ABSTRACT
As we saw in the general introduction, much work on the horror film has tried to identify the defining features of the genre. Part I looks at this particular aspect of the analysis of horror, and it contains three extracts. The first is Robin Wood’s now classic essay on the horror film which was referred to in the general introduction, and, as we have seen, it develops out of both auteur theory and genre criticism. On the one hand, Wood tries to identify the central oppositions that define the genre, while on the other hand he is also concerned to establish the auteur status of a series of directors who have worked within it.
