrated almost solely on the Mummy and excluded all other characters in the film. It discusses how The Mummy is interesting only when the title character is on the screen and how slackens off into production gloss as a substitute for content at other times.
Frenzy
Authors: Cooper Ian
Published: February 2021

Frenzy (1972) was Alfred Hitchcock's penultimate film, and arguably one of his most misunderstood and neglected. Whereas even Psycho (1960) did eventually become respectable — indeed, it is a good contender for the most admired of the Master's films — Frenzy still remains problematic for many. While Raymond De Foery makes his feelings clear in the title of his book, Alfred Hitchcock's Frenzy: The Last Masterpiece, Hitchcock's controversial biographer Donald Spoto calls the film ‘repulsive’ and ‘a closed and coldly negative vision of human possibility’. Frenzy is perhaps Hitchcock's most nakedly autobiographical film, representing both a comeback and farewell to the city of his birth. But it started out as a very different kind of project. This book discusses the evolution of the film, its production, reception, and place in Hitchcock's oeuvre, as well as its status as a key film of ‘sleazy Seventies’ British cinema.
The Starter
Authors: Cooper Ian
Published: February 2021

This chapter presents a synopsis and overview of Alfred Hitchcock's Frenzy (1972), which is perhaps his most nakedly autobiographical film. The director wanted to make a film told from the point of view of a psycho killer. Hitchcock's fascination with murder is well-documented but he had a distinct preference for a certain kind of English murder. He certainly seems to have had little time for the savagery of American murderers, possibly due to the fact that they lack that all-important veneer of respectability. Hitchcock's preferred killers were unassuming ‘little men’ whose carefully cultivated aura of normality masked a murderous dark side. Thus, he was particularly drawn to an unholy trinity of genteel, polite yet brutal killers, John Reginald Halliday Christie, John George Haigh, and Neville Heath. Hitchcock would go on to consider a number of writers for his cherished serial killer project. The chapter also looks at Hitchcock's Torn Curtain (1966) and Topaz (1969). It also considers his interest in Arthur La Bern's novel about a sex killer, Goodbye Piccadilly, Farewell Leicester Square, which was published in 1966 and forwarded to the director by his UK agent.
Main Course
Authors: Cooper Ian
Published: February 2021

This chapter presents an analysis of Alfred Hitchcock's Frenzy (1972). Frenzy, more than any of his previous films, reflects Hitchcock's abiding fascination with the English murder. The stereotypical notion of the city as a playground for serial killers is explicitly referenced in the dialogue more than once. However, sex and murder are not the only appetites that need satisfying in Hitchcock's film. Frenzy is stuffed full of references to food, some more glaring than others. Although the reputation of Hitchcock's penultimate film has improved considerably in recent years, it is still disliked by many. The explicit scenes of violence against women are too much for some while other commentators find the peculiarly old-fashioned setting to be risible and a clear indication of a director in decline. Hitchcock had always pushed the envelope when it came to sex and violence and, crucially, sexual violence. Ultimately, Frenzy reflects a number of trends in the British cinema of the early 1970s.
‘Do You Like My Ending?’
Authors: Blyth Michael
Published: February 2021

This chapter examines In the Mouth of Madness (1995) within the context of John Carpenter's wider filmography. It explores not only how the film incorporates and builds on many of the ideas that he has explored throughout his career, but also the ways in which it differs and stands apart from his other works. In the Mouth of Madness marks the climax of the director's self-named ‘Apocalypse Trilogy’, preceded by The Thing (1982) and Prince of Darkness (1987), whilst it also speaks to his wider eschatological preoccupations, as well recurring Carpenterian themes around the loss of free will, a paranoid distrust of mass industry and global corporations, and the cataclysmic resurgence of an ancient evil. The fact that Carpenter retroactively labelled these films a trilogy in no way diminishes how effectively they function as one cohesive piece. But while the themes of In the Mouth of Madness are classic Carpenter, artistically it represents a departure from some of his most recognisable stylistic trademarks, namely his editing, camerawork, and use of music.
‘All Those Horrible, Slimy Things’
Authors: Blyth Michael
Published: February 2021

This chapter investigates how John Carpenter's In the Mouth of Madness (1995) serves as a direct tribute to the writings of H.P. Lovecraft, examining how his influence shapes the narrative structure and conceptual ideologies of the film. Lovecraft's attitude towards the universe, and humanity's place within it, is so singularly nihilistic that it constitutes its own philosophical-literary construct: cosmicism. With In the Mouth of Madness, Carpenter is among the few filmmakers who has seriously attempted to present cosmicism in cinematic terms: to film the unknowable, the unspeakable, and the unseeable. Ultimately, one may consider the film not only as an attempt to respectfully bring forth Lovecraft's ‘horrible slimy things’ to the screen, but also to render the unspeakable metaphysical horrors of his universe and the futility of humanity's place within it. Comparing In the Mouth of Madness to other cinematic adaptations of Lovecraft's work, the chapter argues that Carpenter's film displays a rare understanding of Lovecraftian ideologies, offering up a rich cinematic conceptualisation of his distinct brand of cosmic horror, despite not being based on any one specific Lovecraft text.
‘Isn’t He the Guy Who Writes that Horror Crap?’
Authors: Blyth Michael
Published: February 2021

This chapter assesses the various modes of self-reflexivity evident in John Carpenter's In the Mouth of Madness (1995), and how they are used to create meaning and subvert audience expectations. In the Mouth of Madness is many things. It is a tribute to H.P. Lovecraft and an homage to Stephen King. It is a critique of religious fanaticism and a comment on the fragility of human existence. But, perhaps more than anything, In the Mouth of Madness is a film about horror. A loving tribute to one of cinema's most consistently misunderstood and vilified modes of artistic expression, the film scrutinises and questions the very nature of fear and how it affects its audience, demanding the genre be both celebrated and given the respect it deserves. In doing so, it positions John Carpenter himself at the very centre, self-reflexively pondering his role as artist and creator of horrific images.
‘Am I becoming a one hundred-and-eighty-five pound fly?’: The Gestation of The Fly
Authors: Westwood Emma
Published: February 2021

This chapter evaluates British writer George Langelaan's short fiction titled ‘The Fly’ (1957), and its film adaptation by Kurt Neumann in 1958. David Cronenberg's The Fly (1986) can only truly be appreciated within the context of what preceded it. He was not remaking an unknown film; rather, he was taking on one that came with preconceptions and expectations. In considering Cronenberg's The Fly, one can clearly see that remaking the original 1958 film was not on Cronenberg's agenda. While Cronenberg's film should not be compared to any other because it has ‘its own personality, voice and experience’, to consider The Fly's history gives meaning to the simple genius of the central concept: the story of a scientist accidentally turning himself into a fly.
Conclusion
Authors: Mee Laura
Published: February 2021

This concluding chapter explains that while many studies and critiques have continued to limit its status within the horror genre, audiences and filmmakers have embraced Stanley Kubrick's The Shining (1980), with all of its ambiguities and oddities, as an enduringly popular, effective horror film. It marked a turning point in horror cinema's history and confirmed that mainstream, commercial genre films could be smart, beautiful, and original. It was stylistically and tonally unusual, auteurist and technically accomplished, enigmatic and unapologetic, and its influence is evident in a range of subsequent works. Over time, it has continued to inspire artistic, atmospheric horror, and its endless recycled references have contributed to both its extraordinary impact on popular culture and its ultimate genre canonisation. Indeed, The Shining has staked its claim in horror history.
Introduction
Authors: Gildersleeve Jessica
Published: February 2021

This introductory chapter situates Nicolas Roeg's Don't Look Now (1973) within the landscape of 1970s cinema in general, and 1970s horror cinema in particular. It also establishes the significance of specific kinds of cultural trauma in Don't Look Now as a horror film of that decade. Don't Look Now might be understood in the context of the history of Gothic narratives, exposing and satirising the tropes of that genre and the ways in which the film's characters read or misread those signs. Rather than fear deriving purely from the chase, the threat of a psychotic killer, an unfamiliar environment, or a betrayal of innocence, Don't Look Now's horror finds its source in being wrong, in making mistakes, in seeing or knowing too late. Indeed, whereas the slasher film of the 1970s creates the pleasure of horror in its repetition, in the audience's knowledge that death is to come but remains ‘in the dark’, as it were, only as to when and how it will arrive, Don't Look Now's horror is precisely the horror of not knowing, of not recognising a threat as such, but seeing it as familiar, domestic, and safe.
Damned Kids
Authors: Riddle Nick
Published: February 2021

This chapter assesses the children in Joseph Losey's The Damned (1963). King's gang, if not actually orphans, are given no mothers or fathers to rail against. The children themselves, of course, are orphans, or at least motherless, and there is also an absence of the 'domestic', in the sense that one never sees a 'home' in the conventional sense. Yet parenthood, childhood, and generative power are strong themes in the film. Meanwhile, Bernard's children — well-spoken, precocious, innocent but deadly — have a lineage that is particularly British in origin. They also share with a handful of contemporary films the distinction of introducing something sinister into the cultural iconography of the child. So who, exactly, are 'The Damned'? Clearly, it is the young in general, consigned to an uncertain fate by nuclear proliferation and the Cold War, by the establishment struggling to maintain the vestiges of an empire, and by social attitudes that see them as a problem to be contained.
The Heart of Darkness
Authors: Riddle Nick
Published: February 2021

This chapter studies the bunker beneath the Edgecliff Establishment in Joseph Losey's The Damned (1963), which has properties reminiscent of other cinematic spaces that exert a strange influence beyond their boundaries. The Damned is a journey into the heart of darkness, all the darker for its location a stone's throw from the gaudy lights of a seaside resort. The hideout has to exist for the plot mechanics to operate, but it is as much a flaw in the script as the children's radioactivity. And it is this secret, irregular space that allows for the non-oblong, the ungoverned, and the fanciful. Like Freya's birdhouse, its rough-hewn surroundings provide a setting for expression and creation: here the children have 'invented' their parents using old magazine pictures, and tell stories about their situation. The hideout may be empowering for the children, but it has the opposite effect on the adults they bring to it.
Introduction: Candyman and ’90s Horror
Authors: Towlson Jon
Published: February 2021

This introductory chapter provides an overview of Candyman (1992). In an era dominated by tired pastiche, Candyman remains one of the most original and finest horror movies. Based on Clive Barker's short story, ‘The Forbidden’, Candyman has been widely acclaimed for its social commentary, as well as for its skilful use of horror tropes and cinematic techniques. Its writer-director Bernard Rose has gone on to a distinguished career in Hollywood which has included further notable work in the horror genre, while Candyman has spawned two sequels and inspired numerous movies evoking urban myths and legends, including the financially successful Urban Legend franchise. As a Nineties horror movie, Candyman has prevailed. As well as receiving positive reviews at the time of its release, it continues to win new fans and admirers.
Introduction
Authors: Grimm Joshua
Published: February 2021

This chapter begins with a description of film director David Robert Mitchell's recurring nightmare when he was 10 years old of being slowly followed by something that could adopt multiple identities. It talks about how It Follows became a breakout hit when it premiered at Cannes and went on to become a critical success. It also mentions It Follows's financial success and how the film joined a horror movie renaissance of smart, frightening films that have rejuvenated the genre, such as Scream (1996) and The Blair Witch Project (1999). The chapter recounts how horror movies became stagnant by the success of Japanese remakes and torture flicks in the early noughties, followed by an unrelenting march of the supernatural both in film and television. It reviews the speculated interpretation of It Follows, asa metaphor for sexually transmitted diseases or a cautionary tale about teenage intercourse.
The Usher Siblings: Rebels Without a Chance
Authors: van Leeuwen Evert Jan
Published: February 2021

This chapter discusses the Usher siblings as rebels without a chance, caught in a futile struggle to free themselves from their ancestral yoke. Vincent Price's Roderick Usher, to a large extent, conforms to the stereotype of the artist whose visionary imagination has given him an intuitive grasp of evil and profound knowledge of the future on which he has to act, while his skill and insight has simultaneously alienated him from society altogether, placing him in a position in which taking action becomes futile. Roderick is convinced that ‘evil is not just a word, it is a reality’, a social reality that cannot be measured by statistics, defined by laws, and policed by institutions because it spreads like a disease ‘malignant, cancerous’. It can only be eradicated by destroying the corrupted matter on which it feeds: the Usher family. Myrna Fahey's Madeline is similarly trapped in the Usher mansion, and, like her brother, a victim of her family's evil heritage; doubly a victim, as her brother plans to end the curse by sacrificing them both.
Studying Ida
Authors: Skaff Sheila
Published: February 2021

Paweł Pawlikowski's 2013 film Ida was exceptionally warmly received in the United States, culminating in the Academy Award for Film Not in the English Language, but it was not without controversy. This book's introduction to the film explains the historical setting, including the violence that took place in the Polish countryside during World War II and was not exposed for sixty years, and provides political and cultural analysis to aid the reader in understanding the film's setting and narrative. The book also touches on the influence of the film on current events in Poland, where censorship of it by an increasingly nationalist government has polarized the country. It also situates Ida within the contexts of Polish and world film history. Scene-by-scene analysis is accompanied in each chapter by background information that gives context to the aesthetic and narrative choices made by the director.
Two Women
Authors: Skaff Sheila
Published: February 2021

This chapter cites the elements of several film genres contained in Paweł Pawlikowski's Ida, such as the genre of historical film or road film that frames a coming-of-age story. It explains how the traditional road film focus on the relationships within the car or other mode of transportation rather than on the story unfolding outside. It also talks about interior conflicts that take precedence over exterior ones, which are often just a means of getting the characters on the road, while external conflicts lead to the transformation of the characters rather than the other way around. The chapter reviews the traditional three-act structure of screenplays that consists of a setup, a confrontation, and a resolution. It emphasizes how Ida diverges from the three-act structure in the final scene, in which Ida's maturation and Wanda's surrender take the place of a resolution.
Neighbors
Authors: Skaff Sheila
Published: February 2021

This chapter dissects the history surrounding the controversy over Paweł Pawlikowski's Ida in the Polish and international press. It mentions the small town where Wanda and Ida search for the remains of their relatives that bears a striking resemblance to a town in Poland named Jedwabne, which is best known for a pogrom that took place during the Nazi occupation of World War II. It also talks about the controversial book, Neighbors: The Destruction of the Jewish Community in Jedwabe, Poland, written by Jan Tomasz Gross and published in May 2000, which describes in detail how local residents began an anti-Jewish pogrom in Jedwabne. The chapter points out the massacre recounted in Neighbors that had been either attributed to the Nazi occupiers or shrouded in secrecy. It covers Gross's work that details how the Polish inhabitants of Jedwabne may have voluntarily massacred their Jewish neighbours.
‘Since I was Twelve’: Fire Walk With Me as a Trauma Film
Authors: Hallam Lindsay
Published: February 2021

This chapter analyses the first scene of David Lynch's Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me that gives insight into the dynamic within the Palmer household. It cites the scene of the evening that Laura realises Bob's true identity, which provides a clear view of the dysfunctional situation in the Palmer home. It also discusses the home as a site of horror that is a common genre trope, with the breakdown of the family unit at the centre of many horror films, such as Rosemary's Baby, Halloween, and Poltergeist. The chapter talks about how Fire Walk With Me presents an inversion of the Oedipal trajectory and exposes unconscious desires which Freud theorised as driving stages of sexual development. It mentions how Fire Walk With Me provide a narrative of family violence and trauma, following Laura as she tries to navigate her way and work through the ongoing abuse that she endures.
Introduction: ‘History Really is Gone’
Authors: Nette Andrew
Published: February 2021

This introductory chapter provides an overview of Rollerball, the 1975 dystopian science fiction film of Canadian-born director and producer Norman Jewison. Rollerball was based on a short story in Esquire magazine, ‘Roller Ball Murder’, by William Harrison. While the increasingly extreme nature of reality television remains a central framework within which to critically analyse Rollerball, the election of Donald Trump as the 45th President of the United States in November of 2016 opens up new ways of watching the film and heightens other ways in which it remains relevant. The most obvious of these is Rollerball's depiction of unchecked corporate power. Another aspect of Rollerball's narrative highlighted by the Trump presidency is the rise of so-called ‘fake news’. This book examines how the film simultaneously exhibits the cinematic aesthetics of mainstream, exploitation, and art-house cinema, in the process transcending its commercial prerogative of action entertainment to be a sophisticated and disturbing portrayal of a dystopian future.
Making Rollerball
Authors: Nette Andrew
Published: February 2021

This chapter examines the making of Rollerball (1975). It starts with an overview of the cast and crew and the filming locations, principally Munich, West Germany, where Norman Jewison shot the film's game sequences and also utilised other aspects of the city's modernist architecture. For the making of Rollerball, Jewison brought together three of the leading lights of British post-war cinema — production designer John Box, Douglas Slocombe as director of photography, and Julie Harris as costume designer. Acclaimed European conductor André Previn scored the soundtrack, largely comprised of classical music. The chapter then presents a detailed scene-by-scene breakdown of the film, considering the interplay of their various contributions to Rollerball and how this influenced the final look and feel of the film, including how it blended the film's signature violent action with an examination of more sophisticated dystopian social themes.
The Hollywood War Film and Conflict
Authors: McSweeney Terence
Published: February 2021

This chapter assesses the importance of films about wars, which crystallises an image of the conflict depicted that remains influential at the time of its release and for audiences in the years after it was made. It argues that the significant amount of people's knowledge and understanding about any particular war comes more from films made about the conflict than textbooks or documentaries. It also describes films about modern wars that provide a cultural battleground for interpretations of how they are viewed at the time and how they will be understood by generations to come. The chapter mentions Alison Landsberg, who asserts that cinema gives powerful experiences which both resonate and influence the perception of events just as forcefully as firsthand memories. It examines the role of films in the way wars come to be understood and how master narratives are largely constructed in the national imaginary through the cinema.
The Reception of The Hurt Locker: Anti-War or ‘War Porn’?
Authors: McSweeney Terence
Published: February 2021

This chapter reviews The Hurt Locker as one of the most positively reviewed American films and most critically praised film about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. It looks at reviews that emphasized how realistic The Hurt Locker was, its experiential immediacy, its contribution to how the war would come to be remembered, and its status as an apolitical text. It also asserts how The Hurt Locker can influence the public with very minimal knowledge of the Explosive Ordinance Disposal (EOD) and learn about what they do and how they do it. The chapter explains the vast majority of popular media that emerged from capitalist and corporate owned enterprises that are directly supported by government organisations. It explains how often people connected to the production of the film emphasized its authenticity, reportorial nature, and its realism.
Conclusion
Authors: McSweeney Terence
Published: February 2021

This chapter provides a brief comparison between the categories Paul Storey identified as the defining characteristics of the Vietnam War film and The Hurt Locker. It examines how far the films made about Vietnam influenced those made about Iraq and Afghanistan. It also investigates how American films about the wars in which it participates tend to embody and perpetuate very similar ideas as the Vietnam War regardless of the enemy it is fighting or the complicated nature of the geo-political conflicts. The chapter talks about the immersion of The Hurt Locker in the ideological parameters of the culture which made it. It explores the ambiguity at the heart of The Hurt Locker and challenges some of the assertions of its film-makers.
Authorship and Adaptation
Authors: Arnold Darren
Published: February 2021

This chapter examines Ken Russell's The Devils (1973) in terms of authorship and adaptation. The Devils is often viewed, quite understandably, as being pure Ken Russell, but the influence of the two acknowledged sources on his screenplay should not be overlooked. A common view is that much of the historical information in the film was gleaned from Aldous Huxley's 1952 book The Devils of Loudun, and the dialogue was influenced by (or lifted from) John Whiting's 1961 play The Devils. Both of the film's credited sources allow for interesting correlations with Russell's film, but what is often passed over is that Whiting's play was based on Huxley's book—therefore the film is based on both a book and a play that was based on that same book, meaning Russell adapts Huxley both directly and indirectly. With this in mind, a straightforward bifurcation of The Devils' screenplay is not really possible.
Genre
Authors: Arnold Darren
Published: February 2021

This chapter investigates the genre of Ken Russell's The Devils (1973). Nowadays, it is common to see The Devils lumped in with horror programming, and while identifying the film as belonging to the genre is by no means inaccurate, there is a lot more to say about the film when it comes to classifying it. In many ways, The Devils possibly ends up as a horror film (as opposed to being designed as one), and the more extreme, graphic elements of the film crowd out the other aspects, at least from the general viewer's perspective. But the film very much remains, in essence, as it begins—a historical drama, not being eclipsed by, but rather dovetailing neatly with, its horror elements, which are something of a natural by-product. As such, the largely unnoticed sophistication of the film marked an evolution in screen horror. Rather than setting out to make a horror film or trying to box the film in in terms of genre, Russell simply set about telling his story here, and the genre latterly assigned to The Devils appears to be due to its title as much as its content.
Versions and Censorship
Authors: Arnold Darren
Published: February 2021

This chapter assesses the censorship travails of Ken Russell's The Devils (1973) and the various versions of the film which have appeared on both big and small screens. The Devils is a film which, in the main, has not been well looked after since it debuted in cinemas in 1971. For the most part, the various versions of the film which exist are inextricably linked to its censorship history. The film has spent much of its life being squeezed on both sides, as both internal and external censorship have played their part in altering Russell's vision. This was not the first time a film had had its wings clipped by both Warner Bros. and the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC), as a similar fate had previously befallen Performance (1970). Trying to compare various releases really is an onerous task, as running time—even when frame rate is taken into account—is no reliable guide, given that cuts can be made via substitution and transfers can happen at wonky speeds, plus there are the vagaries of distributor logos and so on. However, one can run through the film's main incarnations on the big screen, and also look at some of the home-video options that are out there.
M
Authors: Deighan Samm
Published: February 2021

Fritz Lang's first sound feature, M (1931), is one of the earliest serial killer films in cinema history and laid the foundation for future horror movies and thrillers, particularly those with a disturbed killer as protagonist. Peter Lorre's child killer, Hans Beckert, is presented as monstrous, yet sympathetic, building on themes presented in the earlier German Expressionist horror films like The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari and The Hands of Orlac. Lang eerily foreshadowed the rising fascist horrors in German society, and transforms his cinematic Berlin into a place of urban terror and paranoia. This book explores the way Lang uses horror and thriller tropes in M, particularly in terms of how it functions as a bridge between German Expressionism and Hollywood's growing fixation on sympathetic killers in the 1940s. The book also examines how Lang made use of developments within forensic science and the criminal justice system to portray a somewhat realistic serial killer on screen for the first time, at once capturing how society in the 1930s and 1940s viewed such individuals and their crimes and shaping how they would be portrayed on screen in the horror films to come.
The Weirding Way: The Makers of Dune
Authors: McCrea Christian
Published: February 2021

This chapter talks about the production of David Lynch's Dune through the lens of the film's reputation, histories, and key players. It discusses the collaboration with El Topo director Alejandro Jodorowsky and famed French comic artist Jean 'Moebius' Giraud for the filming of Dune. It also recounts how the project for Dune sparked to life with the arrival of Lynch, who was fresh off the success of the Academy Award-nominated film The Elephant Man. The chapter mentions Lynch's reputation before and since Dune, which became part of its story, especially how the film sits both inside and outside a canonical view of his work. It outlines the events of the energetic phase that brought the Dune project to fruition.
A New World of Blood and Monsters: Creepshow, Gore and Violence
Authors: Brown Simon
Published: February 2021

This chapter evaluates Creepshow's use of gore and horror make-up effects (HFX) as developed and practiced by Tom Savini and George A. Romero. It locates the film within the context of the cinematic horror genre in the early 1980s. EC's horror comics did not shy away from the frank illustration of bodily mutilation and oozing, decaying corpses, but what they did tend to shun was explicit blood-letting and the detailed depiction of the moment of death. If the tradition of EC in representing the moment of death and the process of mutilation tended towards restraint, then Creepshow appeared at a time in cinema when the opposite was happening, and the boundaries of what both could and should be seen in horror films were being pushed to breaking point. What makes Creepshow particularly relevant in relation to this movement is that two thirds of its main creative team, director George Romero and make-up effects supervisor Tom Savini, had previously played a major role in opening the floodgates of what was acceptable in terms of the detailed depiction of explicit horror with Dawn of the Dead (1978).
The Mummy
Authors: Sutherland Doris V.
Published: February 2021

Released in 1932, The Mummy moved Universal horror away from the Gothic Europe of Dracula and Frankenstein and into a land of deserts, pyramids, and long-lost tombs. In doing so, the film continued a tradition of horror fiction that is almost as old as the Western pursuit of Egyptology, as numerous European and American authors from the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries had portrayed Egypt as a place of mystery and magic. This book examines the roots of The Mummy. It shows how the film shares many of its motifs with the work of writers such as Bram Stoker, Arthur Conan Doyle, and H. Rider Haggard, whose tales of living mummies, immortal sorcerers, and Egyptian mysticism bear strong resemblances to Universal's movie. In addition, the book discusses how The Mummy drew upon a contemporary vogue for all things ancient Egyptian: the tomb of Tutankhamun was discovered the decade before the film was released, prompting sensationalistic rumours of a curse. This is the story of what happened when Hollywood horror went to Egypt.
The Makers of The Mummy
Authors: Sutherland Doris V.
Published: February 2021

This chapter evaluates the visual fields of direction, performances, and effects in the making of The Mummy (1932). While it was Richard Schayer and Nina Wilcox Putnam who laid out the earliest version of The Mummy's storyline, it was John L. Balderston who reworked it from a muddled mixture of magic and mad science to a narrative that defined a subgenre. The chapter considers Karl Freund's directorial approach to The Mummy. Freund's approach to the fantastic is subtle and understated; nowhere is this clearer than in the iconic prologue, where the mummy is largely out-of-shot following the initial close-ups of its opening eyes and languid arm movements. Many filmmakers would have shown the mummy's actions directly, but Freund understood that powerful images could be created through restraint, allowing the viewer's imagination to fill in the details. The chapter then looks at the performances of Boris Karloff, Zita Johann, and Edward Van Sloan. It also highlights the role of Universal Pictures' resident cosmetic genius, film make-up artist Jack Pierce.