Cinemageddon

The Routledge Companion to Cult Cinema offers an overview of the field of cult cinema – films at the margin of popular culture and art that have received exceptional cultural visibility and status mostly because they break rules, offend, and challenge understandings of achievement (some are so bad they’re good, others so good they remain inaccessible). Cult cinema is no longer only comprised of the midnight movie or the extreme genre film. Its range has widened and the issues it broaches have become battlegrounds in cultural debates that typify the first quarter of the twenty-first century. Sections are introduced with the major theoretical frameworks, philosophical inspirations, and methodologies for studying cult films, with individual chapters excavating the most salient criticism of how the field impacts cultural discourse at large. Case studies include the worst films ever; exploitation films; genre cinema; multiple media formats cult cinema is expressed through; issues of cultural, national, and gender representations; elements of the production culture of cult cinema; and, throughout, aspects of the aesthetics of cult cinema – its genre, style, look, impact, and ability to yank viewers out of their comfort zones. The Routledge Companion to Cult Cinema goes beyond the traditional scope of Anglophone and North American cinema by including case studies of East and South Asia, continental Europe, the Middle East, and Latin America, making it an innovative and important resource for researchers and students alike.

From the shocking and controversial, to the banned and censored, scary or just plain weird, CINEMAGEDDON takes readers on a guided tour of a century of horror and cult cinema. Compiled from previous volumes - Beyond the Darkness, Shock Movies, and Phenomena - along with more than a hundred new reviews that haven't appeared anywhere else, this book offers 950 reviews in total, covering everything from mainstream hits to lurid underground shockers, and everything in between. Includes 'video nasties,' torture porn, out-of-print VHS, vigilantes, mutants, body horror, vampires, ultra-violence, perversities, true crime, aliens, psychotic women, slasher movies, mad doctors, Nazisploitation, satire, possessions, Satanic cults, serial killers, killer bugs, killer kids, killer cops and killer clowns, interlopers, psychopaths, cannibals, rape-revenge, zombies, gialli, pandemics, excessive gore, pseudo-snuff, haunted houses, documentaries, TV terrors, monsters of all shapes and sizes, demons, curses, home invasions, apocalypse, mass murders, backwoods horrors, and other assorted maniacs. Also included are details of actors, directors and other key personnel, details of censorship hassles, constant cross-referencing to put the films in context within their particular sub-genres, and the availability of uncut materials. Six years in the making, and presented on large-format, double-columned pages, no film fan's bookshelf is complete without CINEMAGEDDON...

Since the mid-1980s, US audiences have watched the majority of movies they see on a video platform, be it VHS, DVD, Blu-ray, Video On Demand, or streaming media. Annual video revenues have exceeded box office returns for over twenty-five years. In short, video has become the structuring discourse of US movie culture. Killer Tapes and Shattered Screens examines how prerecorded video reframes the premises and promises of motion picture spectatorship. But instead of offering a history of video technology or reception, Caetlin Benson-Allott analyzes how the movies themselves understand and represent the symbiosis of platform and spectator. Through case studies and close readings that blend industry history with apparatus theory, psychoanalysis with platform studies, and production history with postmodern philosophy, Killer Tapes and Shattered Screens unearths a genealogy of post-cinematic spectatorship in horror movies, thrillers, and other exploitation genres. From Night of the Living Dead (1968) through Paranormal Activity (2009), these movies pursue their spectator from one platform to another, adapting to suit new exhibition norms and cultural concerns in the evolution of the video subject.

From early twentieth-century stag films to 1960s sexploitation pictures to the boom in 1970s “porno chic,” adult cinema's vintage forms are now being reappraised by a new generation of historians, fans, preservationists, and home video entrepreneurs-all of whom depend on and help shape the archive of film history. But what is the present-day allure of these artifacts that have since become eroticized more for their “pastness” than the explicit acts they show? And what are the political implications of recovering these rare but still-visceral films from a less “enlightened,” pre-feminist past? Drawing on media industry analysis, archival theory, and interviews with adult video personnel, David Church argues that vintage pornography retains its retrospective fascination precisely because these culturally denigrated texts have been so poorly preserved on political and aesthetic grounds. Through these films' ongoing moves from cultural emergence to concealment to rediscovery, the archive itself performs a “striptease,” permitting tangible contact with these corporeally stimulating forms at a moment when the overall physicality of media objects is undergoing rapid transformation. Disposable Passions explores the historiographic lessons that vintage pornography can teach us about which materials our society chooses to keep, and how a long-neglected genre is primed for serious rediscovery as more than mere autoerotic fodder.

Cult Cinema: an Introduction presents the first in-depth academic examination of all aspects of the field of cult cinema, including audiences, genres, and theoretical perspectives. Represents the first exhaustive introduction to cult cinema Offers a scholarly treatment of a hotly contested topic at the center of current academic debate Covers audience reactions, aesthetics, genres, theories of cult cinema, as well as historical insights into the topic

An authoritative guide to the action-packed film genre With 24 incisive, cutting-edge contributions from esteemed scholars and critics, A Companion to the Action Filmprovides an authoritative and in-depth guide to this internationally popular and wide-ranging genre. As the first major anthology on the action film in more than a decade, the volume offers insights into the genre’s historical development, explores its production techniques and visual poetics, and provides reflections on the numerous social, cultural, and political issues it has and continues to embody. A Companion to the Action Film offers original research and critical analysis that examines the iconic characteristics of the genre, its visual aesthetics, and its narrative traits; considers the impact of major directors and stars on the genre’s evolution; puts the action film in dialogue with various technologies and other forms of media such as graphic novels and television; and maps out new avenues of critical study for the future. This important resource: Offers a definitive guide to the action film Contains insightful contributions from a wide range of international film experts and scholars Reviews the evolution of the genre from the silent era to today’s age of digital blockbusters Offers nuanced commentary and analysis of socio-cultural issues such as race, nationality, and gender in action films Written for scholars, teachers and students in film studies, film theory, film history, genre studies, and popular culture, A Companion to the Action Film is an essential guide to one of international cinema’s most important, popular, and influential genres.

When Tommy starts to suspect that Von Ghastly, the eccentric host of a bloodcurdling cable access show, may be up to more than just morbid mischief, Ghost leaps into action . . . but she has an audience of her own! Chris Sebela serves up big screams on the small screen! * Beginning a new arc! Loaded with mystery and drama, set against a fantastically large supernatural backdrop.�Comic Vine A strong, smart offering from Dark Horse.�Comic Book Resources

Women Make Horror studies women practitioners in the film industry and sets right the assumptions about women and the horror genre. It explores narrative and experimental cinema, short, anthology and feature-filmmaking, and offers case studies of North American, Latin American, European, East Asian and Australian filmmakers, films and festivals. With this book we can transform how we think about women filmmakers and genre.

Ghost drove the demons from the city, but a new crop of villains has taken their place! Chicago's spectral protector takes on a cult-leading TV host and a tech-savvy bounty hunter, while trying to write a new chapter on her life’s blank slate. Collects issues #5–#8. •*The crack team of Star Wars artists takes on a superhero! •*Featuring covers by Jenny Frison!

From the birth of horror cinema, The Execution of Mary, Queen of Scots (1895) to Dante's Inferno (1911) and all the way through cinema's history to Raw (2017) and Wolves at the Door (2018), 1001 MOVIES THAT SHOCKED THE WORLD explores over a century of horror, cult and banned films. This extensive guide is replete with over 1000 entries, featuring choice cuts from every sub-genre imaginable in a movie jungle teeming with classics and lesser-known items of interest. Horror connoisseur, Vincent Kapner, serves as the Virgil to your Dante as he guides you through the infernal picture house of the most controversial, shocking and disturbing movies ever made. Overflowing with trivia and background information, as well as synopses, critical opinion and censorship information, 1001 MOVIES THAT SHOCKED THE WORLD is an indispensable addition to any film fan's book shelf. So, if you're an unrepentant cinematic sinner, why not take the plunge and visit the Seven Circles of Movie Hell. Not only will you find yourself in good company, but you'll also be introduced to dozens - if not hundreds - of strange and terrifying cine-lifeforms that had previously escaped your notice. 'What is your pleasure, Sir?'