Description
Book SynopsisMonster Cinema introduces readers to a vast menagerie of movie monsters, from gigantic beasts to microscopic parasites, from grotesque demons to normal-looking serial killers. Film expert Barry Keith Grant considers what each type of movie monster might reveal about how we regard the natural, the supernatural, and the human.
Trade Review"This is far more than a very handy guidebook to monsters in the movies. Barry Keith Grant’s prose is lucid, and informed by a keen intelligence and exhaustive scholarship demonstrating his mastery of the genre. This is a great read!" -- Christopher Sharrett * author of The Rifleman *
"Barry Keith Grant’s
Monster Cinema is an 'unnaturally' fine book, providing readers with a concise, engaging, and perceptive historical and ideological overview that attests to the enduring power of this genre." -- Lester D. Friedman * coauthor of Monstrous Progeny: A History of the Frankenstein Narratives *
"Barry Keith Grant is an ideal guide in this wide-ranging survey of monsters in the movies. He leaps across genres, periods, and critical traditions with authority and verve." -- Adam Lowenstein * author of Shocking Representation: Historical Trauma, National Cinema, and the Modern Horror Film *
"The book is highly recommended, because, as Grant himself notes, our survival depends on understanding monsters—in other words, on understanding ourselves."
* Science Fiction Reviews *
Table of ContentsContents
1 Meeting Movie Monsters: Monsters R Us
2 Human Monsters
3 Natural Monsters
4 Supernatural Monsters
Acknowledgments
Further Reading
Works Cited
Index
