Overview

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.

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9781793633958

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Reviews

Grief in Contemporary Horror Cinema: Screening Loss offers a welcome multinational approach to the role played by, and complex and contradictory representations of, grief and loss in this genre. The various contributions demonstrate how universal themes of grief and loss are particularised in individual films and are often deployed to examine legacy and contemporary issues of national, familial and individual vulnerability. The book ultimately provides a valuable lens through which to examine a wide range of subgenres from arthouse to gothic horror. --Sarah Arnold, Maynooth University and author of Maternal Horror Film: Melodrama and Motherhood This collection is fascinating, poignant, and timely, a true gift to scholars and horror fans living in a grieving world that has been subjected to a deadly pandemic for more than two years. In her introduction, editor Erica Joan Dymond begins with the premise that ""horror cinema has become more nuanced over the last twenty years."" The chapters that follow provide compelling arguments for why this is the case. As contributor Asper Taylor Ballas contends, ""Grief and the elaborate human response to it, stands as one of the most defining human qualities, and, therefore, contending with grief means a deep, thoughtful, and even horrifying look into humanity's core."" Focusing on new, cutting-edge films about which little has been written, and international in scope, Grief in Contemporary Horror Cinema is sure to set the stage for future discussions of grief, loss, and horror. --Kimberly Jackson, Florida Gulf Coast University

Author Information

Erica Joan Dymond is assistant professor of English at East Stroudsburg University.

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