B-Movie Gothic International Perspectives Edited by Justin D
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Traditions in World Cinema General Editors: Linda Badley and R. Barton Palmer Founding Editor: Steven Jay Schneider JOHAN HÖGLUND JUSTIN D. EDITED BY This series introduces diverse and fascinating movements in world cinema. Each volume concentrates on a set of films from a different national, regional or, in some cases, cross-cultural cinema which constitute a particular tradition. EDWARDS AND EDWARDS B-MOVIE GOTHIC International Perspectives EDITED BY JUSTIN D. EDWARDS AND JOHAN HÖGLUND ‘This book takes head-on the complex question of the relationship between Gothic as a Western-origin art form and the rise of indigenous film of the supernatural and the eerie B-MOVIE GOTHIC across cultures and continents. Its focus on the B-movie is adeptly handled by a variety of distinguished critics, raising important questions about internationalisation and local International Perspectives development. There are many dark gems revealed here, and expertly and engagingly discussed.’ GOTHIC B-MOVIE David Punter, University of Bristol EDITED BY JUSTIN D. EDWARDS AND JOHAN HÖGLUND I Following the Second World War, low-budget B-movies that explored and exploited Gothic nternational Perspectives narratives and aesthetics became a significant cinematic expression of social and cultural anxieties. Influencing new trends in European, Asian and African filmmaking, these films carried on the tradition established by the Gothic novel, and yet they remain part of a largely neglected subject. B-Movie Gothic: International Perspectives examines the influence of Gothic B-movies on the cinematic traditions of the United States, Britain, Scandinavia, Spain, Turkey, Japan, Hong Kong and India, highlighting their transgressive, transnational and provocative nature. The contributors show how B-movie Gothic is a relentlessly creative form, filled with political tensions and moving from shocking conservatism to profound social critique. Justin D. Edwards is Professor in the Division of Literature and Languages, University of Stirling. Johan Höglund is Associate Professor of English at Linnaeus University. Cover design: riverdesign.co.uk Cover image: poster for Them, 1954 © Warner Bros. International Edinburgh 1342 eup Edwards&Höglund_PPC.indd 1 09/03/2018 18:31 B- MOVIE GOTHIC Traditions in World Cinema General Editors Post-beur Cinema Linda Badley (Middle Tennessee State Will Higbee University) New Taiwanese Cinema in Focus R. Barton Palmer (Clemson University) Flannery Wilson Founding Editor International Noir Steven Jay Schneider (New York Homer B. Pettey and R. Barton Palmer University) (eds) Films on Ice Titles in the series include: Scott MacKenzie and Anna Westerståhl Stenport (eds) Traditions in World Cinema Linda Badley, R. Barton Palmer, and Nordic Genre Film Steven Jay Schneider (eds) Tommy Gustafsson and Pietari Kääpä (eds) Japanese Horror Cinema Jay McRoy (ed.) Contemporary Japanese Cinema Since Hana- Bi New Punk Cinema Adam Bingham Nicholas Rombes (ed.) Chinese Martial Arts Cinema (2nd edition) African Filmmaking Stephen Teo Roy Armes Slow Cinema Palestinian Cinema Tiago de Luca and Nuno Barradas Jorge Nurith Gertz and George Khleifi Expressionism in Cinema Czech and Slovak Cinema Olaf Brill and Gary D. Rhodes (eds) Peter Hames French Language Road Cinema The New Neapolitan Cinema Michael Gott Alex Marlow- Mann Transnational Film Remakes American Smart Cinema Iain Robert Smith and Constantine Claire Perkins Verevis The International Film Musical Coming-of-age Cinema in New Zealand Corey Creekmur and Linda Mokdad (eds) Alistair Fox Italian Neorealist Cinema New Transnationalisms in Contemporary Torunn Haaland Latin American Cinemas Magic Realist Cinema in East Central Dolores Tierney Europe Celluloid Cinema Aga Skrodzka Edna Lim Italian Post-Neorealist Cinema Short Films from a Small Nation Luca Barattoni C. Claire Thomson Spanish Horror Film B-Movie Gothic Antonio Lázaro-Reboll Justin D. Edwards and Johan Höglund (eds) edinburghuniversitypress.com/series/tiwc B- MOVIE GOTHIC International Perspectives Edited by Justin D. Edwards and Johan Höglund Edinburgh University Press is one of the leading university presses in the UK. We publish academic books and journals in our selected subject areas across the humanities and social sciences, combining cutting- edge scholarship with high editorial and production values to produce academic works of lasting importance. For more information visit our website: edinburghuniversitypress.com © editorial matter and organisation Justin D. Edwards and Johan Höglund, 2018 © the chapters their several authors, 2018 Edinburgh University Press Ltd The Tun – Holyrood Road 12 (2f) Jackson’s Entry Edinburgh EH8 8PJ Typeset in 10/12.5 pt Sabon by Servis Filmsetting Ltd, Stockport, Cheshire and printed and bound in Great Britain A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN 978 1 4744 2344 1 (hardback) ISBN 978 1 4744 2345 8 (webready PDF) ISBN 978 1 4744 2346 5 (epub) The right of the contributors to be identified as authors of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 and the Copyright and Related Rights Regulations 2003 (SI No. 2498). CONTENTS List of Figures vii Acknowledgements x Traditions in World Cinema xi Introduction: International B- Movie Gothic 1 Justin D. Edwards and Johan Höglund PART I AMERICA 1. Its, Blobs and Things: Gothic Beings Out of Time 17 Justin D. Edwards 2. Re- scripting Blaxploitation Horror: Ganja and Hess and the Gothic Mode 32 Maisha Wester 3. Alucardas and Alucardos: Vampiric Obsessions, Gothic and Mexican Cult Horror Cinema 50 Enrique Ajuria Ibarra 4. Gothic Forests and Mangroves: Ecological Disasters in Zombio and Mangue Negro 64 Daniel Serravalle de Sá CONTENTS PART II EUROPE 5. Mummies, Vampires and Doppelgängers: Hammer’s B- Movies and Classic Gothic Fiction 83 John Edgar Browning 6. Fantaterror: Gothic Monsters in the Golden Age of Spanish B- Movie Horror, 1968–80 95 Xavier Aldana Reyes 7. Austro- trash, Class and the Urban Environment: The Politics of Das Ding aus der Mur and its Prequel 108 Michael Fuchs 8. Wither the Present, Wither the Past: The Low- budget Gothic Horror of Stockholm Syndrome Films 122 Johan Höglund 9. Turkish B- Movie Gothic: Making the Undead Turkish in Ölüler Konus¸maz Ki 139 Tug˘çe Bıçakçı Syed PART III AFRICA AND ASIA 10. Filamu ya kutisha: Tanzanian Horror Films and B- Movie Gothic 157 Claudia Böhme 11. Psychopaths and Gothic Lolitas: Japanese B- Movie Gothic in Gen Takahashi’s Goth: Love and Death and Go Ohara’s Gothic & Lolita Psycho 172 Jay McRoy 12. Hong Kong Gothic: Category III Films as Gothic Cinema 186 Katarzyna Ancuta 13. B is for Bhayanak: Past, Present and Pulp in Bollywood Gothic 209 Tabish Khair Notes on the Contributors 221 Index 225 vi FIGURES 1.1 Carrington grows alien pods in The Thing from Another World 20 1.2 The blob outside the movie theatre in The Blob 28 2.1 Meda and Hess discuss suicide, betrayal, racial isolation and racial violence in a scene evoking Jim Crow violence 35 2.2 Crumbling black statue at elite private school reflects Hess’s cultural and spiritual state 37 3.1 Justine is tortured by the executioner in Alucarda 53 3.2 Manuel and Eduardo pose next to an altar made of merchandise from the film Alucarda in Alucardos 60 4.1 Night shot of zombies walking in the forest 69 4.2 Evisceration special effects 70 4.3 Priestess morphs into a bestial monster 71 4.4 A POV shot of Luís shooting a zombie in the back of the head 74 4.5 A flooded tropical mangrove and a tide- out mangrove with its aerial roots 75 4.6 Old candomblé priestess and night shot of a zombie in the mangrove 77 5.1 A rocket crashes into England’s countryside in The Quatermass Xperiment 86 5.2 Christopher Lee dons his macabre make- up as the Monster in Curse of Frankenstein 87 FIGURES 5.3 Count Dracula embraces Mina, his not-unwilling victim, in Horror of Dracula 88 5.4 Mircalla/Carmilla Karnstein takes Amanda in a lesbian embrace in Lust for a Vampire 93 6.1 Christopher Lee reprised his emblematic Hammer role for Jess Franco’s faithful yet financially compromised adaptation of Bram Stoker’s novel, El conde Drácula / Count Dracula 97 6.2 Amando de Ossorio’s Blind Dead, from the co- production La noche del terror ciego / Tombs of the Blind Dead, are a quintessential example of Spain’s production of national Gothic myths 104 7.1 The Mur about two kilometres north of the old town/city centre of Graz 110 7.2 The Ding in all its glorious ridiculousness 111 7.3 The movies’ amateurish special effects invite what Jeffrey Sconce has called ‘paracinematic reading’ 113 8.1 Promotional poster showing the Swedish villains of Madness 129 8.2 Poster for Wither/Vittra 133 9.1 The poster for Çıg˘lık 143 9.2 Newspaper advert dating back to 24 April 1949 regarding the release of Çıg˘lık 145 9.3 The poster for Ölüler Konus¸maz Ki 147 11.1 Yoru reclines in the stream where the serial killer’s first victim was found in Gen Takahashi’s Goth: Love of Death 177 11.2 Itsuki crouches over the unconscious Yoru in Gen Takahashi’s Goth: Love of Death 179 11.3 The vengeful Yuki wields her deadly parasol in Gô Ohara’s Gothic & Lolita Psycho 180 11.4 Yuki’s mother crucified on the living room wall in Gô Ohara’s Gothic & Lolita Psycho 181 11.5 Clothed in schoolgirl attire, the dangerous Lady Elle opens fire on Yuki in Gô Ohara’s Gothic & Lolita Psycho 183 12.1 Poverty and cramped space contribute to the making of the murderer in Dr. Lamb 190 12.2 Anthony Wong as the Gothic villain: Ebola Syndrome and The Untold Story 192 12.3 The shadow of Hong Kong handover looms over the characters in Run and Kill 195 12.4 The mundane face of cannibalism Human Pork Chop and The Untold Story 198 viii FIGURES 12.5 The interplay of caged spaces and shadows in The Rapist 203 12.6 Evil lurking within the labyrinthine spaces of Red to Kill 204 12.7 Spaces of entrapment and separation: The Underground Banker and Run and Kill 206 ix ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The editors want to thank Edinburgh University Press for making this collec- tion possible.