Science fiction, fantasy and horror Books

Book SynopsisHow science fiction films in the 1950s were marketed and helped create the broader genre itself. For Hollywood, the golden age of science fiction was also an age of anxiety. Amid rising competition, fluid audience habits, and increasing government regulation, studios of the 1950s struggled to make and sell the kinds of films that once were surefire winners. These conditions, the leading media scholar J.P. Telotte argues, catalyzed the incredible rise of science fiction. Though science fiction films had existed since the earliest days of cinema, the SF genre as a whole continued to resist easy definition through the 1950s. In grappling with this developing genre, the industry began to consider new marketing approaches that viewed films as fluid texts and audiences as ever-changing. Drawing on trade reports, film reviews, pressbooks, trailers, and other archival materials, Selling Science Fiction Cinema reconstructs studio efforts to market a promisinTrade ReviewJ. P. Telotte offers a thoughtful, well-researched overview of how these films were marketed to audiences at their height in Selling Science Fiction Cinema...Telotte also offers a thought-provoking look at contemporary sci-fi marketing approaches during such a fascinating time in which so much content is available to users via streaming platforms rather than the past 'traditional' approach of attending the cinema. * Hometowns to Hollywood *Focusing on various promotional campaigns, publicity strategies, and cultural products, this fascinating study offers a material-based history of the selling of mid-20th-century science fiction cinema...Deploying precise critical insight and drawing on an array of archival findings, Telotte considers the marketing of such films as The Thing from Another World (1951), Forbidden Planet (1956), and Godzilla, King of the Monsters (1954), and he adroitly generates new insights and readings of these films and their significance to history and culture. Considering the discourse circulating around science fiction film’s place in literary fan culture, the genre’s position in society, and the shifting attitudes toward speculative cinema of studios in both Hollywood and Japan, Telotte’s work emerges as an engaging addition to film studies. * CHOICE *Table of Contents Acknowledgments Chapter 1. Marketing and Making Science Fiction Chapter 2. What Is This Thing? Framing and Unframing a New Genre Chapter 3. Pondering the “Pulp Paradox”: Pal, Paramount, and the SF Market Chapter 4. Moppets and Robots: MGM Markets Forbidden Planet Chapter 5. Another Form of Life: Audiences, Markets, and The Blob Chapter 6. Selling Japan: Making, Remaking, and Marketing Japanese SF Conclusion Notes Select Filmography Select Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisThe Liverpool Companion to World Science Fiction Film offers critical insights into SF far beyond the more common Anglo-American narratives. Contributors take either a national or transnational approach, and stretch the geographic and conceptual boundaries of science fiction cinema. Recurrent themes include genre discussions, engagement with Hollywood, and the international subgenre of science fiction parody. Chapters contain a variety of perspectives and styles: from gender and race studies, to the eco-critical, and the post-colonial; from the avant-garde, to socialist realism, and the Hammer film. Edited by Sonja Fritzsche, the collection contains fourteen chapters written by specialists from around the world. Film traditions represented include Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Cameroon, China, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, India, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Kenya, Poland, the United Kingdom, and the United States. There is also a chapter on digital shorts. From the dinosaur myth that became Godzilla to Brazilian science fiction comedy, from China’s Death Ray to Kenya’s Pumzi, this book will broaden the horizons of scholars and students of science fiction.Trade Review'A welcome and overdue addition to the critical discourse surrounding science fiction cinema. This book provides an important point of entry for those academics and students who wish to broaden their understanding of science fiction film as a global phenomenon rather than simply as a Hollywood or Anglophone practice.'Peter Wright, Edge Hill UniversityTable of Contents Introduction - Sonja Fritzsche PART I: AFRICA 1. The Environmental Dominant in Wanuri Kahiu’s Pumzi - Ritch Calvin PART II: ASIA 2. Death Ray on a Coral Island as China’s First Science Fiction Film - Jie Zhang 3. Indian Science Fiction Cinema: An Overview - Jessica Langer and Dominic Alessio 4. On the Monstrous Planet: or, How Godzilla Took a Roman Holiday - Takayuki Tatsumi, translated by Seth Jacobowitz PART III: EUROPE 5. Invaders, Launchpads and Hybrids: The Importance of Transmediality in British Science Fiction Film in the 1950s - Derek Johnston 6. Gender and Apocalypse in Eastern European Cinema - Jason Merrill 7. Casting for a Socialist Earth: Multicultural Whiteness in the East German/Polish Science-Fiction Film Silent Star (1960) - Evan Torner 8. Looking for French Science Fiction Cinema - Daniel Tron 9. Science Fiction Interventions in Irish Cinema - Katie Moylan 10. The Uncomfortable Relationship Between Science Fiction and Italy:Film, Humor, and Gender - Rafaella Boccolini PART IV: NORTH AMERICA 11. Are Black Women the Future of Man? The Role of Black Women in Political and Cultural Transformation in Science Fiction from the US and Cameroon - Robyn Citizen PART V: SOUTH AMERICA 12. Maradona on the Moon: Postcolonial Politics and Cultural Hybridity in Argentina’s Goodbye Dear Moon - Mariano Paz 13. Alert Limit! A Short History of Brazilian Science Fiction Film and Its Fight for Survival in a Rarefied Atmosphere - Alfredo Suppia PART VI: DIGITAL CINEMA 14. Digital Film and Audiences - Pawel Frelik Recommended Viewing

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Book SynopsisThe Liverpool Companion to World Science Fiction Film offers critical insights into SF far beyond the more common Anglo-American narratives. Contributors take either a national or transnational approach, and stretch the geographic and conceptual boundaries of science fiction cinema. Recurrent themes include genre discussions, engagement with Hollywood, and the international subgenre of science fiction parody. Chapters contain a variety of perspectives and styles: from gender and race studies, to the eco-critical, and the post-colonial; from the avant-garde, to socialist realism, and the Hammer film. Edited by Sonja Fritzsche, the collection contains fourteen chapters written by specialists from around the world. Film traditions represented include Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Cameroon, China, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, India, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Kenya, Poland, the United Kingdom, and the United States. There is also a chapter on digital shorts. From the dinosaur myth that became Godzilla to Brazilian science fiction comedy, from China’s Death Ray to Kenya’s Pumzi, this book will broaden the horizons of scholars and students of science fiction.Trade Review'A welcome and overdue addition to the critical discourse surrounding science fiction cinema. This book provides an important point of entry for those academics and students who wish to broaden their understanding of science fiction film as a global phenomenon rather than simply as a Hollywood or Anglophone practice.'Peter Wright, Edge Hill UniversityTable of Contents Introduction - Sonja Fritzsche PART I: AFRICA 1. The Environmental Dominant in Wanuri Kahiu’s Pumzi - Ritch Calvin PART II: ASIA 2. Death Ray on a Coral Island as China’s First Science Fiction Film - Jie Zhang 3. Indian Science Fiction Cinema: An Overview - Jessica Langer and Dominic Alessio 4. On the Monstrous Planet: or, How Godzilla Took a Roman Holiday - Takayuki Tatsumi, translated by Seth Jacobowitz PART III: EUROPE 5. Invaders, Launchpads and Hybrids: The Importance of Transmediality in British Science Fiction Film in the 1950s - Derek Johnston 6. Gender and Apocalypse in Eastern European Cinema - Jason Merrill 7. Casting for a Socialist Earth: Multicultural Whiteness in the East German/Polish Science-Fiction Film Silent Star (1960) - Evan Torner 8. Looking for French Science Fiction Cinema - Daniel Tron 9. Science Fiction Interventions in Irish Cinema - Katie Moylan 10. The Uncomfortable Relationship Between Science Fiction and Italy:Film, Humor, and Gender - Rafaella Boccolini PART IV: NORTH AMERICA 11. Are Black Women the Future of Man? The Role of Black Women in Political and Cultural Transformation in Science Fiction from the US and Cameroon - Robyn Citizen PART V: SOUTH AMERICA 12. Maradona on the Moon: Postcolonial Politics and Cultural Hybridity in Argentina’s Goodbye Dear Moon - Mariano Paz 13. Alert Limit! A Short History of Brazilian Science Fiction Film and Its Fight for Survival in a Rarefied Atmosphere - Alfredo Suppia PART VI: DIGITAL CINEMA 14. Digital Film and Audiences - Pawel Frelik Recommended Viewing

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Book SynopsisAfter the end, the world will be un-American. This speculation forms the nucleus of Un-American Dreams, a study of US apocalyptic science fiction and the cultural politics of disimagined community in the short century of American superpower, 1945–2001. Between the atomic attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which helped to transform the United States into a superpower and initiated the Cold War, and the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, which spelled the Cold War’s second death and inaugurated the War on Terror, apocalyptic science fiction returned again and again to the scene of America’s negation. During the American Century, to imagine yourself as American and as a participant in a shared national culture meant disimagining the most powerful nation on the planet. Un-American Dreams illuminates how George R. Stewart, Philip K. Dick, George A. Romero, Octavia Butler, and Roland Emmerich represented the impossibility of reforming American society and used figures of the end of the world as speculative pretexts to imagine the utopian possibilities of an un-American world. The American Century was simultaneously a closure of the path to utopia and an escape route into apocalyptic science fiction, the underground into which figures of an alternative future could be smuggled.Trade Review‘The tone throughout ties together the impressive mix of genre theory, cultural interpretation, political commentary, intellectual history, and biography. It balances critical theory with interpretation and argument in the exegesis of its five central texts/ideological formations. It is a pleasure to think with and a delight to read. Un-American Dreams is worth reading for those interested in the complex workings of hope for and deferral of radical alternatives to the present state of things. It is a coherent and cohesive project that presents deep research on its material from solid footing in a critical tradition. For these reasons and more, it is worth thinking with Ramírez about how to resuscitate hope the hard way, through an immanent critique of hope’s shadowy form in apocalyptic sf of the American century.’ Brent Ryan Bellamy, Science Fiction StudiesTable of ContentsPrefaceThe Dreams in Which I’m DyingIntroductionThe Uses of Pseudo-ApocalypseChapter 1The Last American: Earth Abides, Speculative Anthropology, and Settler UtopianismChapter 2The Revelation of Philip K. DickChapter 3National Insecurity in Night of the Living DeadChapter 4How to Bring Your Kids Up Alien: Octavia Butler’s Xenogenesis TrilogyChapter 5Waiting for the Martians: Independence Day and the Second American CenturyConclusionPseudo-Apocalypse after the American Century

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Book SynopsisIn this examination of violence and masculinity in George R. R. Martin’s fantasy series A Song of Ice and Fire and its television adaptation Game of Thrones, Tobi Evans offers a queer reading that revises the idea that the texts glorify violence. Moving from monstrous men characters and sovereigns to female, disabled, and genderqueer masculinities, Violent Fantasies understands the novels and television series to offer a complex and ambiguous negotiation of different types of violence. Deploying queer feminist poststructuralist and psychoanalytic approaches to the acts of violence that masculine characters use, Evans views hegemonic violence as part of a destructive cycle wherein characters use violence to dominate others but have their violence turned against them in such a way that their bodies become disgusting and they are unable to enter into systems of patriarchal reproduction. The only characters who succeed in proliferating their values and knowledges are those who use violence to care for others. These characters are also threatened with a bodily undoing when they use violence, but their bodily borders are secured because of their connections to others and their queer kinship bonds. Violence transforms the body, Evans argues, in ways that are both circular and ideologically ambivalent. Table of ContentsIntroduction 1. Some Knights are Dark and Full of Terror 2. Undoing Sovereign Violence 3. Vile, Scheming, Evil Bitches? 4. Disabled Masculinities and the Potential and Limits of Queered Masculine Violence 5. Queer Magical Violence and Gender Fluidity

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Book SynopsisPrevenge (2016) is an entertainingly dark 21st-century horror movie detailing the serial killing journey of heavily pregnant Ruth. It’s a cleverly crafted narrative full of stark social commentary, traversing the delicate line between comedy and tragedy by fusing together a kitchen sink approach with a supernatural revenge plot. This book, as part of the Devil’s Advocates series, examines how the film deconstructs the slasher mythology and the sexism therein, and upends stereotypical representations of the ‘weak’ woman and ‘delicate’ mother. With new exclusive input from writer, director and star Alice Lowe, the text also looks at the production’s inception and development, assesses its debts to cult British cinema, and inspects its umbilical connections to Rosemary’s Baby, Alien, Village of the Damned and many other ‘Monstrous Child’ silver screen features. Trade Review'Andrew Graves offers a suitably appreciative, perceptive celebration of a movie that never wanted to be pigeonholed for the sake of its commercial prospects... This concise, engaging DEVIL’S ADVOCATES monograph is... a witty, insightful read that will inspire you to revisit Lowe’s glorious back catalogue.'Steven West, FrightFest

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Book SynopsisGeorge A. Romero’s Dawn of the Dead (1978) is celebrated both as a ‘splatter’ movie and as a satire of 1970s consumerism. One of the most financially successful independent films ever produced, Dawn of the Dead presented a strong vision to audiences of the time in terms of its excessive, often shocking violence. It challenged censorship internationally and caused controversy in the United States and the UK. The film created problems with distributors because of its length and its graphic content; with the MPAA who awarded it an ‘X’ in America (a rating usually reserved for pornography); with the BBFC in the UK who completely recut it; and in various European territories where it was released in several versions. Arguably, excess is at the heart of Dawn of the Dead, integral to its meaning: not only in its scenes of gore, its in-your-face social satire and its gaudy pop-kitsch style but in the production history of the film itself. This Devil’s Advocate explores the various ways in which Romero took Dawn of the Dead into areas of extremity during its scripting, production and distribution; and the responses of industry, censorship bodies, reviewers and audiences of the time to the film’s excesses. Taking the approach of a micro-historical study, Jon Towlson offers a close analysis of the film’s production context to explore the cultural significance of Dawn of the Dead as a ‘rebel text’ and an example of oppositional cinema.

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Book SynopsisGeorge A. Romero’s Dawn of the Dead (1978) is celebrated both as a ‘splatter’ movie and as a satire of 1970s consumerism. One of the most financially successful independent films ever produced, Dawn of the Dead presented a strong vision to audiences of the time in terms of its excessive, often shocking violence. It challenged censorship internationally and caused controversy in the United States and the UK. The film created problems with distributors because of its length and its graphic content; with the MPAA who awarded it an ‘X’ in America (a rating usually reserved for pornography); with the BBFC in the UK who completely recut it; and in various European territories where it was released in several versions. Arguably, excess is at the heart of Dawn of the Dead, integral to its meaning: not only in its scenes of gore, its in-your-face social satire and its gaudy pop-kitsch style but in the production history of the film itself. This Devil’s Advocate explores the various ways in which Romero took Dawn of the Dead into areas of extremity during its scripting, production and distribution; and the responses of industry, censorship bodies, reviewers and audiences of the time to the film’s excesses. Taking the approach of a micro-historical study, Jon Towlson offers a close analysis of the film’s production context to explore the cultural significance of Dawn of the Dead as a ‘rebel text’ and an example of oppositional cinema.

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Book Synopsis‘Nosferatu’ in the 21st Century is a celebration and a critical study of F. W. Murnau’s seminal vampire film Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens on the 100th anniversary of its release in 1922. The movie remains a dark mirror to the troubled world we live in seeing it as striking and important in the 2020s as it was a century ago. The unmistakable image of Count Orlok has traveled from his dilapidated castle in old world Transylvania into the futuristic depths of outerspace in Star Trek and beyond as the all-consuming shadow of the vampire spreads ever wider throughout contemporary popular culture. This innovative collection of essays, with a foreword by renowned Dracula expert Gary D. Rhodes, brings together experts in the field alongside creative artists to explore the ongoing impact of Murnau’s groundbreaking movie as it has been adapted, reinterpreted, and recreated across multiple mediums from theatre, performance and film, to gaming, music and even drag. As such, ‘Nosferatu’ in the 21st Century is not only a timely and essential book about Murnau’s film but also illuminates the times that produced it and the world it continues to influence.

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Book SynopsisOne of the most acclaimed debut features of this century, Moon (2009) tells the superficially simple story of Sam Bell (Sam Rockwell), who mines Helium-3 on the dark side and comes face to face with his doppelgänger. Out of this scenario, director and co-writer Duncan Jones explores ethical questions that can be examined for philosophical depths, calling back to such 1970s and 1980s science fiction films as Silent Running (1972), Soylent Green (1973), Logan's Run (1976), Alien (1979), and Outland (1981). Just as the moon so often visible above Earth has been interpreted in a variety of ways throughout human history, so the film Moon is open to various readings and interpretations.Brian Robb’s Constellation volume begins by covering the early filmmaking and influences of director Jones, and briefly look at past depictions of the moon in science fiction cinema. He goes on to provide a production history of the film, with a particular focus on how the constraints of British low-budget filmmaking inspire creativity, and how the creative team envisioned the future. Subsequent chapters examine questions of isolation and identity as raised in Moon – what defines a human being? How does differing experience change each of the Sam Bell clones? – and issues of theology by examining notions of curiosity and investigation. Finally, the critical reception of Moon is will be examined, with a consideration of the way film's themes were further developed and extrapolated upon in Duncan Jones' next film, Source Code (2011).

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Book SynopsisThe Cabin in the Woods (2012), directed by Drew Goddard and co-authored by Goddard and Joss Whedon of Buffy-fame, was famously described by co-author Whedon as his ‘loving hate letter’ to horror. Interviews with Whedon reveal that his struggles with modern cinematic horror are not merely emotional, but intensely philosophical. This book is the first to read Cabin as a philosophical metatext that asks what horror offers audiences and why audiences accept. Like any good philosophy, the film offers no answers but raises questions: what ‘choices’ are possible in a pre-determined universe? How do we, the audience, see the victims of violence, and with what ethical consequences? And finally, the most fraught question of all: why do we keep looking?

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Book Synopsis'Created’ by Steven Spielberg yet officially directed by Tobe Hooper, Poltergeist (1982) can be best described as ‘family horror movie’ both in its target audience and in its narrative context, the story of an All-American suburban family, the Freelings, whose home suddenly becomes the site of a spectacular haunting, apparently summoned by their young daughter. The film is somewhat of an anachronism and this Devil's Advocate explores this in both the scope of production and narrative. The book discusses the duality of the text highlighting debates surrounding both Spielberg's somewhat saccharine portrayal of middle-class Americana and his more subversive cinematic endeavours. The duality of the text also will also be discussed in the context of the film's production – with both Spielberg and Hooper on set for much of the time, the result was a movie with the production values, effects and marketing of a high budget mainstream cinema blockbuster apparently directed by a subversive 'grindhouse' cinema auteur. Yet Poltergeist is neither nor both of those things, instead being a unique hybrid of genres and styles taking the best and worst from both aspects of family blockbuster and cult horror film, and as such can be seen as a text that is something unique – a classic modern take on the traditional haunted house story.

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Book SynopsisMartin Scorsese’s Cape Fear (1991) opens with a shot of water and climaxes on a raging river. Despite, or perhaps because of, the film’s great commercial success, critical analysis of the film typically does not delve beneath the surface of Scorsese’s first major box office hit. As it reaches its 30th anniversary, Cape Fear is now ripe for a full appraisal. The remake of J. Lee Thompson’s 1962 Cape Fear was originally conceived as a straightforward thriller intended for Steven Spielberg. Author Rob Daniel investigates the fascinating ways Scorsese’s style and preoccupations transform his version into a horror epic. The director’s love of fear cinema, his Catholicism and filmmaking techniques shift Cape Fear into terrifying psychological and psychosexual waters. The analysis also examines the influence of Gothic literature and fairy tales, plus how academic approaches to genre aid an understanding of the film. Trade Review'[Daniels] attempts to weave the film into the profile of Scorsese‘s filmography, with the unique take that Cape Fear is really a horror film and that certain horror film tropes and styles have informed most of his films... Mr. Daniel makes a thorough case and the reader learns a lot about Scorsese from this slim volume... Cape Fear is a must read for any student of Martin Scorsese.' Douglas Holm, KBOO

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Book SynopsisPremiering at the 1981 Cannes Film Festival, Andrzej Żuławski’s Possession remains a distinct phenomenon. Though in competition for the illustrious Palme d’Or, its art cinema context did not rescue it from being banned as part of the United Kingdom’s ‘video nasties’ campaign, alongside unashamedly lowbrow titles such as Faces of Death and Zombie Flesh Eaters. Skirting the boundary between art and exploitation, body horror and cerebral reverie, relationship drama and political statement, Possession is a truly astonishing film. Part visceral horror, part surreal experiment, part gothic romance dressed in the iconography of a spy thriller: there is no doubt that the polarity evinced by Possession’s initial release was in part a product of its resistance to clear categorisation.With a production history almost as bizarre as the film itself, a cult following gained with its VHS release, and being re-appreciated in the decades since as a valuable work of auteur cinema, the story of how this film came to be is as fascinating as it is unfathomable. Alison Taylor’s Devil’s Advocate considers Possession’s history, stylistic achievement, and legacy as an enduring and unique work of horror cinema. Beginning with a marital breakdown and ending with an apocalypse, the film’s strangeness has not dissipated over time; its transgressive imagery, histrionic performances, and spiral staircase logic remain affective and confounding to critics and fans alike. Respecting the film’s wilfully enigmatic nature, this book helps to unpack its key threads, including the collision between the banal and the horrific, the socio-historical context of its divided Berlin setting, and the significance of its legacy, particularly with regard to the contemporary trend for extreme art horror on the festival circuit.Trade Review‘It is clear that Taylor has done her homework [on Possession], and you can tell instantly that this piece is meticulously researched, drawing on a range of first-hand sources including the original script… for those with a serious interest in horror cinema, and POSSESSION in particular, this is a worthy read.’ John Upton, FrightFest

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Book SynopsisDirected by Richard Donner and written by David Seltzer, The Omen (1976) is perhaps the best in the devil-child cycle of movies that followed in the wake of Rosemary’s Baby and The Exorcist. Released to a highly suggestible public, The Omen became a major commercial success, in no small part due to an elaborate pre-sell campaign that played and preyed on apocalyptic fears and a renewed belief in the Devil and the supernatural. Since polarising critics and religious groups upon its release, The Omen has earned its place in the horror film canon. It’s a film that works on different levels, is imbued with nuance, ambiguity and subtext, and is open to opposing interpretations. Reflecting the film’s cultural impact and legacy, the name ‘Damien’ has since become a pop culture byword for an evil child. Adrian Schober’s Devil’s Advocate entry covers the genesis, authorship, production history, marketing and reception of The Omen, before going on to examine the overarching theme of paranoia that drives the narrative: paranoia about the 'end times'; paranoia about government and conspiracy; paranoia about child rearing (especially, if one strips away the layer of Satanism); and paranoia about imagined threats to the right-wing Establishment from liberal and post-countercultural forces of the 1970s.

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Book SynopsisDrawing on critical analysis of film, the horror genre, the Gothic, and Stephen King scholarship, this book considers Andy Muschietti’s IT Chapter One (2017) and IT Chapter Two (2019) on multiple levels: as film (both as individual films and through their interconnected narrative), as adaptation, and as a barometer of the horror film’s popularity among fans. Key points of consideration include the significance of the fictional town of Derry as a traditionally Gothic “bad place,” the role of 1980s nostalgia in these two films, the complex navigation of memory and trauma, gender representation, queer representation, and the return of the repressed. The terrifying figure of Pennywise the clown is central to this analysis, including consideration of performance, costuming, and significance within the larger landscape of the “scary clown” popular culture trope, and through comparison to Tim Curry’s iconic performance in Tommy Lee Wallace’s 1990 miniseries. This Devil's Advocate contextualizes Muschietti’s films within the larger landscape of King’s literary and popular culture influence, as well as the debate surrounding “elevated” horror and the “horror boom” of the late 2010s.

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Book SynopsisMost scholarship on Mary Lambert's Pet Sematary (1989) overarchingly focuses on the Stephen King novel (1983), and tends strongly towards housing the story within the Gothic literary tradition. The film itself is often absent from considerations of North American horror cinema of the 1980s, and from wider horror scholarship in general. This Devil's Advocate stands as a corrective, and provides a holistic analysis – textual, contextual, and industrial – of the film, in order to properly situate it as an important entry into the history of horror cinema. This book joins a growing body of works – both journalistic and academic – that aim to revisit older films in order to call attention to and/or redress the gendered imbalance in our written horror histories. McMurdo charges Pet Sematary with several contributions to the horror genre: as an important entry within the tradition of “grief horror”; as a horror film that both adheres to and defies the generic conventions of its historical context, one both engaged with and respondent to its time of creation; as a film that changed the fortunes of the cinematic Stephen King “brand” on the cusp of a new decade. Pet Sematary is the highest grossing horror film directed by a woman in cinematic history, and it stands as a story that we keep returning to – as seen by the 1992 sequel, the 2019 remake, and a forthcoming prequel. Pet Sematary’s modern relevance and importance to genre history then, is manifold, and this book argues it is past time for its reconsideration as a classic of horror cinema.

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Book SynopsisOffering a survey of Hollywood science fiction cinema from 1979 to 2017 (from Ridley Scott’s Alien to Denis Villeneuve’s Blade Runner 2049), Dystopia and Dispossession in the Hollywood Science Fiction Film argues that the trajectory of Hollywood’s dystopianism in that period is inextricable from the phenomenon of the ‘new enclosures’, the new dispossessions and privatisations sweeping across the United States since the 1970s. More precisely, it contends that the critiques of such dispossessions elaborated before the turn of the century – consider the satire of private policing in RoboCop (1987), the portrayal of commodified air in Total Recall (1990), and the nightmarish extrapolations of postmodern urbanism in Blade Runner (1982) and The Truman Show (1998) – begin to disappear in films such as The Matrix (1999), The Island (2005), District 9 (2009), Repo Men (2010), and The Purge (2013), the further commodification of land, forest, reservoir, ideas, even the human genome having diminished the contrast between capitalist and non-capitalist spaces on which the earlier critiques depended. Bringing close readings of blockbuster films into dialogue with historical and theoretical scholarship on dispossession, Dystopia and Dispossession in the Hollywood Science Fiction Film proposes a new understanding of the politics of science fiction in particular and utopian thought in general.Table of ContentsIntroduction – Anticipation: Science Fiction between Spectacle and SpeculationPART 1: ENCLOSURE AFTER ENCLOSURE1. Extrapolation: The New Enclosures in New Hollywood2. Privatisation: Conceptualising Enclosure in RoboCop and Total Recall3. Urbanisation: Images of Los Angeles in Blade Runner and The Truman ShowPART 2: DYSTOPIA AFTER DYSTOPIA4. Expropriation: Marx, Utopia, and the Limits of Political Economy5. Innovation: Intellectual Property in The Matrix, The Island, and District 96. Speculation: Credit, Crisis, and Foreclosure in Repo Men and The PurgeConclusion – Negation: Capitalism at the End of the World

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Book SynopsisMany fans of Robin Hardy’s The Wicker Man (1973) may know that this classic is considered a fine sample of folk horror. Few will consider that it’s also a prime example of holiday horror. Holiday horror draws its energy from the featured festive day, here May Day. Sergeant Neil Howie (Edward Woodward), a “Christian copper,” is lured to the remote Scottish island Summerisle where, hidden from the eyes of all, a thriving Celtic, pagan religion holds sway. His arrival at the start of the May Day celebration is no accident. The clash between religions, fought on the landscape of the holiday, drives the story to its famous conclusion. In this Devil’s Advocate, Steve A. Wiggins delineates what holiday horror is and surveys various aspects of “the Citizen Kane of horror movies” that utilize the holiday. Beginning with a brief overview of Beltane and how May Day has been celebrated, this study considers the role of sexuality and fertility in the film. Conflicting with Howie’s Christian principles, this leads to an exploration of his theology as contrasted with that of Lord Summerisle (Christopher Lee) and his tenants. Such differences in belief make the fiery ending practically inevitable.Trade Review‘Wiggins proves an engaging, erudite commentator on assorted interlinked elements, with the recurring holiday horror themes (notably, sacrifice) running parallel to an examination of the origins of what we know as “holidays” / “vacations” and a consideration of religion’s transformation through the centuries… Wiggins’ highly perceptive and refreshing study will provide yet another excuse to revisit and celebrate one of Britain’s greatest achievements in the genre.’ Steven West, FrightFestTable of ContentsIntroduction Chapter 1: Holiday Horror Chapter 2: May Day Chapter 3: Scary Sex Chapter 4: The Horror of Theology Conclusion: Conflict and Legacy

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Book SynopsisContemporary American Science Fiction Film explores and interrogates a diverse variety of popular and culturally relevant American science fiction films made in the first two decades of the new millennium, offering a ground-breaking investigation of the impactful role of genre cinema in the modern era.Placing one of the most popular and culturally resonant American film genres broadly within its rich social, historical, industrial, and political context, the book interrogates some of the defining critical debates of the era via an in-depth analysis of a range of important films. An international team of authors draw on case studies from across the science fiction genre to examine what these films can tell us about the time period, how the films themselves connect to the social and political context, how the fears and anxieties they portray resonate beyond the screen, and how the genre responds to the shifting coordinates of the Hollywood film industry.OfferingTrade Review"Contemporary American Science Fiction Film is an outstanding collection of essays on the power and provocation of those future orientated films that nonetheless conjure up the maelstrom of what it is like to dream and despair in the first two decades of the new millennium. Covering blockbuster, transmedia and independent science fiction film, the collection examines the long and refracted lens of the present through its concern with the geopolitical, the technological, the deadly traumatic, and the precariat economic. It also senses science fiction and the way it troubles selfhood and identity, so the intimate and the personal are woven into the collection’s articulations. With standout chapters on Arrival, Children of Men, Annihilation, and Black Panther, amongst others, Contemporary American Science Fiction Film is a profoundly important text for all time, or for as long as this world has left to live..."Professor Sean Redmond, Deakin University, Australia"McSweeney and Joy’s Contemporary American Science Fiction Film provides a fascinating foray into the strange and exciting allegorical world of science fiction film over the past two decades. The collection covers a key selection of widely popular films, from Black Panther to Blade Runner 2049, from Star Wars to Planet of the Apes. It is also a wide-ranging cultural and political history of the United States in the 21st century, providing deep explorations of the latent meanings and emotional resonances of the films, of their imagery, and of what they reveal about the sociopolitical worlds within which they were dreamt and projected."Jeremiah Morelock, Boston College, USA"Framing science fiction as the “allegorical mode” in 21st century cinema, Contemporary American Science Fiction Film ranges widely across the cultural landscape, tackling the War on Terror, “9/11,” global warming, a politicized media, diversity and inclusion efforts, and other defining moments and movements. The collection matches these haunting components of the cultural imaginary with the latest science fiction cinema in consistently stimulating ways. Voicing that treatment are a number of the genre’s most eloquent and considered commentators, who here demonstrate not just science fiction’s widespread popularity, but the crucial cultural function it serves for us today."J. P. Telotte, Professor Emeritus, Georgia Institute of Technology, USAIncluding case studies of various motion pictures, Contemporary American Science Fiction Film offers a superb investigation of the science fiction genre. McSweeney and Joy (both, Southampton Solent Univ., UK) argue that “science fiction films have often been both a valuable witness to and [an] interrogator of key moments of ideological tension” and that science fiction, working as allegory, possesses the ability to “manifest aspects of the cultural imaginary, which ... become[s] problematic to express explicitly in their political and social climates” (p. 1). Each of the 12 chapters centers on a film and explores how the film reflects its time of creation, works as a cultural artifact linked to historical moments, and expresses larger cultural anxieties. Treating films such as Children of Men (2006) and Interstellar (2014), the essays, all by eminent scholars, decipher the fictional worlds of time loops, alternative histories, clones, and dystopias. Of particular note are Carol Donelan’s examination of the Planet of the Apes reboot franchise; Andrew Schopp's reading of the eco-horror film Annihilation (2018) as hybridization, anxiety, and destruction in American identity; and Paul Petrovic’s interpretation of the dark comedy Sorry to Bother You (2018). Taken together, these essays contribute greatly to film scholarship and make for a solid text for science fiction film courses.--S. B. Skelton, Kansas State University, CHOICETable of ContentsIntroduction: The Fears and Fantasies of Science Fiction Film: Genre as Cultural ArtefactTerence McSweeney and Stuart Joy 1. A Tale as Old as Time: Steven Spielberg’s A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001) Christine Muller 2. Through the Lens of 9/11: Reflections of Bush Era Politics and the Post-9/11 Milieu in Minority Report (2002) and V for Vendetta (2006) Fran Pheasant-Kelly 3. Precarious Lives, Human Rights, and 'the sense of today': The Continuing Resonance and Relevance of Alfonso Cuarón’s Children of Men (2006) Terence McSweeney 4. Seeing and Touching the Bodies of Others: Evolving the Male Animal toward Secular Moral Enlightenment in the Planet of the Apes Reboot Franchise Carol Donelan 5. Time Travel, Trauma, and the Futility of Revenge in Looper (2012) Stuart Joy 6. Science Fiction Cinema between Arthouse and Blockbuster: From Stanley Kubrick’s 2001 to Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar (2014) Steffen Hantke 7. Twenty-first-Century Star Wars: Profiles in (Female) Courage Stacey Peebles 8. Rationality, emotionality, and geopolitics in Arrival (2016): From structural oppositions and reconciliations to mixed modalities and claims to "quality" status Geoff King 9. 'The World Is Built on A Wall': Deconstructing Blade Runner 2049 (2017) Will Brooker 10. Speculative Anger and Collective Economic Strength in Boots Riley’s Sorry to Bother You (2018) Paul Petrovic 11. Coping with the Deconstruction of American Identity: Hybridization and Self-destruction in Alex Garland’s Annihilation (2018) Andrew Schopp 12. Wakanda Forever? On Ryan Coogler’s Black Panther (2018) Gerry Canavan

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Book SynopsisFolk Gothic asserts that a significant part of what has been categorised as folk horror is more accurately and usefully labelled as Folk Gothic. In emphasising temporal and spatial structures, it tells stories that foreground land and 'things', consequently loosening the grip of anthropocentrism.Table of Contents1. Folk gothic; 2. From horror to folk gothic: The Descent, The Green Inferno, Midsommar, The Ritual, Pet Sematary, In the Earth; 3. Folk gothic things: 'Randalls Round', 'The Temple', 'The Flint Knife'; 4. Folk gothic's place: The Owl Service, The Feast; References.

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Book SynopsisThis accessible new introduction to Fantasy literature, media and culture delves into pasts, presents, practices and communities. It considers Fantasy as a deep-rooted form, discusses a wide range of media permutations and reflects on the ways in which fantasies draw from and return ideas to a dynamic, ever-shifting commons.Trade Review'Matthew Sangster offers us an entirely new way to look at fantasy and its cultural significance. Drawing on a wide range of examples, from 'Sir Gawain and the Green Knight' to Dungeons and Dragons, and gracefully integrating ideas from a number of disciplines, Sangster offers a convincing account of one of the major cultural phenomena of the past century and a half.' Brian Attebery, Emeritus Professor of English, Idaho State University'On all accounts, this is a wonderful book. The range of texts considered is amazing. Sangster examines written narratives, films, TV series, fan fiction, graphic narratives, comics, role-playing games, and other web manifestations of fantasy, and invokes Asian, African, and Near Eastern examples alongside Western ones. The teeming variety, and Sangster's own uniquely positive approach, support claims to the importance of fantasy in human experience and enforce the sense that collaboration and shared experience is an integral element of human interaction, and one that fantasy encourages.' Kathryn Hume, Emerita Edwin Erle Sparks Professor of English, The Pennsylvania State University'Matthew Sangster's modestly titled An Introduction to Fantasy is much more than an introduction to a single genre. It is a powerful meditation on a communal mode of artistic creativity that has shaped culture for thousands of years and now finds expression in textual, visual and interactive forms all across the world.' Anna Vaninskaya, Senior Lecturer in English Literature, University of Edinburgh'Although it's one of the oldest modes of storytelling, fantasy has exploded in popularity over the last half-century, and critical and historical commentary about it has expanded almost as dramatically. In An Introduction to Fantasy: Imagination, Iteration and Community, Matthew Sangster demonstrates a keen understanding both of the source material—drawing not only on literature but on films, TV, gaming, and art—and of the critical discourse around it. His eminently readable study is both historically grounded as far back as Plato, and as contemporary as Kelly Link and Nghi Vo.' Gary K. Wolfe, Emeritus Professor of Humanities, Roosevelt University'An insightful and engaging exploration into the broad landscape of fantasy. Brilliantly written and comprehensive, Sangster delves deftly into the signal importance of the genre throughout human history and in our fraught contemporary moment. Thought-provoking and timely, this volume belongs on every fantasist's bookshelf.' Ebony Elizabeth Thomas, Associate Professor, Joint Program in English and Education, University of Michigan, author of The Dark Fantastic: Race and the Imagination from Harry Potter to The Hunger GamesTable of ContentsIntroduction; 1. Fantasy, Language and the Shaping of Culture; 2. The Value of Iteration; 3. Root Formations; 4. Enlightenment and its Shadows; 5. Fashioning Worlds; 6. Fantastic Communities and Common Ground; Envoi.

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Book SynopsisAn Esquire Best Book of 2022!Written with inside access, comprehensive research, and a down-to-earth perspective, Phasers on Stun! chronicles the entire history of Star Trek, revealing that its enduring place in pop culture is all thanks to innovative pivots and radical change.   For over five decades, the heart of Star Trek’s pro-science, anti-racist, and inclusive messaging has been its willingness to take big risks. Across thirteen feature films, and twelve TV series—including five shows currently airing or in production—the brilliance of Star Trek is in its endless ability to be rethought, rebooted, and remade.   Author and Star Trek expert Ryan Britt charts an approachable and entertaining course through Star Trek history; from its groundbreaking origins amid the tumultuous 1960s, to its influence on diversifying the space program, to its contemporary history-making turns with LGBTQ+ representation, this bo

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Book SynopsisA deluxe guide to Marvel Studios’ Thor: Love and Thunder including interviews, production art and photos that take readers behind the scenes of the most epic Thor adventure to date!A behind-the-scenes guide to Marvel Studios’ action-packed science fiction adventure movie, Thor: Love and Thunder. This deluxe fully illustrated hardcover edition includes: Chris Hemsworth (Thor) discussing his intense fitness regime to get into shape for his biggest adventure yet, collaborating with Taika Waititi, and the film’s unique romantic humor. Natalie Portman (Jane Foster/The Mighty Thor) on returning to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, being reunited with Chris Hemsworth after nine years, and the challenges of balancing darkness and comedy. Taika Waititi (Director and Co-Writer) revealing how he created his vision of the Thor movies, why Thor is such a tortured hero, and why he likes to twist the Super Hero genre. Plus interviews with the talented team behind the film’s stunning visual effects, costumes and makeup. Plus amazing production art and photography from the film. A must for all Marvel Studios fans.Trade Review“Avengers: Infinity War: The Official Movie Special is great for fans who want to read more about the film. This 96-page, full-color book makes for a great gift or coffee table book.” – Scifichick.com “Perfect for fans.” – Flickeringmyth.com “To any fan of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the 96-page hardback edition of Avengers: Endgame: The Official Movie Special is a must-own.” – GeeksofDoom.com

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Book SynopsisA special behind-the-scenes guide to the making of the all-new animated movie Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse. This deluxe book explores the all-new movie Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, the sequel to the Academy Award-winning Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.Go behind-the-scenes with the makers of the movie in this lavish volume that features amazing artwork and photography from the visually stunning new film.

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