Description

Over the course of the past two decades, horror cinema around the globe has become increasingly preoccupied with the concept of loss. Grief in Contemporary Horror Cinema: Screening Loss examines the theme of grief as it is represented in both indie and mainstream films, including works such as Jennifer Kent's watershed film The Babadook, Juan Antonio Bayona's award-sweeping El orfanato, Ari Aster's genre-straddling Midsommar, and Lars von Trier's visually stunning Melancholia. Analyzing depictions of grief ranging from the intimate grief of a small family to the collective grief of an entire nation, the essays illustrate how these works serve to provide unity, catharsis, and—sometimes—healing.

Table of Contents

Part I: Loss and the Child: Grief and Endangered Youth

Chapter 1. Horror at the Crossroads: Mapping the Child's Grief in Pan's Labyrinth (2006)
Lindsey Scott
Chapter 2. “We Can Survive This”: An Examination of Loss and Grief in Juan Antonio Bayona's El orfanato (The Orphanage) (2007)
Erica Joan Dymond
Chapter 3. Elevating Grief: Ari Aster's Hereditary (2018) and the A24 Horror Film
Andrew Grossman and Todd K. Platts

Part II: Loss and Gender: Grief and Motherhood/Womanhood

Chapter 4. To Make You Feel My Love: Jennifer Kent's The Babadook (2014), Motherhood, and Loss
Rebecca L. Willoughby
Chapter 5. The Myth of the Natural Woman: Horror and Grief in Ari Aster's Midsommar (2019)
Aspen Taylor Ballas

Part III: Loss and National Identity: Grief and History

Chapter 6. O Father, Where Art Thou?: Grief and Cannibal Culture in Jorge Michel Grau's Somos lo que hay (We Are What We Are) (2010)
Megan DeVirgilis
Chapter 7. Sadness is Rebellion: The Ontopolitics of Queer Loss in Mladen Ðordevic's Ž

Product details

Published 03 Oct 2022
Format Hardback
Edition 1st
Extent 230
ISBN 9781793633934
Imprint Lexington Books
Illustrations 10 b/w illustrations;
Dimensions 239 x 159 mm
Series Research in Horror Studies
Publisher Bloomsbury Publishing

About the contributors

ONLINE RESOURCES

Bloomsbury Collections

This book is available on Bloomsbury Collections where your library has access.

Related Titles

Get 30% off in the May sale - for one week only

Environment: Staging