Genres: horror and giallo Research Papers (original) (raw)

This article discusses how in "Riccardino", Andrea Camilleri drives the conflict between reality and fiction and between Author and character to the extreme. It analyses how Camilleri pays homage to but also inverts and disarranges the... more

This article discusses how in "Riccardino", Andrea Camilleri drives the conflict between reality and fiction and between Author and character to the
extreme. It analyses how Camilleri pays homage to but also inverts and disarranges the most famous conflict between creator and creation—Luigi Pirandello’s
play "Sei personaggi in cerca d’autore"—writing not a work of classic mystery fiction but one that fits perfectly within the paradigm of Linda Hutcheon’s “narcissistic metafiction” in order to “resolve” the burden of having created a larger-than-life serial protagonist and
make his final statements about the entire Montalbano series.

„Trans/Wizje” 2011, nr 1, s. 45-50.

The Italian filmmaker Mario Bava was an influential master of genre films. Perhaps his most seminal contribution was to the American slasher films of the 1980s, in particular the Friday the 13th series, which paid overt homage to Mario... more

The Italian filmmaker Mario Bava was an influential master of genre films. Perhaps his most seminal contribution was to the American slasher films of the 1980s, in particular the Friday the 13th series, which paid overt homage to Mario Bava’s Reazione a catena (1971). While the similarities and borrowings have already been discussed elsewhere, this article examines the differences, through a comparative formal and stylistic analysis, between Friday the 13th (S.S. Cunningham, 1980) and Reazione a catena. It focuses specifically on the impalement scene in Friday the 13th Part 2 (S. Miner, 1981), which was borrowed almost verbatim from Bava’s film, but which makes substantial and meaningful changes.

Since 1990, The Simpsons’ annual “Treehouse of Horror” episodes have constituted a production sub-context within the series, having their own conventions and historical trajectory. These specials incorporate horror plots and devices, as... more

Since 1990, The Simpsons’ annual “Treehouse of Horror” episodes have constituted a production sub-context within the series, having their own conventions and historical trajectory. These specials incorporate horror plots and devices, as well as general references to science fiction, into the series’ base in situation comedy. The Halloween specials disrupt the series usual family-oriented sitcom structure, dissolving the ideological balances that stabilise that society. By depicting the Family and community in extreme circumstances, in seeing the horror of ‘how things could be’, the Treehouse episode leave us with hanging questions about the nature of social being that bleed into the regular sitcom-style episodes. By breaking from the comparatively realistic social-satire that characterizes the series as a whole, the Halloween specials cast a reflexive gaze back onto “The Simpsons” itself. As a result, the “Treehouse” episodes are valuable as a means of examining the strategies and implications of the series as a whole. Bakhtin’s model of the carnivalesque is utilised to underscore these disruptive traits that characterise the Treehouse episodes.

This book is the first to establish the relevance of same-sex desires, pleasures and anxieties in the cinema of post-war Italy. It explores cinematic representations of homosexuality and their significance in a wider cultural struggle in... more

This book is the first to establish the relevance of same-sex desires, pleasures and anxieties in the cinema of post-war Italy. It explores cinematic representations of homosexuality and their significance in a wider cultural struggle in Italy involving society, cinema, and sexuality between the 1940s and 1970s. Besides tracing the evolution of representations through both art and popular films, this book also analyses connections with consumer culture, film criticism and politics. Giori uncovers how complicated negotiations between challenges to and valorization of dominant forms of knowledge of homosexuality shaped representations and argues that they were not always the outcome of hatred but also sought to convey unmentionable pleasures and complicities. Through archival research and a survey of more than 600 films, the author enriches our understanding of thirty years of Italian film and cultural history.
The downloadable file includes the front matters and the introduction.

Deadgirl (2008) is based around a group of male teens discovering and claiming ownership of a bound female zombie, using her as a sex slave. This narrative premise raises numerous tensions that are particularly amplified by using a zombie... more

Deadgirl (2008) is based around a group of male teens discovering and claiming ownership of a bound female zombie, using her as a sex slave. This narrative premise raises numerous tensions that are particularly amplified by using a zombie as the film’s central victim. The Deadgirl is sexually passive yet monstrous, reifying the horrors associated with the female body in patriarchal discourses. She is objectified on the basis of her gender, and this has led many reviewers to dismiss the film as misogynistic Torture Porn. However, the conditions under which masculinity is formed here – where adolescent males become "men" by enacting sexual violence – are as problematic as the specter of the female zombie. Deadgirl is clearly horrific and provocative: in this article I seek to probe implications arising from the film’s gender conflicts.

The article moves from a systematic recensio of the passages in Gadda’s masterpiece where the idea of evil emerges, either directly or by means of its narrative incarnation in diabolical figures or the devil itself. This recurrent motif... more

The article moves from a systematic recensio of the passages in Gadda’s masterpiece where the idea of evil emerges, either directly or by means of its narrative incarnation in diabolical figures or the devil itself. This recurrent motif is surprisingly found to intersect another fundamental and very different structure of the novel, such as the opposition between the city (Rome) and its countryside: evil always seems to belong to the latter, or at least to take its origins from it. An explanation for this is to be found in some philosophical reflections about good and evil in the Meditazione milanese (evil as an «ethically peripheral coexistence of good»): the whole argumentation, thus, ends up disclosing some solid and very basic “load bearing structures” in the construction of the novel, which contribute to its strong (although not always manifest, and often denied) inner coherence.

Vol. XXIX (2015): M. Antonelli, Il 'Dialagu de Sanctu Grigoriu' secondo il ms. A III 24 della Biblioteca "Ludovico Jacobilli" di Foligno, pp. 5-29 (continua) – S. Romagnoli, Il volgare degli 'Statuti anconitani del Mare', pp. 31-76 – F.... more

Vol. XXIX (2015): M. Antonelli, Il 'Dialagu de Sanctu Grigoriu' secondo il ms. A III 24 della Biblioteca "Ludovico Jacobilli" di Foligno, pp. 5-29 (continua) – S. Romagnoli, Il volgare degli 'Statuti anconitani del Mare', pp. 31-76 – F. De Cianni, Commento al 'Cantico de' Cantici' di suor Maria Luisa Ascione, una semicolta dell'Ottocento, pp. 77-124 (continua) – A. Di Giacomantonio, Due ricettari alimentari abruzzesi di fine Ottocento, pp. 125-55 (continua) – N. Ciampaglia, Nomi di arti e cose in una semisconosciuta rappresentazione carnevalesca di trasmissione orale dell'area aurunca, pp. 157-80 – A. Rossebastiano, Tra "toeletta", "disabiglié" e "pignoer", pp. 181-200 – G. Polimeni, Il "terzo elemento nel Dizionario universale della lingua italiana": Luigi Morandi, l'edizione dei Sonetti del Belli (1869-1870) e il dialetto romanesco, pp. 201-33 – D. Stefanelli, Gli studi abruzzesi di Cesare De Lollis tra dialettologia e ricerca storico-letteraria, pp. 235-52 – M. Carosella, Racconti di Puglia (Lino Angiuli e Andrej Longo), pp. 253-70 – M. Favaro, Il giallo contemporaneo a Palermo tra (iper)realismo ed espressionismo, pp. 271-89 – Sommari/Summaries, pp. 291-97.

Salvo Montalbano è il commissario di polizia di Vigata, dal carattere burbero ma responsabile e serio sul lavoro, molte volte anche aperto e gentile con persone di cui sa di potersi fidare. Montalbano si trova a dover indagare sui più... more

Salvo Montalbano è il commissario di polizia di Vigata, dal carattere burbero ma responsabile e serio sul lavoro, molte volte anche aperto e gentile con persone di cui sa di potersi fidare. Montalbano si trova a dover indagare sui più vari fatti criminali della sua terra, dei quali, grazie al suo grande ingegno e all'aiuto di numerosi collaboratori, anche al di fuori del commissariato, riesce sempre a ricostruire gli esatti avvenimenti e a trovare la soluzione. Fra i colleghi di lavoro ci sono il suo vice Mimì Augello, l'ispettore Giuseppe Fazio, il goffo agente Agatino Catarella e altri agenti del commissariato. Invece tra i suoi collaboratori esterni ci sono l'amica Ingrid Sjostrom, il giornalista Niccolò Zito e più raramente la sua cuoca Adelina. Nella sua sfera privata, Salvo porta avanti una relazione a distanza con Livia Burlando, con la quale ha un rapporto talvolta burrascoso ma nel quale prevale sempre l'amore.

“The Jewish Giallo, or What’s a Nice Jewish Motif Like You Doing in a Movie Like This?” In M. Waligórska and S. Wagenhofer eds. Cultural Representations of Jewishness at the Turn of the 21st Century. Florence: EUI Working Papers, 2010:... more

“The Jewish Giallo, or What’s a Nice Jewish Motif Like You Doing in a Movie Like This?” In M. Waligórska and S. Wagenhofer eds. Cultural Representations of Jewishness at the Turn of the 21st Century. Florence: EUI Working Papers, 2010: 135-146.

Drawing on the well-established understanding of the zombie as metaphor for the deadening effects of consumer capitalism, this chapter seeks to account for three distinct changes that contextualise 21st century zombie fiction. The first... more

Drawing on the well-established understanding of the zombie as metaphor for the deadening effects of consumer capitalism, this chapter seeks to account for three distinct changes that contextualise 21st century zombie fiction. The first is situational: the global economic crisis has amplified the anxieties that inspired Romero's critique of consumer capitalism in Dawn of the Dead (1978). The second is intellectual: as Chapman and Anderson (2011) note, there has been an “explosion of research on all aspects of disgust” in recent years. The third concerns the subgenre itself: zombies have become increasingly sexualised since the late 1990s. These issues intersect in a numerous recent zombie films - including Zombie Strippers! (2008), Zombies! Zombies! Zombies! (2008), Big Tits Zombie (2010), and Zombies Vs Strippers (2012) - that are centred around or within strip clubs. Stripping epitomises the logic of consumer capitalism, offering tantalising promises but little physical satisfaction. Stripping translates sexual desire into a voyeuristic transaction, evacuated of corporeal messiness. The zombie’s decomposing body epitomises disgust, and its presence in the strip-club disturbs the fantasy typically provided within that context. In the zombie infected strip-club, intimate contact is damaging rather than desirous. In these respects, zombies hypostatize numerous tensions that are usually masked by fantasy and financial exchange. In doing so, these zombies reify the horrors of late capitalism. Their disgusting bodies disrupt the foundational logic of consumerism qua desire.

La giostra degli scambi revolves around the theme of mistaken identity, a subject Camilleri takes from Pirandello. In the novel, scangi happen all the time and the victims of cases of mistaken identity are identified by names that are... more

La giostra degli scambi revolves around the theme of mistaken identity, a subject Camilleri takes from Pirandello. In the novel, scangi happen all the time and the victims of cases of mistaken identity are identified by names that are completely changed (stracangiati). These names belong to characters with a liminal identity, who walk the thin line separating innocence from guilt.

Please note: this is an author's proof, not the final published chapter. It is anticipated that the book will be out December 2016. In International Horror Film Directors: Global Fear, Danny Shipka & Ralph Beliveau (eds). Bristol:... more

Please note: this is an author's proof, not the final published chapter. It is anticipated that the book will be out December 2016.
In International Horror Film Directors: Global Fear, Danny Shipka & Ralph Beliveau (eds). Bristol: Intellect Press, 2016: 131-147.

This article explores the various ethical and legal limitations faced by researchers studying extreme or ‘ shock’ pornographies, beginning with generic and disciplinary contexts, and focusing specifically upon the assumption that textual... more

This article explores the various ethical and legal limitations faced by researchers studying extreme or ‘ shock’ pornographies, beginning with generic and disciplinary contexts, and focusing specifically upon the assumption that textual analysis unproblematically justifies certain pornographies, while legal contexts utilize a prohibitive gaze. Are our academic freedoms of speech endangered by legislations that restrict our access to non-mainstream images, forcing them further into taboo locales? If so, is the ideological normalization of sexuality inextricable from our research methodologies? Simultaneously, can we justify researchers being allowed access to materials that are not deemed suitable for general consumption, which may further bolster normalized hierarchies of class-privilege and cultural capital?

This thesis examines the generic body of a vast group of commercial crime films produced in Italy during the anni di piombo, or Leaden Years, a time peculiarly marked by widespread episodes of political violence and tragic facts of... more

This thesis examines the generic body of a vast group of commercial crime films produced in Italy during the anni di piombo, or Leaden Years, a time peculiarly marked by widespread episodes of political violence and tragic facts of terrorism (1969-early 1980s). Generally associated with film cycles and formulas popularly known as giallo (or giallo all'italiana) and poliziottesco, these films achieved resounding success at the national box-office by conjugating the aesthetic of foreign crime films and formulas with clear references to the grim and violent Italian reality. The aim of this thesis is to assess how, and to what extent, problems and concerns associated with contemporaneous historical events had effectively influenced their production and consumption, as well as their generic identity. In contrast with traditional (and prevailing) critical accounts, this thesis contends that these films and their generic images are less concerned with terrorism and related political extremism than they are with other contemporaneous social events, such as the reigniting of culturally deep-seated regional tensions, and the crisis of a national benchmark such as the patriarchal family. In discussing this point, this thesis provides a thorough historical contextualization of the Leaden Years which does not rest exclusively on political-terrorist issues, but takes into account other topical social problems, as well as reconstructing the cultural and political-ideological complexity that marked this era. Arguments in support of this thesis have been crucially elaborated through referencing historiographical material and critical sources mostly from Italy, in an attempt to further provide the examination of these films and of their generic identity with an Italian critical and cultural perspective to date scarcely represented in the Anglo-American film studies upon which the theoretical body of the Italian crime film is prevalently built. KEYWORDS: Anni di piombo; Italian cinema; Crime film; Giallo; Poliziottesco; Filoni; Terrorism; Political violence; Italian family; Regionalism.

Report on the international film conference, Rome 7-9 June 2015

"La logica, sul piano della narrazione, è il telaio che dota di un impianto razionale gli istinti, elevandoli al di sopra dei propri limiti di impulsività e improvvisazione e conferendo loro la possibilità di raggiungere in modo più... more

"La logica, sul piano della narrazione, è il telaio che dota di un impianto razionale gli istinti, elevandoli al di sopra dei propri limiti di impulsività e improvvisazione e conferendo loro la possibilità di raggiungere in modo più efficace il loro malvagio scopo; sul piano speculativo, invece, la logica è in grado di scavare la terra che copre le radici dell’inclinazione a
ciò che l’etica corrente definisce “il male”, portandole alla luce nella loro natura.
La logica, quindi, è la balestra che permette di scagliare la freccia della vendetta e della violenza sul piano della finzione narrativa, della diegesi; la logica è il microscopio che ingrandisce alla vista e alla conoscenza ciò che esiste, ma che a fatica si coglie, in un’ottica fenomenologica, ossia di comprensione della natura umana attraverso la riflessione su di
essa; la logica è il veicolo che rende razionale, e dunque intellegibile, ciò che razionale non è, ponendo dunque in essere le condizioni della scrittura, della comunicazione chiara ed efficace di ciò di cui non si è soliti parlare."

Torture porn has been vilified on grounds that are at best unconvincing and at worst incoherent. The subgenre’s remonstrators too often ignore the content of the films themselves, and fail to make sufficiently detailed connections between... more

Torture porn has been vilified on grounds that are at best unconvincing and at worst incoherent. The subgenre’s remonstrators too often ignore the content of the films themselves, and fail to make sufficiently detailed connections between the subgenre and the cultural sphere. Reactions to torture porn rarely consider what values the films apparently contravene, and why, if the films are offensive, they are simultaneously so popular. The central derisive mechanism in operation is the ill-conceived combination of ‘torture’ and ‘porn’ itself. The use of ‘porn’ as a label works to illegitimate torture porn and demand that body-horror retreat to its more ‘fitting’ position on the outskirts of the cultural radar. However, this approach is too busy pointing at violence, and fails to deal with the fact that sex is displaced. If violence is now pornographic, it is unclear what position sexual portrayals occupy, or whether they are still perceived as more offensive than violent representations. Furthermore, it is uncertain how we are to describe sexual images if that is the case, since the lexicon of offense has been waylaid. Torture porn’s critics commonly fail to account for the new context of ‘porn plus horror’, and what that combination says about visual representation and its limits. This chapter is a step towards rectifying that oversight.

Given that numerous critics have complained about Saw’s apparently confused sense of ethics, it is surprising that little attention has been paid to how morality operates in narrative itself. Coming from a Nietzschean perspective -... more

Given that numerous critics have complained about Saw’s apparently confused sense of ethics, it is surprising that little attention has been paid to how morality operates in narrative itself. Coming from a Nietzschean perspective - specifically questioning whether the lead torturer John Kramer (Jigsaw) is a passive or a radical nihilist - I seek to rectify that oversight. This philosophical reading of the series explores John’s moral stance, which is complicated by his hypocrisy: I contend that this underpins critical complaints regarding the films’ (and frequently the audience’s) "muddled" morality. My narrative analysis reveals that John’s principles are not as confused as they may first appear to be. Despite explicitly proclaiming that his quest is to save others, his actions reveal another story (and not only because his schema is homicidal). Following the loss of his unborn son and his failed suicide attempt, John seeks to symbolically eradicate himself: the victims he selects reflect and reify his own obsessive personality traits. In keeping with the franchises’ narrative twists – which are designed to reverse initially "obvious" meanings – I argue that John’s proclamations have misdirected critics. His nihilism may be manifested as coerced suffering and articulated as distaste with the world, yet the series’ symbolic target is John himself.

This paper was originally written for the conference "Vice of Mrs. Wardh and the Giallo: an International Film Conference" in 2015. It analyzes the rather odd narration of the giallo movie IN THE FOLDS OF THE FLESH (1970), which consists... more

This paper was originally written for the conference "Vice of Mrs. Wardh and the Giallo: an International Film Conference" in 2015. It analyzes the rather odd narration of the giallo movie IN THE FOLDS OF THE FLESH (1970), which consists of several episodes telling completely different trauma narratives. Doing so, the movie pushes the generic conventions to such extremes that their mechanisms become apparent. However, said generic conventions were just being conventionalized at the very same time the movies was being produced. Taking this into account, the essay discusses the workings of parody in the early rather than the late stages of genre history. Additionally, it elaborates on a specific understanding of political genre film making, called Gramscinema.

Vol. XXIV (2010): C. Gambacorta , I Pataphii in volgare dell’umanista perugino Francesco Maturanzio, pp. 5-26 – S. Graziotti, Scritture monastiche femminili di area viterbese dei secoli XVII-XVIII, pp. 27-86 – N. Ciampaglia - A. Di... more

Vol. XXIV (2010): C. Gambacorta , I Pataphii in volgare dell’umanista perugino Francesco Maturanzio, pp. 5-26 – S. Graziotti, Scritture monastiche femminili di area viterbese dei secoli XVII-XVIII, pp. 27-86 – N. Ciampaglia - A. Di Giacomantonio, Sei lettere di emigranti abruzzesi di fine Ottocento, pp. 87-142 – E. Biondi, Scritti di lontananze e di guerra del primo Novecento. L’epistolario della famiglia Meloni di Arcevia, pp. 143-74 (continua) – U. Vignuzzi - P. Bertini Malgarini, Il romanesco nel giallo all’italiana, pp. 175-94 – L. Matt, Profilo grammaticale del romanesco di Quer Pasticciaccio brutto de via Merulana, pp. 195-232 – D. Pietrini, “Salve! Un saluto veloce a tutti”. Riflessioni sul sistema dei saluti nell’italiano contemporaneo, pp. 233-64 – M. Carosella, Bibidi bobidi bù! Note sulla creazione delle lingue strane nelle produzioni per bambini, pp. 265-98 – E. Mattesini, Recensioni, pp. 299-314 – Sommari/Summaries, pp. 315-9.

Nel dipartimento di Archeologia si intrecciano molte storie. Alla morte sospetta di un docente di numismatica fanno seguito furti, incendi, minacce, in un clima di tensione che coinvolge un giovane ricercatore impegnato la sera nella... more

Nel dipartimento di Archeologia si intrecciano molte storie.
Alla morte sospetta di un docente di numismatica fanno seguito furti, incendi, minacce, in un clima di tensione che coinvolge un giovane ricercatore impegnato la sera nella pasticceria paterna, una professoressa che non vuole invecchiare, una sensuale dottoranda e altri personaggi, molti dei quali hanno qualcosa da celare. Fra loro, un carabiniere interessato ai metodi archeologici e una bizzarra studentessa appassionata di romanzi gialli.
Intanto, a lezione e via mail, si affrontano altre storie. Antiche e controverse. L’uomo del Similaun fu realmente ucciso sul ghiacciaio? Chi realizzò la Sindone? La civiltà nuragica fu spazzata via da uno tsunami preistorico? I neandertaliani del Circeo erano cannibali? Gli schiavi newyorchesi avevano rituali funerari segreti? E, più importante di tutte, l’archeologia può essere il movente di uno o più omicidi?
Interpretare fatti e testimonianze, però, non è mai facile. Le domande senza risposta si moltiplicano e le trame che uniscono passato e presente si complicano. Alcuni, benché increduli, scoprono allora che le proprie vite sono in pericolo e reagiscono. La storia, però, non si ferma e trascina tutti verso un drammatico finale.

The mythic Snuff film has remained a persistent cinematic rumour since the mid-1970s. The discourses that surround Snuff are preoccupied by two factors: (a) the formal aesthetic, and (b) their alleged role as a kind of titillating... more

The mythic Snuff film has remained a persistent cinematic rumour since the mid-1970s. The discourses that surround Snuff are preoccupied by two factors: (a) the formal aesthetic, and (b) their alleged role as a kind of titillating pornography. Although critical narratives have been established to account for the subgenre, little has been done to unpick a recent wave of hardcore horror pseudo-Snuff texts, and the cultural climate they enter into. Exploring the August Underground trilogy (2001-2007) in particular, I investigate how contemporary faux-Snuff fits into and challenges Snuff’s established rhetorical paradigms. This discussion is informed by the legacy of 1970s anti-porn feminism as well as the age of reality culture, torture porn, and extreme pornography that immediately situates 21st century hardcore horror.

Both the slasher movie and its more recent counterpart the "torture porn" film centralize graphic depictions of violence. This article inspects the nature of these portrayals by examining a motif commonly found in the cinema of homicide,... more

Both the slasher movie and its more recent counterpart the "torture porn" film centralize graphic depictions of violence. This article inspects the nature of these portrayals by examining a motif commonly found in the cinema of homicide, dubbed here the "pure moment of murder": that is, the moment in which two characters’ bodies adjoin onscreen in an instance of graphic violence. By exploring a number of these incidents (and their various modes of representation) in American horror films ranging from Psycho (1960) to Saw VI (2009), the article aims to expound how these images of slaughter demonstrate (albeit in an augmented, hyperbolic manner) a number of long-standing problems surrounding selfhood that continue to fuel philosophical discussion. The article argues that the visual adjoining of victim and killer onscreen echoes the conundrum that in order to attain identity, the individual requires and yet simultaneously repudiates the Other that constitutes unique subjectivity.

Sunohara Yuuri and Akita Masami’s series of six seppuku films (1990) are solely constituted by images of fictionalized death, revolving around the prolonged self-torture of a lone figure committing harakiri. I contend that the... more

Sunohara Yuuri and Akita Masami’s series of six seppuku films (1990) are solely constituted by images of fictionalized death, revolving around the prolonged self-torture of a lone figure committing harakiri. I contend that the protagonist’s auto-immolation mirrors a formal death, each frame ‘killing’ the moment it represents. My analysis aims to explore how the solipsistic nature of selfhood is appositely symbolized by the isolation of the on-screen figures and the insistence with which the six films repeat the same scenario of protracted agony across the cycle. The centralization of suffering, I argue, parallels the distance between viewer and image with the isolating nature of embodied existence. Thus, this article seeks to probe the relationship between form and content, asking what the image of death reveals about the death of the image

"This article offers a cultural history of the postwar horror anthology series, The Hall of Fantasy (1947-1953). It unearths the particular significances of the series as a species of horror radio, and contributes to and refines our... more

"This article offers a cultural history of the postwar horror anthology series, The Hall of Fantasy (1947-1953). It unearths the particular significances of the series as a species of horror radio, and contributes to and refines our understanding of postwar radio.
I argue The Hall of Fantasy is formally innovative in its expressionistic use of the radio medium to heighten listeners’ emotional involvement with the drama. And the series is
culturally rich as it mines Modernity for thematic resources that resonate with audiences’ anxieties. The Hall of Fantasy constructs a shadow of Modernity that suggests the
cultural potency of enchantment."

The Italian filmmaker Mario Bava was an influential master of genre films. Perhaps his most seminal contribution was to the American slasher films of the 1980s, in particular the Friday the 13th series, which paid overt homage to Mario... more

The Italian filmmaker Mario Bava was an influential master of genre films. Perhaps his most seminal contribution was to the American slasher films of the 1980s, in particular the Friday the 13th series, which paid overt homage to Mario Bava’s Reazione a catena (1971). While the similarities and borrowings have already been discussed elsewhere, this article examines the differences, through a comparative formal and stylistic analysis, between Friday the 13th (S.S. Cunningham, 1980) and Reazione a catena. It focuses specifically on the impalement scene in Friday the 13th Part 2 (S. Miner, 1981), which was borrowed almost verbatim from Bava’s film, but which makes substantial and meaningful changes.

In this investigation of the Japanese film Kairo, I contemplate how the horrors present in the film relate to the issue of self, by examining a number of interlocking motifs. These include thematic foci on disease and technology which are... more

In this investigation of the Japanese film Kairo, I contemplate how the horrors present in the film relate to the issue of self, by examining a number of interlocking motifs. These include thematic foci on disease and technology which are more intimately and inwardly focused that the film's conclusion first appears to suggest. The true horror here, I argue, is ontological: centred on the self and its divorcing from the exterior world, especially founded in an increased use of and reliance on communicative technologies. I contend that these concerns are manifested in Kairo by presenting the spread of technology as disease-like, infecting the city and the individuals who are isolated and imprisoned by their urban environment. Finally, I investigate the meanings of the apocalypse, expounding how it may be read as hopeful for the future rather than indicative of failure or doom.

This article offers a cultural history of the post-war horror radio anthology series The Hall of Fantasy (19471953). It unearths the particular significances of the series as a species of horror radio, and contributes to and refines our... more

This article offers a cultural history of the post-war horror radio anthology series The Hall of Fantasy (19471953). It unearths the particular significances of the series as a species of horror radio, and contributes to and refines our understanding of post-war radio. I argue that The Hall of Fantasy is formally innovative in its expressionistic use of the radio medium to heighten listeners' emotional involvement with the drama. And the series is culturally rich as it mines post-war modernity for thematic resources that resonate with audiences' anxieties. The Hall of Fantasy constructs a shadow of post-war modernity that suggests the cultural potency of enchantment.

European horror took an interesting turn in Italy during the 70’s with the rise of Giallo, a combination of crime, gore and eroticism. While some critics agree that it was a short-lived mode (1970-1975) other see it merging and mutating... more

European horror took an interesting turn in Italy during the 70’s with the rise of Giallo, a combination of crime, gore and eroticism. While some critics agree that it was a short-lived mode (1970-1975) other see it merging and mutating well into the 2010s. Directors Hélène Cattet and Bruno Forlani reconfigure the same intensity and color palette of traditional Giallo but filtering them through new contemporary aesthetic choices. This paper looks at the aestheticization of violence in Amer and The Strange Color of your Body’s Tears. My argument consists on how questioning how effectively these Franco-Belgian productions are able to navigate the tension prevalent in the juxtaposition of the generic violence of the 70’s Giallo with contemporary views of violence and sexuality.