The Horror Film: An Introduction

The Horror Film examines the ways in which horror movies have been produced, received, and interpreted by filmmakers, audiences, and critics throughout the medium’s history, from the 1920s to the present. This brief volume offers a broad, historical introduction to cinematic horror, outlining and investigating important issues in the production, consumption, and cultural interpretation of the genre. Combining historical narrative with close readings of several significant horror films – including Frankenstein, Cat People, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, Halloween, and Bram Stoker′s Dracula – The Horror Film will be the definitive read for any movie–goer who thrills to a great scare.

List of illustrations. Acknowledgments. 1. Introduction: Undying Monsters. 2 A Short History of the Horror Film:Beginnings to 1945. 3. A Short History of the Horror Film: 1945 to the Present. 4. Monsters Among Us: Cases of Social Reception. 5. Edges of the Horror Film: Lon Chaney, Tod Browning, and The Unknown (1927). 6. Frankenstein (1931) and Hollywood Expressionism. 7. Cat People (1942): Lewton, Freud, and Suggestive Horror. 8. Horror in “The Age of Anxiety”: Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956). 9. Slaughtering Genre Tradition: The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974). 10. Halloween (1978): The Shape of the Slasher Film. 11. Re–Animator (1985) and Slapstick Horror. 12. Demon Lover: Bram Stoker′s Dracula (1992). 13. Afterword: Our Haunted Houses. Appendix: Horror Auteurs. Notes. Index

Rick Worland is Associate Professor and Chair of the Division of Cinema–Television at Southern Methodist University. He has published in many scholarly journals, including Cinema Journal , and has contributed essays to a number of film collections.

"Worland writes in a scholarly but not overly pedantic style, and he is concise and insightful" Choice