A Companion to the Horror Film

This cutting-edge collection features original essays by eminent scholars on one of cinema's most dynamic and enduringly popular genres, covering everything from the history of horror movies to the latest critical approaches.

• Contributors include many of the finest academics working in the field, as well as exciting younger scholars
• Varied and comprehensive coverage, from the history of horror to broader issues of censorship, gender, and sexuality
• Covers both English-language and non-English horror film traditions
• Key topics include horror film aesthetics, theoretical approaches, distribution, art house cinema, ethnographic surrealism, and horror's relation to documentary film practice
• A thorough treatment of this dynamic film genre suited to scholars and enthusiasts alike

Notes on Contributors viii

Preface xiii

Part I Approaches and Contexts 1

1 Cognitive and Philosophical Approaches to Horror 3
Aaron Smuts

2 Horror and Psychoanalysis: An Introductory Primer 21
Chris Dumas

3 Gender and Sexuality Haunts the Horror Film 38
Daniel Humphrey

4 The Horror Film as Social Allegory (And How it Comes Undone) 56
Christopher Sharrett

5 Avenging the Body: Disability in the Horror Film 73
Travis Sutton

6 Horror Reception/Audiences 90
Matt Hills

7 A’s, B’s, Quickies, Orphans, and Nasties: Horror Films in the Context of Distribution and Exhibition 109
Kevin Heffernan

8 Horror and the Censors 130
Julian Petley

Part II The Form of Horror 149

9 Carl Dreyer’s Corpse: Horror Film Atmosphere and Narrative 151
Robert Spadoni

10 Horror Sound Design 168
William Whittington

11 Mellifluous Terror:The Discourse of Music and Horror Films 186
Joe Tompkins

Part III A History of the (Western) Horror Film 205

12 Horror Before “The Horror Film” 207
Harry M. Benshoff

13 Classical Hollywood Horror 225
John Edgar Browning

14 Horror in the 1940s 237
Mark Jancovich

15 Science Fiction and Horror in the 1950s 255
Steffen Hantke

16 The Gothic Revival (1957–1974) 273
RickWorland

17 International Horror in the 1970s 292
Peter Hutchings

18 Slasher Films and Gore in the 1980s 310
James Kendrick

19 Millennial Fears: Abject Horror in a Transnational Context 329
Adam Charles Hart

20 Torture Porn: 21st Century Horror 345
Isabel C. Pinedo

Part IV Selected International Horror Cinemas 363

21 Spanish Horror Cinema 365
Ian Olney

22 The Return of the Rural Repressed: Italian Horror and the Mezzogiorno Giallo 390
Xavier Mendik

23 Recent Trends in Japanese Horror Cinema 406
Jay McRoy

24 South Korean Horror Cinema 423
Daniel Martin

25 Sisterhood of Terror:The Monstrous Feminine of Southeast Asian Horror Cinema 442
Andrew Hock Soon Ng

Part V Selected Archetypes, Hybrids, and Crossovers 461

26 Vampires and Transnational Horror 463
Dale Hudson

27 Trash Horror and the Cult of the Bad Film 483
I. Q. Hunter

28 “MoodyThree”: Revisiting Ken Russell’s The Devils 501
Joan Hawkins

29 Horror’s Otherness and Ethnographic Surrealism: The Case of The Shout 519
Adam Lowenstein

30 The Documentary Impulse and Reel/Real Horror 536
Caroline Joan S. Picart

Index 554

Harry M. Benshoff is Professor of Radio, TV, and Film at the University of North Texas, USA. His research interests include topics in film genre, film history, film theory, and multiculturalism. The author of several books on cinema, he is best known for work that explores sexuality in relation to the horror film, including Monsters in the Closet: Homosexuality and the Horror Film (1997). He is also co-author of Queer Images: A History of Gay and Lesbian Film in America (2006), and America on Film: Representing Race, Class, Gender, and Sexuality at the Movies, Second edition (Wiley Blackwell, 2009).

This cutting-edge collection contains 30 original essays on one of cinema’s most dynamic and enduringly popular genres. With contributions by many of the best-known scholars of film horror, A Companion to the Horror Film offers a critical survey of the art and practice of horror movies covering everything from craft and technique, historical developments, and modern-day trends, to broader topics opening onto the socio-political dimensions of the genre. The volume begins with essays devoted to the theoretical methodologies used to study the genre, from cognitive and philosophical approaches, through audience reception and psychoanalysis, to those approaches that examine gender, sexuality, race, class, and (dis)ability in relation to the horror film. Subsequent sections cover horror film aesthetics, the history of the genre, and specific subjects including distribution and the relationship between horror, art house movies, and the documentary impulse.

Combining wide-ranging analysis with nuanced commentary, A Companion to the Horror Film synthesizes key concepts related to the genre and presents original research reflecting the latest trends in horror film scholarship. It speaks to fan and scholar alike and will deepen the appreciation of those well-versed in horror film as well as newcomers to the subject.