Description
Book SynopsisTrade Review"Sharply written, fiercely intelligent."—
Flick Attack"Syfy Channel, horror film aficionados, and film students will no doubt be enthralled by this volume. The book challenges all readers to consider ecological messages, no matter what the mode of presentation."—Patricia Ann Owens,
Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society“From cannibals to cockroaches, Robin L. Murray and Joseph K. Heumann fill a major gap in the field with this wide-ranging treatment of horror in ecocinema. Scholarship of this kind contributes tremendously to the expansion of ecocriticism from the study of ‘literature’ per se to the understanding of how environmental themes, such as anthropomorphism and gendered landscapes, occur in visual culture.”—Scott Slovic, coeditor of
Numbers and Nerves: Information, Emotion, and Meaning in a World of Data “Compelling. . . . Clear and meticulous. Another tremendous contribution to the field of ecocinema studies.”—Stephen Rust, coeditor of
Ecocinema Theory and Practice“[Readers] will find in this new book solid scholarship, broad research in the cinematic references necessary to approach the topics, and insightful analysis and juxtaposition of films . . . all contributing to our understanding of how ‘horror’ is among us now in the very real prospects of violent and sudden climate change.”—Charles J. Stivale, editor of
Gilles Deleuze: Key Concepts Table of ContentsList of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Introduction: Film, Environment, Horror
Part 1: Anthropomorphism and the “Big Bug” Movie
1. The Hellstrom Chronicle and Beetle Queen Conquers Tokyo: Anthropomorphizing Nature for Humans
2. “As Beautiful as a Butterfly”? Monstrous Cockroach Nature and the Horror Film
Part 2: Human Ecology and the Horror Film
3. The Earth Bites Back: Vampires and the Ecological Roots of Home
4. Through an Eco-lens of Childhood: Roberto Rossellini’s Germany Year Zero and Guillermo del Toro’s The Devil’s Backbone
Part 3: Evolution and Monstrous Nature
5. Zombie Evolution: A New World with or without Humans
6. Laughter and the Eco-horror Film: The Troma Solution
7. Parasite Evolution in the Eco-horror Film: When the Host Becomes the Monster
Part 4: Gendered Landscapes and Monstrous Bodies
8. Gendering the Cannibal: Bodies and Landscapes in Feminist Cannibal Movies
9. American Mary and Body Modification: Nature and the Art of Change
Conclusion: Monstrous Nature and the New Cli-Fi Cinema
Filmography
Notes
Works Cited
Index
