Wickham Clayton

Karrȧ Shimabukuro

Horror’s pleasures fundamentally hinge on looking backward, either on destabilising trauma, or as a period of comfort and happiness which is undermined by threat. However, this stretches beyond the scares on our screens to the consumption and criticism of the monsters of our past. The horror films of our youth can be locations of psychological and social trauma, or the happy place we go back to for comfort when our lives become unsettled. Horror That Haunts Us: Nostalgia, Revisionism, and Trauma in Contemporary American Horror is a collection of essays that brings together multiple theoretical and critical approaches to consider the way popular horror films from the last fifty years communicate, embody, and rework our view of the past. Whether we look at our current relationship to the scary movies of decades ago as personal or cultural memory, the way historical and sociopolitical events and frameworks – especially traumas – reframe the way we look at our pasts, or even the way recent horror films and video games look back at our past (and the past of the genre itself) through a filter of experience and history, this collection will show the close relationship between nostalgia and popular horror. These essays also demonstrate a range of unique and diverse points of view from both established and emerging scholars on the subject of horror and the past. Edited by seasoned horror experts Karrá Shimabukuro and Wickham Clayton, Horror That Haunts Us is a book with the aim of examining why we return again and again to certain popular horror films, either as remakes or reboots or as the basis for pastiche and homage.

Nostalgia, Revisionism, and Trauma in Contemporary American Horror Film and Television

Horror That Haunts Us

Sarah Harman

The Twilight saga, a series of five films adapted from Stephanie Meyer's four novels, has been a sensation, both at the box office and through the attention it has won from its predominantly teenaged fans. As popular cinema, the series has had its share of criticism, even from fans. However, it also offers rich opportunities for critical attention, which the contributors to 'Screening Twilight' provide with energy and style. The book unpacks how this popular group of films work as cinematic texts, what they have to say about cinema and culture today, and how fans may seek to re-read or subvert these messages. Chapters address Twilight in the context of the vampire and myth, in terms of genre and reception, identity, gender and sexuality, and through re-viewing the series fandom. 'Screening Twilight' is a revelation of how a popular cinematic phenomenon can reward close attention from scholarly, critical writers on cinema and culture

Critical Approaches to a Cinematic Phenomenon

Screening Twilight

Sean S. Cunningham and Victor Miller’s Friday the 13th franchise is one of the most successful horror film franchises in history. To date, it includes twelve movies, a television show, comic books, and video games, among other media. In SEE! HEAR! CUT! KILL! Experiencing “Friday the 13th,” Wickham Clayton explores several aspects of the films including how the technical aspects relate to the audience, their influence on filmmaking, and the cultural impact of the franchise. Clayton looks at how perspective is established and communicated within the Friday the 13th films, which is central to the way the audience experiences and responds emotionally to these movies. Then he considers how each sequel gives viewers, whether longtime fans or new audiences, a “way in” to the continuous story that runs through the series. Clayton also argues that the series has not developed in isolation. These films relate to contemporary slasher films, the modern horror genre, and critically successful Hollywood films in general. They reflect popular trends of film style and often act as key examples in the genre and beyond.

Experiencing Friday the 13th

SEE! HEAR! CUT! KILL!

The Twilight saga, a series of five films adapted from Stephanie Meyer's four vampire novels, has been a sensation, both at the box office and through the attention it has won from its predominantly teenaged fans. This series has also been the subject of criticism and sometimes derision - often from critics and on occasion even from fans. However, it also offers rich opportunities for analytic and critical attention, which the contributors to Screening Twilight demonstrate with energy and style. Through examining Twilight, the book unpacks how this popular group of films work as cinematic texts, what they have to say about cinema and culture today, and how fans may seek to re-read or subvert these messages. The chapters addressTwilight in the context of the vampire and myth, in terms of genre and reception, identity, gender and sexuality, and through re-viewing the series fandom. Screening Twilight is also a revelation of how a popular cinematic phenomenon like Twilight rewards close attention from contemporary critical scholars of cinema and culture.

The remarkable commercial success of Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ in 2004 came as a surprise to the Hollywood establishment, particularly considering the film’s failure to find production funding through a major studio. Since then the Biblical epic, long thought dead in terms of mainstream marketability, has become a viable product. This collection examines the new wave of the genre, which includes such varied examples as Darren Aronofsky’s Noah (2014) and Ridley Scott’s Exodus: Gods and Kings (2014), along with the telenovelas of Latin America. Such texts follow previous traditions while appearing distinct both stylistically and thematically from the Biblical epic in its prime, making academic consideration timely and relevant. Featuring contributions from such scholars as Mikel J. Koven, Andrew B. R. Elliott and Martin Stollery, and a preface from Adele Reinhartz, the book will be of interest to students and scholars of film, television and religion.

New heart and new spirit

The Bible onscreen in the new millennium

Style and Form in the Hollywood Slasher Film fills a broad scholastic gap by analysing the elements of narrative and stylistic construction of films in the slasher subgenre of horror that have been produced and/or distributed in the Hollywood studio system from its initial boom in the late 1970s to the present.

Wickham Clayton

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