Merchants of Menace (el. knyga) (skaityta knyga) | knygos.lt

Aprašymas

Anglophone horror films are typically approached as the inevitable by-products of psychological and social demons haunting filmmakers and their homelands - in short, as if they were 'our collective nightmares'. These 'reflectionist' approaches have led horror films routinely and reductively to be framed as mouthpieces for misogynistic sadists lurking in the shadows of the exploitation sector, as defiant expressions of resistance enacted by noble progressives, or as platforms for the politically reactionary evils of the biggest, scariest monster of all: Hollywood. The industry logic, strategies, and practices that heavily determine horror film content, the nature of horror film production, promotion, and dissemination, as well as the responses to these activities, have therefore been either side-stepped completely or reduced unhelpfully to the profit-making motives underwriting all capitalist endeavours. Consequently, even though horror has been a key component of media output for almost a century, the genre's industrial character remains under explored and poorly understood. Merchants of Menace: The Business of Horror Cinema responds to a major void in film history by shedding much-needed new light on the economic dimensions of one of the world's most enduring audiovisual forms. Given horror cuts across budgetary categories, industry sectors, national film cultures, and media, Merchants of Menace also promises to expand understandings of the economics of cinema generally. Covering 1930-present, this groundbreaking collection boasts sixteen original chapters from world-leading experts taking as their focus such diverse topics as early zombie pictures, post-WWII chillers, Civil Rights-Era marketing, Hollywood literary adaptations, Australian exploitation, "torture-porn" Auteurs, and twenty-first-century remakes.