Fairytale and Gothic Horror

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xii

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2. Introduction

   • Laura Hubner

   Pages 1-12

3. Fairytale Roots and Transformations

   • Laura Hubner

   Pages 13-41

4. Gothic Transgression, Horror and Film

   • Laura Hubner

   Pages 43-73

5. Rebecca Returns: Death and Renewal Beyond the Door

   • Laura Hubner

   Pages 75-115

6. Encountering the Werewolf—Confronting the Self: On and Off the Path to The Company of Wolves

   • Laura Hubner

   Pages 117-157

7. The Horror in Pan’s Labyrinth: Beneath the Rhetoric of Hope and Fear

   • Laura Hubner

   Pages 159-190

8. Afterword: Uncanny Transformations in Film

   • Laura Hubner

   Pages 191-195

9. Back Matter

   Pages 197-206

   PDF

This book explores the idiosyncratic effects generated as fairytale and gothic horror join, clash or merge in cinema. Identifying long-held traditions that have inspired this topical phenomenon, the book features close analysis of classical through to contemporary films. It begins by tracing fairytale and gothic origins and evolutions, examining the diverse ways these have been embraced and developed by cinema horror. It moves on to investigate films close up, locating fairytale horror, motifs and themes and a distinctively cinematic gothic horror. At the book’s core are recurring concerns including: the boundaries of the human; rational and irrational forces; fears and dreams; ‘the uncanny’ and transitions between the wilds and civilization. While chronology shapes the book, it is thematically driven, with an interest in the cultural and political functions of fairytale and gothic horror, and the levels of transgression or social conformity at the heart of the films.

• Little Red Riding Hood
• fairy tale
• werewolf
• Pan’s Labyrinth
• Let the Right One In
• Rebecca
• The Company of Wolves
• Hitchcock
• Angela Carter
• Cinema
• Uncanny films
• Gothic Horror
• Fairytale

“Fairytale and Gothic Horror is useful to readers who want to discuss horror as a manifestation of psychology, time, place, and circumstances, as well as those interested in horror-film trends. It would make an excellent outline for a course in gothic cinema and a good supplemental read for a course in cinematic adaptations of fairy tales.” (Cory Thomas Hutcheson, Marvels & Tales: Journal of Fairy-Tale Studies, Vol. 33 (1), 2019) “Hubner’s lively and engaging work provides a vital re-examination of fairy tale and the gothic in cinema. The central contexts are explored authoritatively and in detail, taking in diverse fields of criticism, history and theory. These debates are framed around precise studies of key films, with the author’s skilful close analysis illuminating wider themes. This book represents numerous achievements and will be essential reading for anyone interested in fantasy, horror and film.” (James Walters, Head of Film and Creative Writing, University of Birmingham, UK)

• Department of Media and Film Studies, University of Winchester, Winchester, UK

  Laura Hubner

Laura Hubner is Reader in Film and Media at the University of Winchester, UK. She is author of The Films of Ingmar Bergman (2007), editor of Valuing Films (2011) and coeditor of Framing Film (2012) and The Zombie Renaissance in Popular Culture (2014). She recently contributed chapters to Fairy-Tale Films Beyond Disney (2015) and The Written Dead (2017).

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