ABSTRACT

This critical anthology sets out to explore the boom that horror cinema and TV productions have experienced in Spain in the past two decades. It uses a range of critical and theoretical perspectives to examine a broad variety of films and filmmakers, such as works by Alejandro Amenábar, Álex de la Iglesia, Pedro Almodóvar, Guillermo del Toro, Juan Antonio Bayona, and Jaume Balagueró and Paco Plaza. The volume revolves around a set of fundamental questions: What are the causes for this new Spanish horror-mania? What cultural anxieties and desires, ideological motives and practical interests may be behind such boom? Is there anything specifically "Spanish" about the Spanish horror film and TV productions, any distinctive traits different from Hollywood and other European models that may be associated to the particular political, social, economic or cultural circumstances of contemporary Spain?

chapter |12 pages

Introduction

Tracing the Borders of Spanish Horror Cinema and Television

part I|37 pages

The (Postmodern) Gothic

chapter 1|21 pages

Trapped in the House of Mirrors

The Others as a Transnational Postmodern Gothic Thriller

chapter 2|16 pages

Contemporary Spanish Gothic Heroines

part II|37 pages

Mothers, Children, Patriarchy, and the Biopolitics of Reproduction

chapter 3|16 pages

Monstrous (Re)productions

Mothering Patriarchy on the Spanish Horror Screen

chapter 4|21 pages

Suspendido en el tiempo

Children and Contemporary Spanish Horror

part III|50 pages

Sound, Vision, Media, and Intermediality

chapter 5|19 pages

Dude, Where’s my Phallus?!

Locating the Horror of La piel que habito / The Skin I Live In (2011) 1

chapter 6|16 pages

Why They Film

The Camera and Viewer Address in Found Footage Horror Films from Spain

part IV|93 pages

The [REC] Phenomenon

chapter 8|22 pages

After the End of History

Horror Cinema in Neoliberal Spain (2002–2013)

chapter 9|29 pages

Generating Fear

From Fantastic Factory (2000–2005) to [REC] (2007–2014)

chapter 10|22 pages

The Medium Is the Monster

Metadiscourse and the Horrors of post-11 M Spain in the [REC] Tetralogy

chapter 11|20 pages

“I am an eye, I am a mechanical eye…”

(The [REC] Series)

part V|32 pages

A Focus on Individual Filmmakers

chapter 13|13 pages

An Icon Rises from the Grave

The 21st Century Cult Stardom of Paul Naschy