Recovering 1940s Horror Cinema

Mario DeGiglio-Bellemare teaches genre cinema and monster ethics in the Humanities Department of John Abbott College.Charlie Ellbé earned an M.A. in film studies at Concordia University, with a focus on art direction in 1930s Universal horror.Kristopher Woofter teaches horror cinema and the Gothic in the English Department of Dawson College.

• “Introduction: Fragments of the Monster—Recovering a Lost Decade”Mario DeGiglio-Bellemare, Kristopher WoofterImage:“Motion Picture Purgatory: The Devil Bat (1940)”Rick TremblesPart I. InterventionsChapter 1. “A ‘Darkly Hypothetical Reality’: ‘Gothic Realism’ in 1940s Hollywood Horror”Kristopher WoofterChapter 2. “Strange Pleasure: 1940s Proto-Slasher Cinema”Peter MarraChapter 3. “Dead Zone: Genre, Gender, and the ‘Lost Decade’ of Horror Cinema, 1946-56”Ian OlneyChapter 4. “Val Lewton, Mr. Gross, and the Grand-Guignol: ‘Re-Staging’ the Corpse in The Body SnatcherMario DeGiglio-BellemarePart II. HybridityChapter 5. “Robert Siodmak’s The Spiral Staircase: Horror Genre Hybridity, Vertical Alterity and the Avant-Garde”Anne GoldenChapter 6. “The Child Witness: Peril and Empowerment in 1940s Horror, from The East Side Kids to The Window”Kier-La JanisseChapter 7. “Making Visible the Sonic Threat: The Inner Sanctum Mysteries Radio Series and Its Universal Studios Film Adaptation

The vast majority of [the] essays are as lucid and pleasurable to read as they are thought provoking . . . Kier-La Janisse’s study of the appeal of the horror comedies of the East End Kids for real kids is downright fun.