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Text Matters ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 157-177
Author(s):  
Magdalena Cieślak

Since their first screen appearances in the 1930s, zombies have enjoyed immense cinematic popularity. Defined by Romero’s 1968 Night of the Living Dead as mindless, violent, decaying and infectious, they successfully function as ultimate fiends in horror films. Yet, even those morbid undead started evolving into more appealing, individualized and even sympathetic characters, especially when the comic potential of zombies is explored. To allow a zombie to become a romantic protagonist, however, one that can love and be loved by a human, another evolutionary step had to be taken, one fostered by a literary association. This paper analyzes Jonathan Levine’s Warm Bodies, a 2013 film adaptation of Isaac Marion’s zombie novel inspired by William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. It examines how Shakespeare’s Romeo helps transform the already evolved cinematic zombie into a romantic protagonist, and how Shakespearean love tragedy, with its rich visual cinematic legacy, can successfully locate a zombie narrative in the romantic comedy convention. Presenting the case of Shakespeare intersecting the zombie horror tradition, this paper illustrates the synergic exchanges of literary icons and the cinematic monstrous.


2021 ◽  
pp. 113-122
Author(s):  
Cecilia Sayad

The book concludes with a discussion on the making of an Internet legend, Slender Man, as a step further in embedding everyday life with supernatural entities. Originated in a contest proposed by the Something Awful website, which made a call for users to post images of phenomena that could pass for paranormal, this figure, which appears in the background of photographs showing children and teenagers, generated a series of horror stories (in the form of creepypasta), web series (Marble Hornets and totheark), horror films, and games. Slender Man has also been pointed to as the motive behind real acts of self-harm and stabbings. The multiple recycling of this monster (which some believe to be real) across a variety of media invites questions about the strange mix of unquestioning belief and exaggerated skepticism that characterizes our approach to information circulated on the Internet and in social media.


2021 ◽  
pp. 41-62
Author(s):  
Cecilia Sayad

In the 1970s two alleged hauntings received wide coverage in the media. The first was in Amityville, Long Island (New York), and the second in Enfield, a London neighborhood. These cases were narrated in best-selling books, turned into horror films (and, in the case of Enfield, also a TV mini-series), and became the subject of countless documentaries trying to find the truth behind the claims made by the victims. This chapter examines the ways in which these serialized documentaries seek to either confirm or debunk the presence of the supernatural in these cases. Seeing them as an example of the non-indexical documentary, but also of horror, the chapter considers how serialization and repetition compensate for the absence of visible evidence, making these endlessly repeated stories feel at once real and artificial.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-18
Author(s):  
Cecilia Sayad

The book’s introduction revisits questions around the ontology of photographic and filmic images in order to lay out the role of technology in making supernatural entities become part of everyday life. An examination of theories about the transition from analog to digital image capture considers the potential of photography, film, and video to expand our senses, enhance our perception of the physical world, and work as evidence. The indexical link between the object placed before the camera and its image extends to a discussion about the spatial relationship between the contents of the framed image and the surrounding physical world, which informs discussions about framing techniques in found-footage horror films and participative spectatorship in experiential cinema and video games.


2021 ◽  
pp. 87-112
Author(s):  
Cecilia Sayad

This chapter discusses the ways in which horror stories and creatures invade the space of spectators and players in gimmick horror screenings, experiential cinema, and video games—including those using augmented and virtual reality technologies. It considers films and games that engage the space of viewing and playing—the augmented auditorium, which augments the experience of the horror tales by inviting active participation and providing a sensorial experience beyond seeing and hearing (involving drafts, smells, motion). Case studies include William Castle’s gimmick horror films of the 1950s and ’60s, contemporary Secret Cinema screenings, and a variety of survival horror games.


2021 ◽  
pp. 63-86
Author(s):  
Cecilia Sayad

This chapter finds in the found-footage horror cycle an alternative way of understanding the relationship between horror films and reality, which is usually discussed in terms of allegory. It investigates theories about framing, considered both figuratively (framing the film as documentary) and stylistically (the framing in handheld cameras and in static long takes), as a device that playfully destabilizes the separation between the film and the surrounding world. The chapter explores the idea that documenting an event has the potential to contain it, which is relevant to both horror and documentary studies. A variety of found-footage horror films is considered, including the Paranormal Activity franchise, The Blair Witch Project, Cloverfield, and [•REC].


Author(s):  
Nick Redfern

Abstract This article presents a new data set comprising audio, colour, motion, and shot length data of trailers for the fifty highest grossing horror films at the US box office from 2011 to 2015. This data set is one of the few available for computational film analysis that includes data on multiple elements of film style and is the only existing data set for motion picture trailers suitable for formal analyses. Data is stored in csv files available under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license on Zenodo: www.doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4479068.


Asian Cinema ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 32 (2) ◽  
pp. 187-202 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benson Pang

This article considers how two Singapore horror films, Medium Rare (1991) and God or Dog (1997), attempted to make sense of the real-life Adrian Lim ritual murders through two divergent approaches to the co-constitutive relationship between modernity and violence. First, by formulating an image of Singapore as a rational global cosmopolis, Medium Rare positions Lim and his superstitious violence as malignant anomalies that must be expelled to protect Singapore’s modern identity. Conversely, God or Dog portrays Lim’s madness as an unfortunate consequence of the country’s rapid modernization. Put together, these films use Lim and his crimes as vehicles through which they explore Singapore’s troubled endeavours at self-definition within the early fringe of the 1990s Singapore new wave cinema.


2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 108-115
Author(s):  
Selvy Maria Widuhung

Vlogs or video blogs are becoming a trend in today's society, various types of shows can be easily watched on the Youtube channel. However, what is most interesting is the proliferation of horror content that has won a place in the hearts of Indonesians, along with the increasing production of horror films. One of the horror-themed vlogs with the most subscribers is Jurnalrisa which introduces the life of astral beings through a mediation mechanism. Uniquely, this show not only gives the audience a sensation of fear, but also educates them through the insights gained in interacting with supernatural beings, such as how powerful a prayer is, what happens in the next world when someone dies of suicide and many more. This study uses mass communication theory, which is seen from the cognitive, affective and conative or behavioral aspects to show positive effect on followers or customers after watching Jurnalrisa videos in their real life. Among them is the increased belief and understanding of a better life, realizing that we do live side by side with supernatural beings, and being more careful in living life in order to achieve happiness in the world and in the hereafter.


2021 ◽  
Vol 46 (3) ◽  
pp. 285-307
Author(s):  
Mary Harrod

This article examines Canal+’s contribution to the recent or contemporary consolidation of three genres traditionally excluded from the French filmmaking landscape: romantic comedies, horror films, and teen movies. The many films from these emergent French genres funded and in frequent cases also more indirectly supported by Canal+ speak to the organization’s status as a transnational, transmedia production entity. Moreover, analyzing the new French genre trends in whose burgeoning the company has been instrumental suggests the difficulties of unpicking geo-cultural allegiances and influences in an ever more multidirectional, multiplatform, cross-hybridizing mediasphere. This article considers the case study films Alibi.com (2017) and Grave (2016) to illustrate the fact that, like the European audiovisual mainstream as a whole, French genre films are bound up in an increasingly transnational and complex intertextual web - a state of affairs promoted by multinational conglomerates such as Canal+. It nonetheless suggests that such French iterations of US-originated genres appropriate and transform rather than merely citing, echoing, or emulating existing models. What is more, drawing on theorizations of aesthetics and affect suggests that these processes can foster new identities.


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