Terrifying Texts

Essays on Books of Good and Evil in Horror Cinema

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Edited by Cynthia J. Miller and A. Bowdoin Van Riper

Type: Essays
Subject: Genre > Horror
Keywords: horror
Publishing date: 2018
Publisher: McFarland & Co
Language: English

Relative size

Physical desc.

Paperback • 268 pages
7 x 10 inches (18 x 25.5 cm)

ISBN

978-1-4766-7130-7

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Book Presentation:
From Faust (1926) to The Babadook (2014), books have been featured in horror films as warnings, gateways, prisons and manifestations of the monstrous. Ancient grimoires such as the Necronomicon serve as timeless vessels of knowledge beyond human comprehension, while runes, summoning diaries, and spell books offer their readers access to the powers of the supernatural—but at what cost?  This collection of new essays examines nearly a century of genre horror in which on-screen texts drive and shape their narratives, sometimes unnoticed. The contributors explore American films like The Evil Dead (1981), The Prophecy (1995) and It Follows (2014), as well as such international films as Eric Valette’s Malefique (2002), Paco Cabeza’s The Appeared (2007) and Lucio Fulci’s The Beyond (1981).

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 a 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.

Press Reviews:
"When I came across this title, I was immediately intrigued by it because, strangely enough, I didn’t know of anybody else who had tackled this subject matter before. In fact, the more I read through it, I was amazed at the fact that because there are more movies that deal with this subject than I had thought. It’s one of those that has you reading and they mention another movie, you immediately think, ‘Oh yeah…I forgot about that one!’ Needless to say, I really enjoyed this one! As a book person myself, this had me right from the opening Introduction…. It has been a long time that I found a book so interesting in what it was covering. This volume will definitely have you thinking about certain movies a little more."—Kitley’s Krypt

See the publisher website: McFarland & Co

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