Horror Noir
Where Cinema’s Dark Sisters Meet
Paul
Meehan
ISBN
978-0-7864-4597-4
photos, filmography, bibliography, index
softcover
(7 x 10)
2010
Not Yet Published, Available Fall/Winter 2010
Description
This critical survey examines the historical and thematic relationships between two of the cinema’s most popular genres: horror and film noir. The influence of 1930s- and 1940s-era horror films on the development of noir is traced and detailed, with analyses of over 100 motion pictures in which noir criminality and mystery meld with supernatural and psychological horror. Included are the films based on popular horror/mystery radio shows (The Whistler, Inner Sanctum), the works of RKO producer Val Lewton (Cat People, The Seventh Victim), and Alfred Hitchcock’s psychological ghost stories. Also discussed are gothic and costume horror noirs set in the 19th century (The Picture of Dorian Gray, Hangover Square); the noir elements of more recent films; and the film noir aspects of the Hannibal Lecter movies and other serial-killer thrillers.
About the Author
Paul Meehan has also written on UFOs in cinema, and is a contributor to the Noir City Sentinel, the journal of the Film Noir Foundation. He lives in San Francisco.
|
Table of Contents & Excerpts
Related Books
Performing Arts/Film/Noir
Genre/Horror
|
