Merchants of Menace: The Business of Horror Cinema

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Description

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 fourteen 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.

Reviews

Unearthing the industrial logics of the horror genre, Merchants of Menace provides lively case studies that expose the tactics of their production as well as unusual quirks in the process. These studies will reanimate and refashion our histories of the genre and the standard maxims about horror-film fabrication, cultural tastes, the films' heroines and heroes, and the audiences for these movies. An outstanding collection! * Janet Staiger, Professor Emeritus of Communication, University of Texas at Austin, USA *
A major advance in our understanding of the industrial underpinnings of horror cinema and of commercial filmmaking generally. * Robert E. Kapsis, Professor of Sociology and Film Studies, Queens College (CUNY), USA, and author of Hitchcock: The Making of a Reputation *
As the first collection to explore the economics of horror movies from Dracula to Scre4m, Merchants of Menace offers a new and illuminating perspective on the history of the genre. Challenging the conventional accounts of horror movies as symptoms of cultural unease, the spectators unconscious or renegade politics, its contributors examine the commercial strategies that have shaped their production and marketing of fear for entertainment, and the audiences who have consumed horror for recreation. * Richard Maltby, Flinders University, Australia, and author of Hollywood Cinema *
Taking us through a century of Anglo-American horror production, Merchants of Menace illustrates how production strategies, target markets, product differentiation and brand identities have all impacted on the themes and preoccupations of this most vital and persistent of popular film genres. Packed with insightful historical research and analysis from some of the most influential scholars in contemporary horror film studies, this book highlights the importance of attending to the industrial and commercial factors that have shaped trends within the horror film from the height of the Hollywood studio system to the digital age. Shedding new light on the studios, production companies, star names, auteur directors, and canonicaland previously under-exploredfilms that characterise horror film history, Merchants of Menace asks us to look at the history of horror cinemaand the vicissitudes of horror production and distributionfrom new and vital perspectives. Essential reading for horror film scholars and fans alike. -- Kate Egan, Lecturer in Film Studies, Aberystwyth University, UK

Author Bio

Richard Nowell teaches American Cinema at the American Studies Department of Charles University in Prague, Czech Republic. He is the author of Blood Money: A History of the First Teen Slasher Film Cycle (2011), he has served as a guest editor of the journal Iluminace, and he has published articles in several journals including the New Review of Film & Television Studies, Post Script, the Journal of Film and Video, InMedia, and Cinema Journal.