Miller and Van Riper provide a lively autopsy of a body of horror-comedy films. Grounded in Henri Bergsonâs theories, the essays excavate a veritable graveyard of comic horror films. The five essays in the first section, âPlaying with Genre,â address generic transformations with the comic, transforming the horrific into the zany and providing cultural analyses. The six essays in the second section, âHorror, in Theory,â theorize horror films through unexpected comic perspectives, showing how mirth and menace play off each other. Chris Yogerst eulogizes the familiar rules for survival in films such as Zombieland. The final five essays, under the heading âThere Goes the Neighborhood,â look at how the intersection of horror and comedy provides a lens to critique the basic conventions of the horror film and its spectators. In his essay, Van Riper considers how comedy enables viewers to contend with the angst of everyday life. Miller wraps up with a provocative essay challenging the scientific elite, giving the creative power of life to ordinary people. Insightful and remarkably readable, these stimulating essays will delight, leaving readers laughing, screaming, and thinking. Summing Up: Recommended. Lower-division undergraduates and above; professionals; general readers.
CHOICE