Fear Without Frontiers: Horror Cinema Across the Globe [Paperback]

Steven Jay Schneider (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 2003

Included in The Guardian's list of the top ten film books of 2003! (Guardian Guide, December 20-26, 2003) Horror movies have always found receptive audiences in their home countries. Finally, the genre's most colourful and least familiar directors and stars are given their due in editor Steven Schneider's wide-ranging collection of articles and interviews from a fine assembly of renowned world horror experts. Discover such hidden treasures of world cinematic horror as Singapore's pontianak cycle, 1930s Mexican vampire movies, Austrian serial killer flicks, Germany's Edgar Wallace krimis, Bollywood ghost stories, Indonesia's penanggalan tales, the Chinese take on Phantom of the Opera, and the Turkish versions of Dracula and The Exorcist. 24 pulse-pounding chapters with selected filmographies and scores of images from the movies under discussion, including a stunning 16-page full-colour section! Learn about the amazing horror films of: Austria, Brazil, Chile, China, Cuba, France, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Thailand, Mexico, The Philippines, Poland, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, Turkey Meet fascinating and exotic horror filmmakers and monsters from every corner of the globe, including: Hideo Nakata, Paul Naschy, Anthony Wong, Wolfgang Preiss, Maria Menado, Sion Sono, Alejandro Jodorowsky, Nonzee Nimibutr, Jean Rollin, Maxu Weibang, Gallaga & Reyes, The Ramsay Brothers, Pupi Avati, Walerian Borowczyk, José ""Coffin Joe"" Mojica Marins, Jorge Molina, Kim Ki-Young, Takashi Miike and more! Fear Without Frontiers - Contents PART I: ARTISTS, ACTORS, AUTEURS * Madmen, visionaries and freaks: the films of Alejandro Jodorowsky * Coffin Joe and José Mojica Marins: strange men for strange times * Return of the phantom: Maxu Weibang's Midnight Song * Enfant terrible: the terrorful, wonderful world of Anthony Wong * The rain beneath the earth: an interview with Nonzee Nimibutr * Cinema of the doomed: the tragic horror of Paul Naschy * Sex and death, Cuban style: the dark vision of Jorge Molina PART II: FILMS, SERIES, CYCLES * Fantasmas del cine Mexicano: the 1930s horror film cycle of Mexico * The cosmic mill of Wolfgang Preiss: Giorgio Ferroni's Mill of the Stone Women * The ""lost"" horror film series: the Edgar Wallace krimis * The exotic pontianaks * Playing with genre: defining the Italian giallo * The Italian zombie film: from derivation to invention * Austrian psycho killers & home invaders: the horror-thrillers Angst & Funny Games PART III: GENRE HISTORIES AND STUDIES * Coming of age: the South Korean horror film * Between appropriation and innovation: Turkish horror cinema * Witches, spells and politics: the horror films of Indonesia * The unreliable narrator: subversive storytelling in Polish horror cinema * The Beast from Bollywood: a history of the Indian horror film * In a climate of terror: the Filipino monster movie * French revolution: the secret history of Gallic horror movies PART IV: CASE STUDY - JAPANESE HORROR CINEMA * Pain threshhold: the cinema of Takashi Miike * The Japanese horror film series: Ring and Eko Eko Azarak * The urban techno-alienation of Sion Sono's Suicide Club

Product Details

• Paperback: 319 pages
• Publisher: Fab Press (August 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1903254159
• ISBN-13: 978-1903254158
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 7.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,125,134 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Steven Jay Schneider is a film critic, scholar, and producer with M.A. degrees in Philosophy from Harvard University and in Cinema Studies from New York University. He is the author and editor of numerous books on world cinema, most notably in the horror genre. They include Eurohorror, The Cinema of Wes Craven: An Auteur on Elm Street, Designing Fear: An Aesthetics of Cinematic Horror, Killing in Style: Artistic Murder in the Movies, Understanding Film Genres, and Traditions in World Cinema. He is also a consultant for film, television, and home video/DVD production companies, a curator for world horror film programs, and a staff member in development for Paramount Pictures. Among his recent titles are 501 Movie Stars and 501 Movie Directors, both available in North America from Barron's. Two additional titles from Barron's are scheduled for publication in Spring 09. They are 101 Horror Movies You Must See Before You Die and 101 Sci-Fi Movies You Must See Before You Die.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars tremendous international horror information, April 1, 2004

By 

Lee (New York) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Fear Without Frontiers: Horror Cinema Across the Globe (Paperback)

Horror is the only true international genre. The fear of evil knows no borders. Mr. Schneider my be the only true international horror expert around. He's constantly digging up old films from the past from the tiniest country to find what kind of fear factor they might have had. This specific book is a grand collection of significant horror films from almost every major country. It speaks volumes about the different insecurities that lie between different nations. There is a wealth of grisly photos for the serious horror buff but also an abundance of educational information for the intellectual horror fan. If you want to know what the horror genre truly means and stands for, this is the book to get.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Horror over the whole world, February 28, 2005

By 

Zack Davisson "japanreviewed" (Seattle, WA, USA) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (2008 HOLIDAY TEAM)    (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

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This review is from: Fear Without Frontiers: Horror Cinema Across the Globe (Paperback)

Everyone is afraid of something. No matter where they are in the world, no matter what culture, people know that there is something lurking around the shadows, creeping under the bed. Every culture's creative expression is ripe with these specific horrors, including painting, novels, poetry, plays and, of course, film. If a civilization has access to a movie camera, they will make a horror flick.

"Fear Without Frontiers" is a guided tour of this world horror-fest. Traveling from Spain to Hong Kong to France to Singapore to Japan to India to Italy to...well, pretty much everywhere, the various authors showcase the horror-film culture and history of these respective countries. Your tour guides through this atrocity exhibition are an elite group of film scholars, professors of film studies, film historians and other academic film professionals. This is no fan book.

Sometimes focusing on an individual creator, such as Brazil's Jose Mojica Marins ("Coffin Joe") or Hong Kong's Anthony Wong ("The Untold Story,") and sometimes a phenomenon, such as Singapore's Pontianak films and Italy's Zombie obsession, each entry is an incredibly well-researched and intelligent exposition of the subject matter. Each article is footnoted and referenced, leading the way to other books and journal articles on the same subject matter. The amount of information is truly staggering, and I would have never have guessed that there was an expert on Indonesian snake-woman films.

While each country gets a fair showing, Japan gets a special "case study," with three articles on different aspects of Japanese horror cinema. There is an article/interview with Miike Takashi ("Ichi the Killer," "Audition,") an exploration of two popular horror cycles, the "Ring" films and the "Eko Eko Azarak" series, and a look at the modern shocker "Suicide Circle" along with an interview with director Sion Sono.

What is missing from "Fear Without Frontiers" is a cross-examination of the various world horror-cultures. Although the Vampire film is fairly universal, there is no comparison of a Turkish vampire film with an Italian or French vampire film. Each entry is an isolated event, having no relation to previous entries.

This one flaw accounted for, "Fear Without Frontiers" is an amazing book, of great interest to anyone interested in horror films and/or world cinema. The sheer variety of things-that-go-bump-in-the-night is fascinating, as are the laws and censors that shape how these fears can be expressed on film.