Where got ghost movie?: The boundaries of Singapore horror

Asian Cinema ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 55-76 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adam Knee
Keyword(s):  
Major Part ◽  
Critical Evaluation ◽  
Southeast Asian ◽  
Horror Films ◽  
Horror Film ◽  
New Wave ◽  
Small Industry ◽  
Supernatural Beliefs

While acknowledging that the horror film is generally not considered a major part of the ‘Singapore new wave’, this article makes the case that Singapore horror films nevertheless merit closer critical evaluation not only because of their sustained output in a very small industry, but also because of their articulation of a range of issues germane to Singapore nationhood and identity ‐ issues which obtain in other Singapore films as well. The discussion surveys the entirety of the Singapore horror output from the 1990s onwards and draws out a number of key distinctive themes and trends, such as the referencing of Chinese supernatural beliefs and regional Southeast Asian spirits, and also the distinctive preponderance of horror narratives involving military or police. The films are then read in relation to broad tropes of gender, geography and regulation.

Cross-border Implications: Transnational Haunting, Gender and the Persistent Look of The Eye

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Enrique Ajuria Ibarra
Keyword(s):  
Southeast Asian ◽  
Horror Films ◽  
Film Production ◽  
Visual Preference ◽  
Female Protagonists ◽  
Cross Border ◽  
Film Series ◽  
Eastern Traditions

The Eye (Gin Gwai, 2002) and its two sequels (2004, 2005) deal with pan-Asian film production, gender, and identity. The films seem to embrace a transnational outlook that that fits a shared Southeast Asian cinematic and cultural agenda. Instead, they disclose tensions about Hong Kong’s identity, its relationship with other countries in the region, and its mixture of Western and Eastern traditions (Knee, 2009). As horror films, The Eye series feature transpositional hauntings framed by a visual preference for understanding reality and the supernatural that is complicated by the ghostly perceptions of their female protagonists. Thus, the issues explored in this film series rely on a haunting that presents textual manifestations of transposition, imposition, and alienation that further evidence its complicated pan-Asian look. This chapter examines the films’ privilege of vision as catalyst of a transnational, Asian Gothic horror aesthetic that addresses concepts of identity, gender, and subjectivity.

Don't Look Now

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jessica Gildersleeve
Keyword(s):  
Horror Films ◽  
Literary Texts ◽  
Horror Film ◽  
Ghost Story ◽  
Modern Family ◽  
Literature And Film ◽  
Different Order

Nicolas Roeg's Don't Look Now (1973) has been called “a ghost story for adults.” Certainly, in contrast to the more explicitly violent and bloodthirsty horror films of the 1970s, Don't Look Now seems of an entirely different order. Yet this supernaturally inflected tale of a child's accidental drowning, and her parents' desperate simultaneous recoil from her death and pursuit of her ghost, Don't Look Now is horrific at every turn. This book argues for it as a particular kind of horror film, one which depends utterly on the narrative of trauma—on the horror of unknowing, of seeing too late, and of the failures of paternal authority and responsibility. The book positions Don't Look Now within a discourse of midcentury anxiety narratives primarily existing in literary texts. In this context, it represents a crossover or a hinge between literature and film of the 1970s, and the ways in which the women's ghost story or uncanny story turns the horror film into a cultural commentary on the failures of the modern family.

British film production and the horror genre

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Johnny Walker
Keyword(s):  
Horror Films ◽  
Horror Film ◽  
Film Production ◽  
Home Video ◽  
Horror Genre ◽  
British Cinema ◽  
Distinctive Aspect ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Audience Demographics ◽  
New Millennium

Chapter 2 contemplates why British horror was revived at the dawning of the new millennium, and also considers some of the reasons why British horror films produced in the 2000s and 2010s can be viewed as constituting a distinctive aspect of contemporary British cinema. I discuss the establishment of the UK Film Council (UKFC) in 2000 and contextualise the contemporary British horror film in the international film marketplace, drawing parallels between British horror and British film production more broadly, British horror and international horror production, and the audience demographics targeted by distributers and film production companies. This involves examining British horror’s shift from a theatrical genre to one associated primarily with the home video and online market.

Transnational Productions and Regional Funding: Border-crossing, European Locations and the Case of Contemporary Horror

2018 ◽  
pp. 215-232
Author(s):  
Stefano Baschiera
Keyword(s):  
Global Dimension ◽  
Border Crossing ◽  
Horror Films ◽  
New Wave ◽  
New Development ◽  
International Audience ◽  
Post Industrial ◽  
International Success ◽  
New Millennium

This chapter investigates transnational co-productions, regional funding, film commissions and European locations in the new wave of European horror cinema of the new millennium. Since the international success of Hostel (2005) European locations have once again become appealing settings for Horror films, contributing to a new flourishing of the genre in Europe. In particular, we have witnessed a new development of the so-called 'road horror movie', a sub-genre traditionally characterized by border crossing, touristic activities and exotic locations. Film such as Frontier(s)(2006), Calvaire (The Ordeal, 2004), Manhunt (Rovdyr 2008), Ils (Them 2006) and The Pack (Le Meute, 2007) show traveling as a crucial theme. This chapter will engage, first of all, with the production features of these films, focusing on the involvement of regional film commissions and European co-production agreements, in order to investigate the local/global dimension of these productions, generally aimed at an international audience. Secondly, it will analyse the use of locations and how it mirrors European film policies as well as the idea of "Europe" and a “post-industrial” identity.

Cannibalising Tradition: Romero’s Zombies and a Blood Feast

2018 ◽  
pp. 110-123
Author(s):  
Calum Waddell
Keyword(s):  
Horror Film ◽  
New Wave ◽  
Living Dead

For this chapter, ‘Blood Feast’ and George Romero’s ‘Night of the Living Dead’ are discussed as the genesis of the new wave of American horror cinema. Whilst the two are very different films, in terms of certain stylistic attributes, for instance their use of the close-up, they have more in common than previous studies have alluded. Five key tropes of the exploitation-horror film are also introduced and discussed.

The Cultural Politics of Remaking Spanish Horror Films in the Twenty-first Century: Quarantine and Come Out and Play

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andy Willis
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Politics ◽  
21St Century ◽  
North American ◽  
Horror Films ◽  
First Century ◽  
Horror Film ◽  
Film Production ◽  
The North ◽  
The Us ◽  
Transnational Film

The 21st century revival in Spanish horror film production has seen both a resurgence of interest in the genre’s Iberian past and an interest in transnational film remakes for North American audiences. This chapter will consider the cultural politics of remaking Spanish horror through two case studies - Quarantine (2008), the US remake of [REC] (2007), and Come Out and Play (2012), the Mexican remake of Who Can Kill a Child? (1976). The chapter argues that Who Can Kill a Child? might profitably be read as an engagement with the legacy of Francoist Spain, and that [REC] could be productively understood in relation to Spain’s recent tensions surrounding immigration. Through a discussion of the potential political readings of these films, the chapter argues that the North American remakes are divested of the most urgent political aspects of their Spanish counterparts in an endeavour to create globally marketable horror films.

Halloween: How It Came into the World

Halloween ◽  
2015 ◽  
pp. 25-36
Author(s):  
Murray Leeder ◽  
Murray Leeder
Keyword(s):  
Horror Film ◽  
New Wave ◽  
Independent Film ◽  
Large Role ◽  
Academic Interest ◽  
Independent Cinema ◽  
New Hollywood ◽  
Initial Release ◽  
The World ◽  
Film Producer

This chapter discusses how Halloween (1978) was developed and created. John Carpenter's name appears above the title on Halloween, but the project existed before he came on board. Independent film producer Irwin Yablans rightly claims the mantle of ‘The Man Who Created Halloween’, the title of his 2012 autobiography. The project reached Carpenter with the tentative title The Babysitter Murders before it became Halloween shortly thereafter; but Carpenter is still quick to credit Yablans for conceiving the title and the concept. Yablans' marketing and distribution ingenuity played a large role in securing Halloween's success but it went far beyond anyone's expectations, reportedly making back its original budget sixty-fold in its initial release alone. It seems apparent that Halloween was uniquely positioned to benefit from overlapping currents in the New Hollywood, the American independent cinema, ‘youth cinema’, and the horror film. Halloween was also well positioned to benefit from a new wave of academic interest in the horror film.

Characters, Conventions and ‘The Rules’: Creating Scream’s Thieving, Whoring Ensemble

Scream ◽  
2019 ◽  
pp. 55-90
Author(s):  
Steven West
Keyword(s):  
Major Part ◽  
Horror Films ◽  
Slasher Film

This chapter reviews the scene from Wes Craven's Scream that establishes the heroine, Sidney, and her unconsummated relationship with boyfriend Billy Loomis. It recounts the traumatic backstory of the murder of Sidney's mother and her inability to sacrifice her virginity that reflect the film's reverential tone and provide the first hint of Billy's psychotic detachment from reality. It also talks about the immediate positioning of Sidney as a sensitive virgin with a tragic backstory that conveys to the audience that she will be the 'final girl' or heroine. The chapter discusses how Scream is about knowledge of the movies, in which the characters have seen so many horror films that they know what to do and what not to do. It points out how casting and characterisation played a major part in Scream's marketing and success in a way that performers and characters of a typical 1980s slasher film did not.

Polanski and Horror: Rosemary’s Baby

Macbeth ◽  
2017 ◽  
pp. 15-26
Author(s):  
Rebekah Owens
Keyword(s):  
Horror Films ◽  
Horror Film ◽  
Horror Genre

This chapter considers Roman Polanski's approach to the genre and horror output before the film Macbeth. It discusses Polanski's 1965 work Repulsion, that centres around Carol Ledoux and her disintegrating sanity, which is expressed from her subjective viewpoint. It also mentions how Repulsion showed Polanski as a master of the craft of psychological horror. The chapter looks at the Gothic aspects of the horror genre that is recorded in Polanski's autobiography, where he wrote of his experiences watching horror films in Paris. It details how Polanski decided to make a horror film that was designed to make people laugh, rather than the unintentional merriment that Hammer horror had provoked.

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