Taiwanese Horror Cinema in the 21st Century

Corrado Neri is the Director of the CEFC (French Centre for Research on Contemporary China) and Professor at Jean Moulin University Lyon 3.

• Contents; Introduction; 1. The Self-Autopsy: Auto-Referential Dead; 2. Rural Gothic and the Digital Age; 3. Political Ghosts; 4. Queer Teen Spirits; 5. Elevated Horror; Filmography; Bibliography; Index

Corrado Neri’s book is an original, rich, and timely contribution to Taiwan film studies. It bridges theoretical sophistication with cinephile enthusiasm, offering an innovative framework for understanding ghost cinema in Taiwan — Wafa Ghermani, National Central UniversityContemporary Taiwanese Horror Cinema: Ghosts and Haunted Screens moves beyond the established New Cinema canon to map a new and commercially vital field. Corrado Neri offers a compelling and original contribution, arguing that the Taiwanese horror is not merely an industrial trend but a crucial cultural space for negotiating the island’s most pressing concerns around such topics as unresolved historical traumas and queer identity. With impressive theoretical grounding in films ranging from mainstream hits like Incantation to experimental works like The Ghost of the Dark Path, this book will immediately become a valuable source for anyone writing about post-2000s Taiwanese genre film — Chia-rong Wu, Associate Professor (Reader), Coordinator of the Chinese and Sinophone Studies Programme, School of Language, Social & Political Sciences, Toi TangataThe proliferation of supernatural and horror films has been a major feature of twenty-first century Taiwanese cinema. This wide-ranging exploration of the island’s onscreen ghosts, spirits, and demons makes a compelling case for their cultural significance, illuminating our understanding of recent trends. Driven by a cinephile passion, Neri astutely analyses how haunting, as a concept, has enabled filmmakers to contribute to diverse discourses around digital mediation, historical trauma, and queer identity.— Christopher Brown, National Central University"Infectiously enthusiastic and analytically sharp, Corrado Neri’s monograph dives into the ocean of contemporary Taiwanese horror movies to show how the most modern and scientific of societies is simultaneously haunted by restless spirits and wandering phantoms of multiple past colonisations, martial law, and troubling future prospects" — Chris Berry, King's College London.