Art, Genre and Cultural Elevation
Post-Horror is the first full-length study of one of the most important and divisive movements in twenty-first-century horror cinema.
Explores one of the most prominent and debated trends within the horror genreOffers the first in-depth study of one of the twenty-first-century horror genre's most important and divisive developmentsExplores the shared aesthetics, themes, and reception of the post-horror corpusUpdates existing debates about horror cinema, artistic value, and cultural tasteListen to David Church discuss his book on the Full Contact Nerd podcastHorror's longstanding reputation as a popular but culturally denigrated genre has been challenged by a new wave of films mixing arthouse minimalism with established genre conventions. Variously dubbed 'elevated horror' and 'post-horror,' films such as The Babadook, It Follows, The Witch, It Comes at Night, Get Out, The Invitation, Hereditary, Midsommar, A Ghost Story, and mother! represent an emerging nexus of taste, politics, and style that has often earned outsized acclaim from critics and populist rejection by wider audiences. Post-Horror is the first full-length study of one of the most important and divisive movements in twenty-first-century horror cinema.Case studies include:It FollowsThe WitchThe BabadookGet OutHereditaryMidsommarGoodnight MommyIt Comes at NightThe InvitationI Am the Pretty Thing that Lives in the Housemother!A Dark SongA Ghost Story"