On first consideration it may not seem like “nostalgia” and horror and
slasher films have any clear connections. Usually nostalgia is applied to
events and experiences that have a pleasant connotation, even if these pleasant
feelings are a result of a rose-tinted view of the past. While nostalgia can
refer to personal feelings as well as larger communal or cultural memory and
pleasure, there is also an implied action to it- that someone is seeking to
reclaim, or revisit a specific time period or place for an explicit reason.
Applying this understanding to remakes, revisions, reimaginings helps us
understand what the purpose of these reworked creations are, the work they’re
doing, and how they build on and expand on an already understood and accepted
set of narratives, tropes, characters, and beliefs.
Since the national and global trauma of 9/11 we have seen dozens of
remakes, reboots, revisions, and reimaginings of horror and slasher films from
the 1970s and 80s. Each work seeks to capture some element of the original- the
simple understanding of good and evil, the audience reaction to scares, an
aesthetic homage, the commercial popularity. If we shift our perspective to
view these films through the lens of nostalgia, we can see that many of these
narratives are grounded in trauma, the performance of it, the aftermath, how
people survive and later work through it. Whether it is a movie, mini-series,
television show, or video game, these remakes can be organized according to
several subtopics that perform different work within the media and reflect
different fears, anxieties, and desires of a specific historical and cultural
moment, although the argument could be made that some texts belong in a variety
of categories, and there is noticeable overlap.
Movies such as Carrie (2013), Prom Night (2008), The Fog (2005), Piranha
(2010), and Piranha 3DD (2012), My Bloody Valentine 3D (2009), Friday the 13th
(2009), Predators (2010), The Predator (2018), and Fright Night (2011) as well
as the television show Ash vs. Evil Dead (2015-2018) all seek to recapture the
pleasant memories either of the creator upon their first exposure, or the often
initial teenage experience of the audience. It’s also worth noting remakes that
seek to capture this feeling and audience reception but fail as is the case
with Pet Semetary (2019) and Prometheus (2012) and Alien: Covenant (2017) or
remakes of films that were considered cult classics, or lacked the recognition
of many of these titles such as Sorority Row (2009). While many of these movies
have trauma as their inciting incident, or backstory, films such as The Hills
Have Eyes (2006), Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003), Amityville Horror (2005), and
The Thing (2011), explicitly deal with trauma in their narratives. A large
number of remakes seek to correct or revise perceived errors, erasures, or
missteps in the original source material. Certainly this is true in The Shining
(1997 mini-series), The Stand (1994 and in production 2020), The Last House on
the Left (2009), Straw Dogs (2011), Suspiria (2018), and Nightmare on Elm
Street (2010). Some texts like The Haunting of Hill House (2018-present) begin
as a revision but ultimately go deeper, seeking to uncover a narrative within
the source material. With the explosion of streaming services, alternative
storytelling, and multimedia narratives, we’re seeing more and more adaptations
that use horror or slasher narratives as their foundation but create their own
stories from them. Bates Motel (2013-2017), The Exorcist (2016-2018), Doctor Sleep
(2019), Castle Rock (2018-present), The Conjuring (2013), and Hannibal
(2013-2015) all fit this category.
This edited collection would seek contributions that view these and
other texts through this lens of nostalgia, how these remakes, reboots, revisions,
and reimagings are the vehicle for the anxieties and concerns of a particular
moment, and what work they are doing. We’re particularly interested in
contributions that analyze texts that interact with the source material in new
and interesting ways, deconstruct tropes and styles innate to these genres, as
well as the application of adaptation and fan studies to these works. The
editors are accepting proposals for chapters focusing on nostalgia in horror
after 9/11. Topics for contributions, focused through a lens of nostalgia, can
address, but are not limited to:
Case studies that relate to nostalgia as:
- Trauma
- Revision/Rewriting
- Recapturing past pleasure
- Using past forms to fill new concerns
- Theoretical approaches to understanding horror and trauma
- Understanding socio-political and economic cultural contexts
- Pleasures of horror nostalgia post- 9/11
- Slashers, subtexts, and tonal intensification
- Paranormal embodiments of contemporary fears
Proposals should be submitted by 31 March 2020 to Karrá Shimabukuro
khkshimabukuro@gmail.com and Wickham Clayton wickscripts@hotmail.com.
First drafts due 31 December 2020. We welcome questions and expressions
of interest at any stage.
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