Description

Book Synopsis

Scream reputedly transformed the slasher subgenre in 1996, heralding a new subgeneric form: the postmodern slasher. It has been widely assumed that postmodern slasher films are distinguished from preceding phases because they employ intertextuality, metafictional self-reflexivity, pastiche, and deconstruction.


The Postmodern Slasher Film challenges those assumptions. I evince that these traits were present in the slasher subgenre?s 1980s boom-period. I then demonstrate that these films are more pertinently distinguished by their tone, which is characterised by self-consciousness, duplicity, cynicism, fatalism.


Thus, this book argues that the postmodern slasher is a distinctive phase in the subgenre?s development, but for reasons that have been overlooked to-date. I will conclude by making a case for the continued pertinence of this phase by considering the legacies of the postmodern slasher?s distinctive tonal intervention in the subgenre.

The Postmodern Slasher Film

    Product form

    £81.00

    Includes FREE delivery

    RRP £90.00 – you save £9.00 (10%)

    Order before 4pm tomorrow for delivery by Thu 6 Aug 2026.

    A Hardback by Steve Jones

    1 in stock

      Trusted by thousands of customers. See 2,385+ Customer Reviews

      View other formats and editions of The Postmodern Slasher Film by Steve Jones

      Publisher: Edinburgh University Press
      Publication Date: Publication Date: 11/7/2025
      ISBN13: 9781399537094, 978-1399537094
      ISBN10: 1399537091
      Also in:
      Film history, theory or criticism

      Description

      Book Synopsis

      Scream reputedly transformed the slasher subgenre in 1996, heralding a new subgeneric form: the postmodern slasher. It has been widely assumed that postmodern slasher films are distinguished from preceding phases because they employ intertextuality, metafictional self-reflexivity, pastiche, and deconstruction.


      The Postmodern Slasher Film challenges those assumptions. I evince that these traits were present in the slasher subgenre?s 1980s boom-period. I then demonstrate that these films are more pertinently distinguished by their tone, which is characterised by self-consciousness, duplicity, cynicism, fatalism.


      Thus, this book argues that the postmodern slasher is a distinctive phase in the subgenre?s development, but for reasons that have been overlooked to-date. I will conclude by making a case for the continued pertinence of this phase by considering the legacies of the postmodern slasher?s distinctive tonal intervention in the subgenre.

      Recently viewed products

      © 2026 Book Curl

        • American Express
        • Apple Pay
        • Diners Club
        • Discover
        • Google Pay
        • Maestro
        • Mastercard
        • PayPal
        • Shop Pay
        • Union Pay
        • Visa

        Login

        Forgot your password?

        Don't have an account yet?
        Create account