Elder Horror
Essays on Film's Frightening Images of Aging
Edited by Cynthia J. Miller and A. Bowdoin Van Riper
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As baby boomers gray, cinematic depictions of aging and the aged are on the rise. In the horror genre, fears of growing old take on fantastic proportions. Elderly characters are portrayed as either eccentric harbingers of doom—the crone who stops at nothing to restore her youth, the ancient ancestor who haunts the living—or as frail victims.
This collection of new essays explores how various filmic portrayals of aging, as an inescapable horror destined to overtake us all, reflect our complex attitudes toward growing old, along with its social, psychological and economic consequences.
About the authors:
Cynthia J. Miller, a cultural anthropologist focusing on popular culture and visual media, teaches in the Marlboro Institute for Liberal Arts at Emerson College in Boston. She is the editor or coeditor of twenty scholarly volumes, many exploring the horror genre.
A. Bowdoin Van Riper is an historian specializing in depictions of science and technology in popular culture. He is the reference librarian at the Martha’s Vineyard Museum, and is the author or editor of a wide range of volumes, ranging from science to science fiction to horror.
See the publisher website: McFarland & Co
> From the same authors:
Journeys into Terror (2023)
Essays from the Cinematic Intersection of Travel and Horror
Dir. Cynthia J. Miller and A. Bowdoin Van Riper
Horror Comes Home (2019)
Essays on Hauntings, Possessions and Other Domestic Terrors in Cinema
Dir. Cynthia J. Miller and A. Bowdoin Van Riper
Terrifying Texts (2018)
Essays on Books of Good and Evil in Horror Cinema
Dir. Cynthia J. Miller and A. Bowdoin Van Riper
Divine Horror (2017)
Essays on the Cinematic Battle Between the Sacred and the Diabolical
Dir. Cynthia J. Miller and A. Bowdoin Van Riper
Learning from Mickey, Donald and Walt (2011)
Essays on Disney's Edutainment Films
Dir. A. Bowdoin Van Riper
Subject: Others persons > Walt Disney
> On a related topic:
The Politics of Monstrous Figures in Contemporary Cinema (2025)
Witches, Zombies, and Cyborgs Re-enchanting the Ends of the World
The Cinematic Boogeyman (2024)
From the Fairytale to the Slasher Film
The Many Lives of Scary Clowns (2022)
Essays on Pennywise, Twisty, the Joker, Krusty and More
Dir. Ron Riekki
Phases of the Moon (2020)
A Cultural History of the Werewolf Film
Our Old Monsters (2015)
Witches, Werewolves and Vampires from Medieval Theology to Horror Cinema
Dracula in Visual Media (2010)
Film, Television, Comic Book and Electronic Game Appearances, 1921–2010