Fear, Cultural Anxiety, and Transformation

Horror, Science Fiction, and Fantasy Films Remade

Contributions by Shane Borrowman, Costas Constandinides, Daryl G. Frazetti, Daniel Herbert, Ils Huygens, Stan Jones, Zilia Papp, Myoungsook Park, Juneko J. Robinson, Constantine Verevis Edited by Scott A. Lukas, John Marmysz

Publication date:

23 October 2008

Length of book:

310 pages

Publisher

Lexington Books

Dimensions:

239x162mm
6x9"

ISBN-13: 9780739124888

This collection was inspired by the observation that film remakes offer us the opportunity to revisit important issues, stories, themes, and topics in a manner that is especially relevant and meaningful to contemporary audiences. Like mythic stories that are told again and again in differing ways, film remakes present us with updated perspectives on timeless ideas. While some remakes succeed and others fail aesthetically, they always say something about the culture in which—and for which—they are produced.

Contributors explore the ways in which the fears of death, loss of self, and bodily violence have been expressed and then reinterpreted in such films and remakes as Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Night of the Living Dead, and Dawn of the Dead. Films such as Rollerball, The Ring, The Grudge, The Great Yokai Wars, and Insomnia are discussed as well because of their ability to give voice to collective anxieties concerning cultural change, nihilism, and globalization. While opening on a note that emphasizes the compulsion of filmmakers to revisit issues concerning fear and anxiety, this collection ends by using films like Solaris, King Kong, Star Trek, Doom, and Van Helsing to suggest that repeated confrontation with these issues allows the opportunity for creative and positive transformation.
If horror is really about the return of the repressed, then the thought of infinite repetition is the most frightening of all: the stifling security in the knowledge that nothing will ever change. This book, thanks to the insight and intelligence of Lukas and Marmysz, shows how one additional repetition—the remake—can have the power to break the spell and carve out a space for genuine innovation in a world of perpetual sameness. This is a crucial text for anyone interest in popular culture and genre film, but it is, even more importantly, a perspicacious anatomy of what terrifies us the most.