What do you think?
Rate this book
New Blood: Critical Approaches to Contemporary Horror
The genre of horror is becoming ever more prominent in the global film market, with both small and large horror releases from around the world enjoying commercial and critical success like never before. Since 2000, the genre has undergone a multitude of developments across a range of cultures and types of media, many of which have yet to receive a full examination by scholars. New Blood fills that gap, presenting an overview of both the established and emerging directions in which the horror genre is moving. By offering up-to-date frameworks for approaching horror media, tied to a series of appropriate case studies, this book will prove a valuable additional to the shelves of researchers, students, and fans of horror.
- GenresFilmHorrorNonfiction
288 pages, Paperback
Published April 30, 2021
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
November 29, 2021
Tengo que admitir que fue un libro retador por los temas que toca. Mi área es la literatura gótica, y entrar de lleno a este campo fue un cambio drástico que me jugó en contra en muchas ocasiones. Sin embargo, las ideas y conclusiones que se incluyen en cada uno de los capítulos fueron fascinantes. Te hacen ver las cosas desde otro punto de vista.
Reseña completa: https://tintanocturna.blogspot.com/20...
I have to admit that it was a challenging book because of the topics it touches. My area is Gothic literature, and fully entering this field was a drastic change that played against me on many occasions. However, the ideas and conclusions included in each of the chapters were fascinating. They make you see things from another point of view.
Full review: https://tintanocturna.blogspot.com/20...
Reseña completa: https://tintanocturna.blogspot.com/20...
I have to admit that it was a challenging book because of the topics it touches. My area is Gothic literature, and fully entering this field was a drastic change that played against me on many occasions. However, the ideas and conclusions included in each of the chapters were fascinating. They make you see things from another point of view.
Full review: https://tintanocturna.blogspot.com/20...
November 3, 2021
when i am president i will make it illegal for men to write about female monstrosity
September 3, 2023
Fun! Some of this has felt a little dated already. I guess genre isn't the most useful lens but I can definitely see it's utilities here.
October 26, 2021
My review of this book was originally written for The Folklore Podcast and can still be found there as well.
New Blood: Critical Approaches to Contemporary Horror edited by Eddie Falvey, Jonathan Wroot, and Joe Hickinbottom is one of the newer books in the University of Wales Press Horror Studies series. The Horror Studies series seeks to bring contemporary academic writing to the understudied genre of horror. These books cover a vast variety of horror media, and this newer entry is no different - television series, web series, ‘creepypasta’, and film were all touched upon within this set of 13 essays.
New Blood focuses upon media released since the year 2000. The essays cover a diverse array of topics - including analyses of new categories and subgenres ripe for critical study such as ‘prestige horror’,‘ digital folk horror’, ‘torture porn’ and the more newly emerged ‘desktop horror’ and ‘Netflix horror’. While the shows and films discussed in the essays do include such critical darlings as Stranger Things and It Follows they also spend time upon less prestigious ‘video nasties’ such as Bloody Muscle Body Builder In Hell and, more shockingly, the infamous and little studied A Serbian Film.
This book does not shy away from the more contentious debates within the horror studies field. David Church, in his essay “Apprehension Engines”, details the debate surrounding the naming of ‘prestige’ or ‘auteur’ horror and how much it has polarized fans of the genre over the past few years. Likewise, Hickinbottom provides interesting insight into the mystery of Takashi Miike’s reputation in the west as a horror master when so little of his actual cinematic output is horror in “A Master of Horror?”
There is ample attention paid to marketing and how that has influenced the marketing of horror media over the years. Everything from horror-only conventions to the patently false marketing of ‘extreme horror’ to draw in more fans is considered - as well as how streaming services have altered the horror scene through creative casting to draw in viewers who might otherwise shy away from that sort of content.
By delving into the often ignored mire of torture porn and video nasties, as well as the contentious question of the value of digital folklore and prestige horror as valid areas of study, these essays challenged broadly held assumptions about what art is and what is worthy of study. I believe that many will come away from this book with new movies to watch, and a deeper appreciation of genres they might otherwise have ignored.
New Blood: Critical Approaches to Contemporary Horror edited by Eddie Falvey, Jonathan Wroot, and Joe Hickinbottom is one of the newer books in the University of Wales Press Horror Studies series. The Horror Studies series seeks to bring contemporary academic writing to the understudied genre of horror. These books cover a vast variety of horror media, and this newer entry is no different - television series, web series, ‘creepypasta’, and film were all touched upon within this set of 13 essays.
New Blood focuses upon media released since the year 2000. The essays cover a diverse array of topics - including analyses of new categories and subgenres ripe for critical study such as ‘prestige horror’,‘ digital folk horror’, ‘torture porn’ and the more newly emerged ‘desktop horror’ and ‘Netflix horror’. While the shows and films discussed in the essays do include such critical darlings as Stranger Things and It Follows they also spend time upon less prestigious ‘video nasties’ such as Bloody Muscle Body Builder In Hell and, more shockingly, the infamous and little studied A Serbian Film.
This book does not shy away from the more contentious debates within the horror studies field. David Church, in his essay “Apprehension Engines”, details the debate surrounding the naming of ‘prestige’ or ‘auteur’ horror and how much it has polarized fans of the genre over the past few years. Likewise, Hickinbottom provides interesting insight into the mystery of Takashi Miike’s reputation in the west as a horror master when so little of his actual cinematic output is horror in “A Master of Horror?”
There is ample attention paid to marketing and how that has influenced the marketing of horror media over the years. Everything from horror-only conventions to the patently false marketing of ‘extreme horror’ to draw in more fans is considered - as well as how streaming services have altered the horror scene through creative casting to draw in viewers who might otherwise shy away from that sort of content.
By delving into the often ignored mire of torture porn and video nasties, as well as the contentious question of the value of digital folklore and prestige horror as valid areas of study, these essays challenged broadly held assumptions about what art is and what is worthy of study. I believe that many will come away from this book with new movies to watch, and a deeper appreciation of genres they might otherwise have ignored.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews