The Terror of the Text: Essays on Books of Good and Evil in Horror Cinema - Softcover

Cynthia J. Miller (editor) & A. Bowdoin Van Riper (editor)

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1476671303 ISBN 13: 9781476671307

Publisher: McFarland, 2018

Synopsis

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 this title

About the Authors

Cynthia J. Miller, a cultural anthropologist focussing on popular culture and visual media, teaches in the Institute for Liberal Arts at Emerson College in Boston. She is the editor or coeditor of more than a dozen 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.

From the Back Cover

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).

Edition details

• Publisher: McFarland
• Publication date: 2018
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1476671303
• ISBN 13: 9781476671307
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 171