Cult Films: Taboo and Transgression

by Allan Havis

Overview

Cult Films: Taboo and Transgression looks at nine decades of cult films history within American culture. By highlighting three films per decade including a brief summary of the decade's identity and sensibility, the book investigates the quality, ironies, and spirit of cult film evolution. The twenty-seven films selected for this study are analyzed for story content and in their respective transgressions regarding social, aesthetic, and political codes. Characteristic of this book is the notion that many exciting genres make up cult films-including horror, sci-fi, fantasy, film noir, and black comedy. Further, the book reaches out to several foreign film directors over the decades in order to view cult films as an intentional art form. Political and ideological controversies are covered; arresting back-story details that lend perspective on a film fill out the analysis and the historic framework for many film titles. The book, by emphasizing the condensed survey over decades and by choosing outstanding titles, differs from other general studies on cult films.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780761839675
Publisher:	University Press of America
Publication date:	12/14/2007
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	128
Product dimensions:	6.02(w) x 8.97(h) x 0.40(d)

About the Author

Allan Havis has taught theatre and film over three decades at University of California, San Diego. As a playwright, his work has been produced widely in the U.S. and also in Europe. Thirteen plays have been published including anthologies in Penguin/Mentor, TCG, University of Illinois Press, and Broadway Play Publishing. His novel Albert the Astronomer was published by Harper & Row. He is provost of Thurgood Marshall College at UC San Diego.

Table of Contents

Part 1 Acknowledgements
Chapter 2 Introduction
Chapter 3 Films from the 1920s: Phantom of the Opera, Metropolis and Un Chien Andalou
Chapter 4 Films from the 1930s: Freaks, King Kong and Reefer Madness
Chapter 5 Films from the 1940s: I Walked with a Zombie, Dead of Night and Beauty and the Beast
Chapter 6 Films from the 1950s: Glen or Glenda, Invaders from Mars and The Incredible Shrinking Man
Chapter 7 Films from the 1960s: Psycho, Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! and Rosemary's Baby
Chapter 8 Films from the 1970s: El Topo, Harold and Maude and The Wicker Man
Chapter 9 Films from the 1980s: Road Warrior, Blade Runner and Blue Velvet
Chapter 10 Films from the 1990s: Delicatessen, Naked Lunch and Run Lola Run
Chapter 11 Films from the 2000s: Hedwig & the Angry Inch, The Ring and Sin City
Part 12 Conclusion
Part 13 Bibliography
Part 14 Index