Baroque aesthetics in contemporary American horror 1st ed.

Author

• Eljaiek-Rodríguez, Gabriel

Additional Author(s)

-

Publisher

Cham, Switzerland : Springer International Publishing, 2021

Language

English

ISBN

9783030882518

Series

Subject(s)

• FILM GENRES

Notes

. .

Abstract

This book traces a trend that has emerged in recent years within the modern panorama of American horror film and television, the concurrent—and often overwhelming—use of multiple stock characters, themes and tropes taken from classics of the genre. American Horror Story, Insidious and The Conjuring are examples of a filmic tendency to address a series of topics and themes so vast that at first glance each taken separately would seem to suffice for individual films or shows. This book explores this trend in its visible connections with American Horror, but also with cultural and artistic movements from outside the US, namely Baroque art and architecture, Asian Horror, and European Horror. It analyzes how these hybrid products are constructed and discusses the socio-political issues that they raise. The repeated and excessive barrage of images, tropes and scenarios from distinct subgenres of iconic horror films come together to make up an aesthetic that is referred to in this book as Baroque Horror. In many ways similar to the reactions provoked by the artistic movement of the same name that flourished in the XVII century, these productions induce shock, awe, fear, and surprise. Eljaiek-Rodríguez details how American directors and filmmakers construct these narratives using different and sometimes disparate elements that come together to function as a whole, terrifying the audience through their frenetic accumulation of images, tropes and plot twists. The book also addresses some of the effects that these complex films and series have produced both in the panorama of contemporary horror, as well as in how we understand politics in a divisive world that pushes for ideological homogenizations.

Physical Dimension

Number of Page(s)

1 online resource (viii, 179 p.)

Dimension

-

Other Desc.

-

Summary / Review / Table of Content

1. Introduction. Tracing Monstrous Multiplicity
2. Baroque Aesthetics and Horrors
3. US Baroque Horror Series: American Horror Story, Penny Dreadful, Hemlock Grove.-4. Saturating the Big Screen: Insidious Franchise and The Conjuring Universe
5. Baroque Horror Politics. Get Out and American Horror Story: Cult
6. Conclusion: "My name is Legion for we are many."

Exemplar(s)

#	Accession No.	Call Number	Location	Status
1.	00741/22	791.4361640973 Elj B	Online !	Available