REVIEW ESSAY: SCARY MOVIE SCHOLARSHIP: SOME RECENT WORK AND NEW DIRECTIONS

摘要

These are exciting days to study horror and popular culture. The genre is alive and well in Hollywood and around the globe. Horror has found its box office mojo once again and had success recently with hits like Dawn of the Dead (2004), The Grudge (2004), Saw (2004) and Saw II (2005), The Exorcism of Emily Rose (2005), and Hostel (2006). Eight horror films have topped the weekly North American box office in each of the last 2 years. This success means more financing and more opportunities for writers and directors to bring their nightmares to the screen and has a trickle down effect to television and direct-to-video production as well. Beyond American shores, new blood and new ideas have been arriving from Europe and, especially from Asia, where Japanese (or "J") horror has been at the cutting edge for the last decade. Alongside all of this production, a new generation of scholars turns its attention to the genre, its history, and the fans and subcultures associated with it, giving us new insights and forging new paths for academic work on what was once a decidedly marginal area of film and media studies.