Selling the Splat Pack: The DVD Revolution and the American Horror Film

Mark Bernard

Published by Edinburgh University Press 2014

Selling the Splat Pack

The DVD Revolution and the American Horror Film

Mark Bernard

https://doi.org/10.1515/9780748685509

Overview
Contents

About this book

The role of the DVD market in the growth of ultraviolent horror in the 2000s

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Were brutal American horror movies like the Saw and Hostel films a reaction to the trauma of 9/11? Were they a reflection of ‘War on Terror’-era America? Or was something else responsible for the rise of these violent and gory films during the first decade of the twenty-first century?

Selling the Splat Pack unravels the history of how the emergence of the DVD market changed cultural and industrial attitudes about horror movies and film ratings. These changes made way for increasingly violent horror films, like those produced by the ‘Splat Pack’, a group of filmmakers who were heralded in the press as subversive outsiders. Taking a different tack, Mark Bernard proposes that the films of the Splat Pack were products of, rather than reactions against, film industry policy. This book includes an overview of the history of the American horror film from an industry studies perspective, an analysis of how the DVD market influenced the production of American horror films, and an examination of films from Splat Pack members such as Eli Roth, Rob Zombie, James Wan, and Alexandre Aja.

By re-examining the history of the American horror film from a business perspective and exploring how DVD influenced the production of American horror films in the early twenty-first century, this thought-provoking book provides students and scholars in Film Studies with an alternative perspective on the Splat Pack.

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Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	v
figures Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Acknowledgements Publicly Available Download PDF	ix
Introduction Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
Part I: The Industrial Context of the Splat Pack
1. Introducing the Splat Pack Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	13
2. Politics and the horror film: an industry studies intervention Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	27
3. The DVD revolution and the horror film, take one: from trash to art to collectable Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	48
4. The DVD revolution and the horror film, take two: rise of the ‘Unrated’ Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	70
Part II: The Splat Pack on DVD
5. Text, subtext and the story of the film: Eli Roth’s Hostel and Hostel: Part II on DVD Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	97
6. The ‘white trash’ world of Rob Zombie: class, collecting and slumming spectators Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	119
7. Seriality, subjectivity and new media: consuming the Saw series Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	142
8. Scars, both material and cyber: Haute Tension and The Descent on DVD Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	165
Afterword Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	188
Bibliography Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	199
Filmography Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	206
DVD supplemental material referenced Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	208
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	210

(Deutsch)

Language: English
Publisher: Edinburgh University Press
Audience: College/higher education;
Pages
- Main content: 224
Illustrations
- Other: 20 B/W illustrations
Keywords: Film, Media & Cultural Studies

eBook

Published: June 17, 2014
ISBN: 9780748685509