Taschen Books
Tower Books
2008 (Australia)
Horror Cinema from Taschen is one of the
more insightful overviews covering the horror genre in the contemporary market.
It is both aesthetically pleasing, packed with colour plates and full page
images, and intellectually stimulating offering insight into the various genres
of horror as well as covering the underlying psychological impulses which make
horror cinema so popular.
The authors are all well respected
including Paul Duncan who has edited some forty film books for Taschen, and
authored the well received Alfred Hitchcock and Stanley Kubrick volumes in the
Film Series. Jonathan Penner who has written for movies, television, magazines
and has worked extensively as an actor, screenwriter, and producer. His film credits include the cult classic The
Last Supper, the Hamlet-inspired Let the Devil Wear Black and the short film
for which he was Oscar-nominated, Down on the Waterfront and Steven Jay
Schneider who received his MA in Philosophy from Birkbeck College, University
of London, and is a Ph.D candidate in Cinema Studies at New York University. He
is the author or editor of numerous books on film. This combination of
different styles and authors who have a different view of cinema, from actors
to academics and general writers, produces a superb text which looks at horror
cinema from many different, and at times, unique perspectives.
The chapters in Horror Cinema reflect the
various themes within the genre: Slashers & Serial Killers; Cannibals,
Freaks & Hillbillys; Revenge of Nature & Environmental Horror; Sci-fi
Horror; The Living Dead; Ghosts & Haunted Houses; Possession, Demons &
Evil Tricksters; Voodoo, Cults & Satanists; Vampires & Werewolves; and
The Monstrous-Feminine. Many of these, however, are outside what we may first
consider the mainstream horror genre. For example, serial killers cross over
into crime cinema (and are also found in other genres such as detective cinema
even Film Noir), yet here we come to appreciate how their unique
characteristics fit within the horror genre. We also come to appreciate how the
serial killer and by default the slasher genre, works in psychological and
cinematic terms. As the viewer we identify with both the victim and the
perpetrator. As the victim, we are pleased we are not the victim (thank god it
is my neighbour and not me !). While on a darker and more primal level, we
admire the skill even madness of the killer, though we would never admit it,
especially to ourselves.
Horror Cinema explores the archetypal
images which make up the horror genre and offers some very intriguing insights.
For example, in the Revenge of Nature & Environmental Horror we come to
appreciate the various forms nature takes in horror cinema from the pure
revenge of nature, to nature as a motif for man's sexual nature (Hitchock's
Birds). From the clash of the primitive and modern (King Kong) to mad
scientists and the fear of modifying nature ranging from Godzilla to the Island
of Dr.Moreau.
This superbly presented book covers horror
as a worldwide phenomenon and shows an excellent understanding of the
development of horror outside the mainstream (including references to key
Australian ozploitation horror titles) as well within world cinema.
The sheer number of films discussed is
impressive, including in depth coverage of such classics as Psycho, Texas
Chainsaw Massacre, Alien, The Exorcist, Dracula, and The Wicker Man.
This review will appear in Volume 2:1
(2009) of the digital and print edition of Synergy Magazine.
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