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This book argues that Halloween need not be the first nor the most influential youth slasher film for it to hold a special place in the history of youth cinema.
John Carpenter's 1978 horror hit was once considered the be-all, end-all of teen slasher cinema and was regarded as the first, the best, and the most influential American slasher film. Recent revisions in film history, however, have challenged Halloween's comfortable place in the canon of youth horror cinema. However, this book argues that the film, like no other, draws from the themes, imagery, and obsessions that fueled youth horror cinema since the 1950s-Gothic atmosphere, atomic dread, twisted psychology, and alienated teenage monsters-and ties them together in the deceptively simple story of a masked killer on Halloween night. Along the way, the film delivers a savage critique of social institutions and their failure to protect young people. Halloween also depicts a cadre of compelling and complicated youth characters: teenage babysitters watching over preadolescents as a killer, who is viciously avoiding the responsibilities of young adulthood, stalks them through the shadows.
This book explores all these aspects of Halloween, including the franchise it spawned, providing an invaluable insight into this iconic film for students and researchers alike.
List of contents
Chapter 1: I Was A Teenage Psycho Killer: Halloween and the History of Youth Horror Cinema
Chapter 2: Familial and Societal Failure: Reading Youth and Ideology in Halloween
Chapter 3: A Triptych of Youth: Teenagers, Preadolescents, and Young Adults in Halloween
Chapter 4: The Mise en Abyme of Youth: The Halloween Franchise
About the author
Mark Bernard is Assistant Professor of English at Siena Heights University. His primary research interests are horror cinema and media industries. He is the author of Selling the Splat Pack: The DVD Revolution and the American Horror Film.
Summary
This book explores the multi-dimensional nature of "youth" in Halloween by looking at the film in relation to youth-focused horror films that came before and after it. The book also illustrates how the film offers complex portrayals not only of teenagers, but also pre-adolescents and young adults.
