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The Horror Reader
Horror has been one of the most spectacular and controversial genres in both cinema and fiction - its wild excesses relished by some, vilified by many others. Often defiantly marginal, it nevertheless inhabits the very fabric of everyday life, providing us with ways of imagining and classifying our world; what is evil and what is good; what is monstrous and what is 'normal'; what can be seen and what should remain hidden.
The Horror Reader brings together 29 key articles to examine the enduring resonance of horror across culture. Spanning the history of horror in literature and film and discussing texts from Britain, the United States, Europe, the Caribbean and Hong Kong, it explores a diversity of horror forms from classic gothic literature like Frankenstein and Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde , to contemporary serial killers, horror film fanzines and low-budget movies such as The Leech Woman and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre .
Themes addressed
* the fantastic * horror and psychoanalysis * monstrosities * different Frankensteins * vampires * queer horror * American gothic * splatter and slasher films * race and ethnicity * lowbrow and low-budget horror * new regional horror.
The Reader opens with an introduction to 'the field of horror' by Ken Gelder, and each thematic section includes an introductory preface. There is also a comprehensive bibliography of horror literature.
The Horror Reader brings together 29 key articles to examine the enduring resonance of horror across culture. Spanning the history of horror in literature and film and discussing texts from Britain, the United States, Europe, the Caribbean and Hong Kong, it explores a diversity of horror forms from classic gothic literature like Frankenstein and Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde , to contemporary serial killers, horror film fanzines and low-budget movies such as The Leech Woman and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre .
Themes addressed
* the fantastic * horror and psychoanalysis * monstrosities * different Frankensteins * vampires * queer horror * American gothic * splatter and slasher films * race and ethnicity * lowbrow and low-budget horror * new regional horror.
The Reader opens with an introduction to 'the field of horror' by Ken Gelder, and each thematic section includes an introductory preface. There is also a comprehensive bibliography of horror literature.
428 pages, Paperback
First published August 30, 2000
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
January 24, 2021
solid collection of popular and lesser known essays alike on horror and all that makes it.
4/5
4/5
October 8, 2016
This book is a bizarre gem: a collection of lengthy academic essays centered around Horror movies and "Horror" in general. It's organized into a-dozen-or-so broader topics, on which there will be 2 or 3 essays. The individual essays cover quite a bit of ground within this broad heading; from a single film, to larger bodies of work (eg Italian horror, or 1980s Chinese demon movies), or other structural (one is a history of the zine culture which developed around under-the-radar and B movies), or use one or two movies to discuss broader cultural interfaces with a specific idea.
Be warned that most of the writing here is straight-up academic... so be prepared for lots of 10¢ words and references to texts you might not be familiar with. However, I can safely say the content was absolutely interesting enough to wade through this style of writing (which is not normally my cup of tea).
Be warned that most of the writing here is straight-up academic... so be prepared for lots of 10¢ words and references to texts you might not be familiar with. However, I can safely say the content was absolutely interesting enough to wade through this style of writing (which is not normally my cup of tea).
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews