Fear Without Frontiers: Horror Cinema Across the Globe Horror Book Review

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