Foreword
Preface: Black Spanish Blood
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Part I: History
1: From “Repression” to “Possession!”
Part II: The Films
2: Blood Across Borders: The International Co-productions
3: The Hidden Steps: The National Productions
4: Selections for Further Consideration
Part III: What’s Past Is Prologue
5: Aftermath and Rebirth
Appendix
Selective Filmography
Bibliography
Index
About the Author
Nicholas G. Schlegel is an Assistant Professor of Communication at Alfred University. His interests include cult, exploitation and horror cinema with a global emphasis and his essays have appeared in a number of anthologies including Draculas, Vampires, and other Undead Forms: Essays on Gender, Race, and Culture (Scarecrow Press, 2009).
Published scholarship on horror cinema has increased dramatically
in recent years, and now Schlegel provides a readable, informative
history of the genre in Spain. As Schlegel observes, the Spanish
horror film has been understudied; he seeks to fill that gap with
this study, which is the first English-language book on the
subject. Taking a contextual approach significantly influenced by
Fredric Jameson’s The Political Unconscious: Narrative as a
Socially Symbolic Act Schlegel conceives of his project as a
‘cultural history through textual and industrial analysis.’ He
fruitfully examines the socioeconomic, political, cultural, and
historical contexts in which Spanish horror movies were produced in
the ‘boom’ period 1968–1977. Specific topics examined include
Francoist censorship, the financing and marketing of Spanish
national productions and international co-productions,
manifestations of the zombie subgenre in Spain, and the Euro-horror
tradition as manifested in several selected films. Schlegel offers
close readings of key feature films, e.g., El jorobado de la Morgue
. . . .The book's scholarly apparatus is thorough. Summing Up:
Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty.
*CHOICE*
As a history buff and a horror film enthusiast, I found the book
particularly rewarding and admired the way it used extensive
research to explore how social, political and economic unrest can
manifest in movies that have all too often been regulated to the
trash bins of cinema history . . . [The book includes] insightful
essays on some of the best horror films made during the period . .
. Schlegel expertly blends scholarship with measured enthusiasm to
deliver a valuable text that should appeal to genre novices as well
as aficionados.
*TCM's Movie Morlocks*
Sex, Sadism, Spain, and Cinema : The Spanish Horror
Film belongs to the canon of work in which valuable academic
rigor is balanced with a cinephile's passion for
the 'depreciated genre' par excellence -- the horror
film. Nicholas G. Schlegel, a film historian who has previously
written about the Mexican and Japanese horror movies, brings a
considerable amount of information to the area of Spanish
horror … [This is] an indispensable book for the English language
market; we can only hope that its author will publish a second
volume.
*Hypotheses.org*
[Schlegel] has written an amazing book about Spanish horror. . .
.[The author's]interaction to historical settings, to historical
events . . . and everything [else] that you have in the book . . .
[makes it] one of the best ones I’ve ever read . . . I was very
impressed that a person who is not Spanish could have done
something so great about our culture.
*Spanishfear.com-Horror Rises From Spain*
Sex, Sadism, Spain, and Cinema is as much for fans of horror
films as it is for scholars of film history and cultural studies.
It is the best book on the subject. This book is very
well-referenced and well-researched. It should be part of
university film courses.
*The Washington BookReview*
[The book] represents a wonderful way of approaching our
cinematography for those who want to enter on Spanish horror cinema
of that time, but also for the scholars in the subject, since it
offers a point of view free of nostalgia or favoritism, and lacking
any kind of prejudice. . . .Proyecto Naschy strongly recommends
[this book] to anyone interested in Spanish horror cinema.
*Proyecto Naschy*
Ask a Question About this Product More... |