Postmodern horror
Postmodern horror is a horror film related to the art and philosophy of postmodernism. Examples of this type of film include George A. Romero's Night of the Living Dead , Tobe Hooper's The Texas Chain Saw Massacre , John Carpenter's slasher film Halloween , and Wes Craven's Scream .
Background
[edit ]Postmodern horror, which emerged in the 1960s, is defined by several key characteristics. These include the disruption of everyday life through violence, the crossing and violation of boundaries, and a critique of rationality as a reliable framework. It also rejects traditional narrative closure, instead offering open-ended or unresolved storytelling. Additionally, it creates a confined experience of fear for the audience, fostering a sense of immersion.[1]
Examples of this include the famous "rules of surviving a horror movie" speech from Wes Craven's 1996 slasher film Scream and the self-aware characters (including the main protagonist) slowly realizing they're living the plot of one in the 1990 precursor There's Nothing Out There.[2] [3] [4] [5] [6]
Notable postmodern horror films
[edit ]- Psycho (1960)[1]
- Spider Baby (1967)[7]
- Night of the Living Dead (1968)[8] [1] [9] [10]
- Targets (1968)[1]
- The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974)[1] [10]
- House (1977)[11]
- Halloween (1978)[1]
- Dawn of the Dead (1978)[12]
- Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978)[13]
- The Brood (1979)[1]
- The Shining (1980)[14]
- The Evil Dead (1981)[15]
- The Howling (1981)[16] [1]
- The Entity (1982)[1]
- The Thing (1982)[1]
- Videodrome (1983)[1]
- The Toxic Avenger (1984)[17]
- A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)[1] [10]
- Re-Animator (1985)[1]
- Fright Night (1985)[18]
- Chopping Mall (1986)[1]
- Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer (1986)[1]
- Evil Dead II (1987)[19] [15]
- Beetlejuice (1988)[20]
- Lady in White (1988)[1]
- Gremlins 2: The New Batch (1990)[21] [22]
- Candyman (1992)[9]
- The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)[23]
- Wes Craven's New Nightmare (1994)[18] [24]
- From Dusk till Dawn (1996)[25]
- Scream (1996)[26] [27] [28] [29] [18] [25]
- I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997)[30]
- Bride of Chucky (1998)[31]
- The Blair Witch Project (1999)[25]
- American Psycho (2000)[25]
- Final Destination (2000)[25]
- Scary Movie (2000)[30]
- Party Monster (2003)[32]
- Shaun of the Dead (2004)[25]
- Drag Me to Hell (2009)[25]
- The Cabin in the Woods (2012)[18] [25]
- ParaNorman (2012)[33]
- Hotel Transylvania (2012)[34]
- The Final Girls (2015)[35]
- Get Out (2017)[36]
- Us (2019)[37]
- Midsommar (2019)[38]
- Last Night in Soho (2021)[39]
- Nope (2022)[40]
See also
[edit ]References
[edit ]- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Prince, Stephen (February 2, 2004). The Horror Film. Rutgers University Press. ISBN 9780813533636 . Retrieved February 2, 2023 – via Google Books.
- ^ RIP Wes Craven, Dead at 76. Here Are 3 Time He Perfected Postmodern Horror|Fast Company
- ^ A Scary Hollywood Rip-Off - The Atlantic
- ^ Short of the Week
- ^ Watch: Charlie Lyne’s Copycat, A Short Film About the Proto-Scream|Filmmaker Magazine
- ^ The Obscure 1990 Horror Movie That May Have Inspired Wes Craven's Scream|Mental Floss
- ^ "Spider Baby, or the Maddest Story Ever Told (1967)". January 15, 2018. Retrieved February 2, 2023.
- ^ ""The Walking Dead" Recalls a 60s Horror Classic". November 22, 2010. Retrieved February 2, 2023 – via www.reuters.com.
- ^ a b Kee, J. (February 2, 2015). "Black Masculinities and Postmodern Horror: Race, Gender, and Abjection". Visual Culture & Gender. 10: 47–56. S2CID 194218977.
- ^ a b c Recreational Terror - Google Books
- ^ "Heart of Weirdness: The Story Behind HAUSU". Austin Film Society. October 22, 2018. Retrieved February 2, 2023.
- ^ "Filmmuseum - Program SD". www.filmmuseum.at.
- ^ Cusson, Katie (April 11, 2022). "Every Invasion of the Body Snatchers Movie and How Each is an Allegory For Their Time". MovieWeb. Retrieved February 2, 2023.
- ^ Anastasova, Maria (October 12, 2018). The Suspense of Horror and the Horror of Suspense. Cambridge Scholars Publishing. ISBN 9781527519046 . Retrieved February 2, 2023 – via Google Books.
- ^ a b The Monstrous-feminine - Google Books (pg.73)
- ^ Staff, Slant (October 28, 2022). "The 100 Best Horror Movies of All Time". Slant Magazine . Retrieved February 2, 2023.
- ^ "What Will The Citizens Of New Jersey Mutate Into?". Gizmodo. May 9, 2010. Retrieved February 2, 2023.
- ^ a b c d "The Most Important Postmodern Horror Movies". uk.yahoo.com. June 20, 2015. Retrieved February 2, 2023.
- ^ Arnzen, Michael A. (February 2, 1994). "Who's Laughing now? The Postmodern Splatter Film". Journal of Popular Film and Television. 21 (4): 176–184. doi:10.1080/01956051.1994.9943985 . Retrieved February 2, 2023 – via www.academia.edu.
- ^ "30 years later and Beetlejuice is still the ghost with the most". March 30, 2018. Retrieved February 2, 2023.
- ^ New on DVD and Blu-ray|The Week
- ^ Gremlins 2: The New Batch (1990) Movie Review from Eye for Film
- ^ 'The Nightmare Before Christmas' (PG) - The Washington Post
- ^ Trinos, Angelo Delos (June 24, 2022). "10 Times Horror Movies Broke Their Own Rules". CBR. Retrieved February 2, 2023.
- ^ a b c d e f g h "10 Savvy Postmodern Horror Films That Helped Reinvent The Genre | Decider". October 24, 2015. Retrieved February 2, 2023.
- ^ "Horror in fancy clothes: the 1990s cycle of prestige monster movies". BFI. December 14, 2022. Retrieved February 2, 2023.
- ^ "The top 10 greatest horror films of the 1980s". faroutmagazine.co.uk. October 14, 2021. Retrieved February 2, 2023.
- ^ "Scream and Scream Again: The Postmodern Musings of "Scream"". MUBI. February 2022. Retrieved February 2, 2023.
- ^ Hollman, Raquel (August 30, 2022). "Wes Craven's 'Last House on the Left' Is Not Just About Depravity and Violence". Collider. Retrieved February 2, 2023.
- ^ a b Black, A. J. (July 7, 2020). "SCARY MOVIE: a post-modern horror spoof without any post-modern wit (2000 in Film #26)". We Made This. Retrieved February 2, 2023.
- ^ Staff, The Playlist (April 15, 2011). "The Playlist's Guide To Horror Sequels Worth Screaming About" . Retrieved February 2, 2023.
- ^ Russell, Saralyn (June 10, 2014). "Queerly Monstrous: Reading Party Monster as a Postmodern Horror Film". Kino: The Western Undergraduate Film Studies Journal. 5 (1). Retrieved February 2, 2023 – via ojs.lib.uwo.ca.
- ^ "'ParaNorman' Is a Hilarious, Heartfelt Horror Homage, PopMatters". August 13, 2012. Retrieved February 2, 2023.
- ^ Thill, Scott. "Exclusive Video: Crafting Hotel Transylvania's CGI Monster Party". Wired. Retrieved February 2, 2023 – via www.wired.com.
- ^ Smith, Nathan (August 5, 2022). "Summer-Camp Horror Movies to Stream From Your Bunk". Vulture. Retrieved February 2, 2023.
- ^ "'Get Out' Is The Type Of Movie The Oscars Should Pay Attention To". HuffPost. March 5, 2017. Retrieved February 2, 2023.
- ^ "Jordan Peele's 'Us' Postmodernism and Free-Floating Racism". March 29, 2019. Retrieved February 2, 2023.
- ^ Wolfe, Monica (October 2, 2021). "Mapping Imperialist Movement in Postmodern Horror Film Midsommar". Journal of Popular Film and Television. 49 (4): 210–222. doi:10.1080/01956051.2021.1881036. S2CID 246241427 . Retrieved February 2, 2023 – via Taylor and Francis+NEJM.
- ^ Walsh, Katie (October 28, 2021). "Review: A visual and aural feast, Edgar Wright's 'Last Night in Soho' has a few wobbles". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved February 2, 2023.
- ^ Gittell, Noah (July 20, 2022). "Jordan Peele's Nope Fails to Dazzle When the Aliens Are Revealed - WCP". Washington City Paper. Retrieved February 2, 2023.
Further reading
[edit ]- Prince, Stephen The Horror Film, Rutgers University Press 2012