1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910464149403321

Autore

Dixon Wheeler W. <1950->

Titolo

A history of horror [[electronic resource] /] / Wheeler Winston Dixon

Pubbl/distr/stampa

New Brunswick, N.J., : Rutgers University Press, c2010

ISBN

1-283-38326-8

9786613383266

0-8135-5039-4

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (262 p.)

Disciplina

791.43/616409

Soggetti

Horror films - History and criticism

Motion pictures - History

Electronic books.

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Description based upon print version of record.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references, filmography,  and index.

Nota di contenuto

Front matter -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- 1. Origins: 1896-1929 -- 2. Classics: 1930-1948 -- 3. Rebirth: 1949-1970 -- 4. New Blood: 1970-1990 -- 5. The Future: 1990-Present -- Top Horror Web Sites -- 50 Classic Horror Films -- Bibliography -- Index

Sommario/riassunto

Ever since horror leapt from popular fiction to the silver screen in the late 1890's, viewers have experienced fear and pleasure in exquisite combination. Wheeler Winston Dixon's A History of Horror is the only book to offer a comprehensive survey of this ever-popular film genre. Arranged by decades, with outliers and franchise films overlapping some years, this one-stop sourcebook unearths the historical origins of characters such as Dracula, Frankenstein, and the Wolfman and their various incarnations in film from the silent era to comedic sequels. A History of Horror explores how the horror film fits into the Hollywood studio system and how its enormous success in American and European culture expanded globally over time. Dixon examines key periods in the horror film-in which the basic precepts of the genre were established, then banished into conveniently reliable and malleable forms, and then, after collapsing into parody, rose again and again to create new levels of intensity and menace. A History of Horror, supported by rare stills from classic films, brings over fifty timeless



horror films into frightfully clear focus, zooms in on today's top horror Web sites, and champions the stars, directors, and subgenres that make the horror film so exciting and popular with contemporary audiences.