The Laughing Dead
The Horror-Comedy Film from Bride of Frankenstein to Zombieland
1st Edition
Published on 20. May 2016
296 pages
978-1-4422-6833-3 (ISBN)
Description
Hybrid films that straddle more than one genre are not unusual. But when seemingly incongruous genres are mashed together, such as horror and comedy, filmmakers often have to tread carefully to produce a cohesive, satisfying work. Though they date as far back as James Whale's Bride of Frankenstein (1935), horror-comedies have only recently become popular attractions for movie goers.
In The Laughing Dead: The Horror-Comedy Film from Bride of Frankenstein to Zombieland, editors Cynthia J. Miller and A. Bowdoin Van Riper have compiled essays on the comic undead that look at the subgenre from a variety of perspectives. Spanning virtually the entire sound era, this collection considers everything from classics like The Canterville Ghost to modern cult favorites like Shaun of the Dead. Other films discussed include Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein, Beetlejuice, Ghostbusters, House on Haunted Hill, ParaNorman, Scream, Vampire's Kiss, and Zombieland.
Contributors in this volume consider a wide array of comedic monster films-from heartwarming (The Book of Life) to pitch dark (The Fearless Vampire Killers) and even grotesque (Frankenhooker). The Laughing Dead will be of interest to scholars and fans of both horror and comedy films, as well as those interested in film history and, of course, the proliferation of the undead in popular culture.
In The Laughing Dead: The Horror-Comedy Film from Bride of Frankenstein to Zombieland, editors Cynthia J. Miller and A. Bowdoin Van Riper have compiled essays on the comic undead that look at the subgenre from a variety of perspectives. Spanning virtually the entire sound era, this collection considers everything from classics like The Canterville Ghost to modern cult favorites like Shaun of the Dead. Other films discussed include Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein, Beetlejuice, Ghostbusters, House on Haunted Hill, ParaNorman, Scream, Vampire's Kiss, and Zombieland.
Contributors in this volume consider a wide array of comedic monster films-from heartwarming (The Book of Life) to pitch dark (The Fearless Vampire Killers) and even grotesque (Frankenhooker). The Laughing Dead will be of interest to scholars and fans of both horror and comedy films, as well as those interested in film history and, of course, the proliferation of the undead in popular culture.
More details
Edition
1. Auflage
Language
English
Place of publication
New York
United States
Publishing group
Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Illustrations
35 b/w photos;
ISBN-13
978-1-4422-6833-3 (9781442268333)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Cynthia J. Miller | A. Bowdoin Van Riper
The Laughing Dead
The Horror-Comedy Film from Bride of Frankenstein to Zombieland
Book
05/2016
Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
€130.30
Shipment within 10-20 days
Persons
Cynthia J. Miller teaches at Emerson College. She is the editor of Too Bold for the Box Office: The Mockumentary from Big Screen to Small (2012) and coeditor of Steaming into a Victorian Future: A Steampunk Anthology (2012) and Border Visions: Identity and Diaspora in Film (2013), all published by Scarecrow Press. She is also film review editor for the journal Film & History and editor for Rowman & Littlefield's Film and History series.
A. Bowdoin Van Riper is a historian and the author of A Biographical Encyclopedia of Scientists and Inventors in American Film and Television (Scarecrow, 2011).
Miller and Van Riper are editors of Undead in the West (Scarecrow, 2012), Undead in the West II (Scarecrow, 2013), International Westerns (Scarecrow, 2013) and Horrors of War: The Undead on the Battlefield (Rowman & Littlefield, 2015).
A. Bowdoin Van Riper is a historian and the author of A Biographical Encyclopedia of Scientists and Inventors in American Film and Television (Scarecrow, 2011).
Miller and Van Riper are editors of Undead in the West (Scarecrow, 2012), Undead in the West II (Scarecrow, 2013), International Westerns (Scarecrow, 2013) and Horrors of War: The Undead on the Battlefield (Rowman & Littlefield, 2015).
Content
- Intro
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- Part I. PLAYING WITH GENRE
- Chapter 1. "Oy, Have You Got the Wrong Vampire": Dislocation, Comic Distancing, and Political Critique in Roman Polanski's The Fearless Vampire Killers (1967)
- Chapter 2. Zany Zombies, Grinning Ghosts, Silly Scientists, and Nasty Nazis: Comedy-Horror at the Threshold of World War II
- Chapter 3. "The Limeys Are Coming, Barbara, and They're Laughing!": The Art of the Romeroesque in Shaun of the Dead and Dead Set
- Chapter 4. Undead in the City: The Vampire's Kiss (1988) and Its Kin
- Chapter 5. Beyond Fear in The Book of Life: Discussions on Children,Death, and Latinidad
- Part II. HORROR, IN THEORY
- Chapter 6. The Humor of William Castle's Gimmick Films
- Chapter 7. "We're Not All Dead Yet": Humor amid the Horror in James Whale's Bride of Frankenstein
- Chapter 8. Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948): Laughing in the Face of an Uncertain Future
- Chapter 9. Humor in Vampire Films: The Vampire as Joker
- Chapter 10. Queerness and the Undead Female Monster
- Chapter 11. Rules for Surviving a Horror Comedy: Satiric Genre Transformation from Scream to Zombieland
- Part III. THERE GOES THE NEIGHBORHOOD
- Chapter 12. Better Living through Zombies: Assessing the Allegory of Consumerism and Empowerment in Andrew Currie's Fido
- Chapter 13. "Who You Gonna Call?": The Supernatural and the Service Economy in the Ghostbusters Films
- Chapter 14. The Queer and the Dead: Transgressive Sexuality in Shaun of the Dead
- Chapter 15. Undead in Suburbia: Teaching Children to Love Thy Neighbor, Fangs and All
- Chapter 16. Some Assembly Required: The Do-It-Yourself Undead
- Index
- About the Contributors
- About the Editors
