Diseased Cinema : Plagues, Pandemics and Zombies in American Movies / Robert Alpert, Merle Eisenberg, and Lee Mordechai.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Alpert, Robert, author.

Eisenberg, Merle, author.

Mordechai, Lee, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Mental illness in literature.

Mind and body in literature.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (265 pages)

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Edinburgh, Scotland : Edinburgh University Press Ltd, [2024]

Summary:

Discusses how the depiction of diseases in movies has changed over the last century and what these changes reveal about American culture.

Contents:

Intro

Figures

Preface

Introduction

Disease Movies Past and Present

Early Disease Movies from the Advent of Film to the Early 1990s

The Rise of Viral Disease Movies and a Nostalgia for the Past

Post-Apocalyptic Worlds and Posthumanity

Future Pandemics in Movies

1. Early Disease Movies: American Norms and Containment

The Origins of Disease Movies: From Silent Films to World War II

The Heroic Public Servant and the American Dream: Panic in the Streets (1950)

An Alternative Vision: The Seventh Seal (1957)

Revealing the Rot in American Values: Night of the Living Dead (1968)

A Critique of Values and a Global Pandemic: Shivers (1975) and Virus (1980)

Conclusion

2. Disease Movies in Transition: Globalization and Imagined Containment

The Disease Is Contained: Outbreak (1995)

Prescient Transitions: 12 Monkeys (1995) and 28 Days Later (2002)

Fast Zombies and Fragmentation: Dawn of the Dead (2004)

Dark Disease Movies and a Pandemic Sequel: 28 Weeks Later (2007)

3. Post-Apocalyptic Disease Movies: Pandemics and Posthumanity

Spiritual Faith in the Twenty-First Century: Children of Men (2006) and Black Death (2010)

Individual Choice in a Fractured Society: Contagion (2011)

Patriarchal Zombie Pandemics: Zombieland (2009) and World War Z (2013)

Hope for a New Society: Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011) and Its Sequels

4. Remaking Humanity: The Body Snatchers

The Infection of Small-Town America: Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)

The Spread to Urban America: Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978)

An Aggressive Expansion across America: Body Snatchers (1993)

The Attractive Threat: The Invasion (2007)

The Happy, Bio-Engineered Transformation: Little Joe (2019).

Conclusion

5. Popularizing the Pandemic: The Resident Evil Franchise

Nostalgia for an Imagined Containment: Resident Evil (2002)

Transitions and New Paradigms: Apocalypse (2004), Extinction (2007), Afterlife (2010) and Retribution (2012)

The New Apotheosis: The Final Chapter (2016)

6. Movie Myths: The COVID-19 Pandemic

Consuming Movie Pandemics during COVID

The Blurring of COVID and the Movie Pandemic Landscape

The Wrong Lessons of Movie Stories

The Stories Missing in Movies

The Historical Arc of Disease Movies

Depicting an End of Times Landscape

The COVID Story

Movie Myths and Stories for the Future

Bibliography

INDEX.

Notes:

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

Description based on print version record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

1-3995-2168-3

1-3995-2167-5