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Grief in Contemporary Horror Cinema

Screening Loss

Edited by Erica Joan Dymond - Contributions by Aspen Taylor Ballas; Michael Brown; Megan DeVirgilis; Erica Joan Dymond; Andrija Filipović; Andrew Grossman; Racheal Harris; Todd K. Platts; Lindsey Scott and Rebecca L. Willoughby

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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Lexington Books
Pages: 230 • Trim: 6¼ x 9½
978-1-7936-3393-4 • Hardback • October 2022 • $110.00 • (£85.00)
978-1-7936-3395-8 • Paperback • January 2025 • $39.99 • (£30.00)
978-1-7936-3394-1 • eBook • October 2022 • $45.00 • (£35.00)
Series: Lexington Books Horror Studies
Subjects: Social Science / Popular Culture, Performing Arts / Film / Genres / Horror, Performing Arts / Film / General

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

Part I: Loss and the Child: Grief and Endangered Youth

Chapter 1. Horror at the Crossroads: Mapping the Child’s Grief in Pan’s Labyrinth (2006)

Lindsey Scott

Chapter 2. “We Can Survive This”: An Examination of Loss and Grief in Juan Antonio Bayona’s Elorfanato (The Orphanage) (2007)

Erica Joan Dymond

Chapter 3. Elevating Grief: Ari Aster’s Hereditary (2018) and the A24 Horror Film

Andrew Grossman and Todd K. Platts

Part II: Loss and Gender: Grief and Motherhood/Womanhood

Chapter 4. To Make You Feel My Love: Jennifer Kent’s The Babadook (2014), Motherhood, and Loss

Rebecca L. Willoughby

Chapter 5. The Myth of the Natural Woman: Horror and Grief in Ari Aster’s Midsommar (2019)

Aspen Taylor Ballas

Part III: Loss and National Identity: Grief and History

Chapter 6. O Father, Where Art Thou?: Grief and Cannibal Culture in Jorge Michel Grau’s Somos lo que hay (We Are What We Are) (2010)

Megan DeVirgilis

Chapter 7. Sadness is Rebellion: The Ontopolitics of Queer Loss in Mladen Đorđević’sŽivot i smrt porno bande (The Life and Death of a Porno Gang)(2009)

Andrija Filipović

Chapter 8. The Grieving Dead: Haunting and the Haunted in The Spierig Brothers’ Winchester (2018)

Racheal Harris

Part IV: Loss and The Known World: Grief and Annihilation

Chapter 9. “No One Will Miss It”: Lars Von Trier’s Antichrist (2009) and Melancholia (2011) and the World-Without-Us

Michael Brown

Grief in Contemporary Horror Cinema: Screening Loss is an accessible and wide-ranging exploration of grief as represented in many of the most interesting recent horror films on the topic. Of particular interest is the collection's inclusion of insightful essays addressing the socialization of grief through gender, sexuality, the family, and colonialism and how these complexities manifest in the themes and aesthetics of horror films.


— Johanna Isaacson, Modesto Junior College


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


Grief in Contemporary Horror Cinema

Screening Loss

Cover Image
Hardback
Paperback
eBook
Summary
Summary
  • 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.

Details
Details
  • Lexington Books
    Pages: 230 • Trim: 6¼ x 9½
    978-1-7936-3393-4 • Hardback • October 2022 • $110.00 • (£85.00)
    978-1-7936-3395-8 • Paperback • January 2025 • $39.99 • (£30.00)
    978-1-7936-3394-1 • eBook • October 2022 • $45.00 • (£35.00)
    Series: Lexington Books Horror Studies
    Subjects: Social Science / Popular Culture, Performing Arts / Film / Genres / Horror, Performing Arts / Film / General
Author
Author
  • Erica Joan Dymond is assistant professor of English at East Stroudsburg University.

Table of Contents
Table of Contents
  • Part I: Loss and the Child: Grief and Endangered Youth

    Chapter 1. Horror at the Crossroads: Mapping the Child’s Grief in Pan’s Labyrinth (2006)

    Lindsey Scott

    Chapter 2. “We Can Survive This”: An Examination of Loss and Grief in Juan Antonio Bayona’s Elorfanato (The Orphanage) (2007)

    Erica Joan Dymond

    Chapter 3. Elevating Grief: Ari Aster’s Hereditary (2018) and the A24 Horror Film

    Andrew Grossman and Todd K. Platts

    Part II: Loss and Gender: Grief and Motherhood/Womanhood

    Chapter 4. To Make You Feel My Love: Jennifer Kent’s The Babadook (2014), Motherhood, and Loss

    Rebecca L. Willoughby

    Chapter 5. The Myth of the Natural Woman: Horror and Grief in Ari Aster’s Midsommar (2019)

    Aspen Taylor Ballas

    Part III: Loss and National Identity: Grief and History

    Chapter 6. O Father, Where Art Thou?: Grief and Cannibal Culture in Jorge Michel Grau’s Somos lo que hay (We Are What We Are) (2010)

    Megan DeVirgilis

    Chapter 7. Sadness is Rebellion: The Ontopolitics of Queer Loss in Mladen Đorđević’sŽivot i smrt porno bande (The Life and Death of a Porno Gang)(2009)

    Andrija Filipović

    Chapter 8. The Grieving Dead: Haunting and the Haunted in The Spierig Brothers’ Winchester (2018)

    Racheal Harris

    Part IV: Loss and The Known World: Grief and Annihilation

    Chapter 9. “No One Will Miss It”: Lars Von Trier’s Antichrist (2009) and Melancholia (2011) and the World-Without-Us

    Michael Brown

Reviews
Reviews
  • Grief in Contemporary Horror Cinema: Screening Loss is an accessible and wide-ranging exploration of grief as represented in many of the most interesting recent horror films on the topic. Of particular interest is the collection's inclusion of insightful essays addressing the socialization of grief through gender, sexuality, the family, and colonialism and how these complexities manifest in the themes and aesthetics of horror films.


    — Johanna Isaacson, Modesto Junior College


    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


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