Kirjahaku

In 1948, the Australian government banned the production, importation and exhibition of horror films in a move to appease religious communities and entertainment watchdogs. Drawing upon previously unseen government documents, private letters and contemporary newspaper accounts, this book is the first to extensively cover the history of censorship and the early production of horror movies in Australia. Beginning its examination in the late 19th century, the book documents the earliest horror films like Georges Melies' The Haunted Castle (1896), and how Australians enjoyed such films before the ban. The book then explains how certain imports, like 1954's Creature from the Black Lagoon, were able to circumvent the ban while others were not. It also reveals how Australian television, though similarly impacted by government censorship, was occasionally able to broadcast films technically banned from cinematic release. The work concludes with a look at the first Australian horror films produced after the ban was formally lifted in 1969, like Terry Bourke's Night of Fear (1973).

The Guyra Ghost remains one of the most famous paranormal events to happen in Australia.In early April 1921, a series of strange, unexplained events began to happen in the small town of Guyra, New South Wales. Stones were thrown at a house, seemingly from nowhere, the walls rocked with bangs and thuds and a young woman claimed to speak to her dead sister. But was it a ghost? What did haunt the Bowen family? This book also covers the reaction of a country, the media, the stage plays and parodies, the attacks and the now lost movie that was made about the hauntings, in the Bowen house, while the haunting was actually happening.More importantly, this book names, for the first time, the most likely suspect for the source of the stone throwing, the failed attacks on Minnie Bowen and the reasons why. Read about a mad rapist who lived in the Guyra area at the time, and where he fits into the story.The Guyra Ghost Mystery might never be solved, but this book, Hunting The Guyra Ghost, sheds new light on a near 100-year-old event.