Monstrous nature : environment and horror on the big screen / Robin L. Murray and Joseph K. Heumann.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Murray, Robin L., author.

Heumann, Joseph K., author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Horror films--History and criticism.

Horror films.

Environmental protection and motion pictures.

Nature in motion pictures.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (269 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Lincoln, Nebraska ; London, England : University of Nebraska Press, 2016.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Godzilla, a traditional natural monster and representation of cinema's subgenre of natural attack, also provides a cautionary symbol of the dangerous consequences of mistreating the natural world-monstrous nature on the attack. Horror films such as Godzilla invite an exploration of the complexities of a monstrous nature that humanity both creates and embodies. Robin L. Murray and Joseph K. Heumann demonstrate how the horror film and its offshoots can often be understood in relation to a monstrous nature that has evolved either deliberately or by accident and that generates fear in humanity as both character and audience. This connection between fear and the natural world opens up possibilities for ecocritical readings often missing from research on monstrous nature, the environment, and the horror film. Organized in relation to four recurring environmental themes in films that construct nature as a monster-anthropomorphism, human ecology, evolution, and gendered landscapes-the authors apply ecocritical perspectives to reveal the multiple ways nature is constructed as monstrous or in which the natural world itself constructs monsters. This interdisciplinary approach to film studies fuses cultural, theological, and scientific critiques to explore when and why nature becomes monstrous.

Contents:

Introduction

Part 1. Anthropomorphism and the "big bug" movie

Hellstrom chronicle and Beetle Queen conquers Tokyo: anthropomorphizing nature for humans

"As beautiful as a butterfly": monstrous cockroach nature and the horror film

Part 2. Human ecology and the horror film

The earth bites back: vampires and the ecological roots of home

Through an eco-lens of childhood: Roberto Rossellini's Germany year zero and Guillermo del Toro's The devil's backbone

Part 3. Evolution and monstrous nature

Zombie evolution: a new world with or without humans

Laughter and the eco-horror film: the Troma solution

Parasite evolution in the eco-horror film: when the host becomes the monster

Gendering the cannibal: bodies and landscapes in feminist cannibal movies

American Mary and body modification: nature and the art of change

Conclusion: monstrous nature and the new cli-fi cinema

Filmography.

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references, filmography and index.

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9780803294905

0803294905

9780803294929

0803294921

OCLC:

930364380