Kirjahaku

Reanimated offers a new perspective on twenty-first century American horror film remakes. Counter to the critical dismissal of genre remakes as derivative rip-offs, Mee approaches the films as intertextual adaptations which have both drawn from and helped to shape horror since 2000. Covering films from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003) to Candyman (2021), and identifying distinct cycles, production strategies and patterns of reception, this book illustrates the importance of the remake to contemporary horror cinema and addresses key cultural, industry and reception contexts. Rather than representing the death of horror, Reanimated argues that remaking instead demonstrates the genre's capacity for creative recycling, adaptation and evolution.

Reanimated offers a new perspective on twenty-first century American horror film remakes. Counter to the critical dismissal of genre remakes as derivative rip-offs, Mee approaches the films as intertextual adaptations which have both drawn from and helped to shape horror since 2000. Covering films from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003) to Candyman (2021), and identifying distinct cycles, production strategies and patterns of reception, this book illustrates the importance of the remake to contemporary horror cinema and addresses key cultural, industry and reception contexts. Rather than representing the death of horror, Reanimated argues that remaking instead demonstrates the genre's capacity for creative recycling, adaptation and evolution.

Taking a fresh look at The Shining (1980), this book situates the film within the history of the horror genre and examines its rightful status as one of the greatest horror movies ever made. It explores how Stanley Kubrick's filmmaking style, use of dark humor, and ambiguous approach to supernatural storytelling complements generic conventions, and it analyzes the effective choices made in adapting King's book for the screen-stripping the novel's backstory, rejecting its clear explanations of the Overlook Hotel's hauntings, and emphasizing the strained relationships of the Torrance family. The fractured family unit and patriarchal terror of Kubrick's film, alongside its allusions to issues of gender, race, and class, connect it to themes prevalent in horror cinema by the end of the 1970s, and are shown to offer a critique of American society that chimed with the era's political climate as well as its genre trends. The film's impact on horror cinema and broader pop culture is ever apparent, with homages in everything from Toy Story to American Horror Story. The Shining showed that popular, commercial horror films could be smart, artistic, and original.