Title: Rhetoric of modern death in American living dead films /
Authors: Hakola, Outi,
Year: 2015
Subjects: Death in motion pictures.; Horror films United States History and criticism; Vampire films United States History and criticism.; Mummy films United States History and criticism.; Zombie films United States History and criticism.
Abstract: Zombies, vampires, and mummies are frequent stars of American horror films. But what does their cinematic omnipresence and audiences' hunger for such films tell us about American views of death? Here, Outi Hakola investigates the ways in which American living-dead films have addressed death through different narrative and rhetorical solutions during the twentieth century. She focuses on films from the 1930s, including Dracula, The Mummy, and White Zombie, films of the 1950s and 1960s such as Night of the Living Dead and The Return of Dracula, and more recent fare like Bram Stoker's Dracula, The Mummy, and Resident Evil. Ultimately, the book succeeds in framing the tradition of living dead films, discussing the cinematic processes of addressing the films' viewers, and analyzing the films' socio-cultural negotiation with death in this specific genre. -- Provided by publisher.
Contents: Introduction -- Modality of living death -- Classical living dead films -- Undead of the transitional era -- Post-classical undead -- Digitalized living dead -- Transforming traditions of rhetoric of death.