Horror Disasters Movies

A disaster film or disaster movie is a film genre that has an impending or ongoing disaster as its subject and primary plot device. Such disasters include natural disasters such as floods, earthquakes, tsunamis or asteroid collisions, accidents such as shipwrecks or airplane crashes, or calamities like worldwide disease pandemics. A subgenre of action films, these films usually feature some degree of build-up, the disaster itself, and sometimes the aftermath, usually from the point of view of specific individual characters or their families or portraying the survival tactics of different people. These films often feature large casts of actors and multiple plot lines, focusing on the characters' attempts to avert, escape or cope with the disaster and its aftermath. The genre came to particular prominence during the 1970s with the release of high-profile films such as Airport (1970), followed in quick succession by The Poseidon Adventure (1972), Earthquake (1974) and The Towering Inferno (1974). The casts were generally made up of familiar character actors. Once the disaster begins in the film, the characters are usually confronted with human weaknesses, often falling in love and almost always finding a villain to blame. The films usually feature a persevering hero or heroine (Charlton Heston, Steve McQueen, etc.) called upon to lead the struggle against the threat. In many cases, the "evil" or "selfish" individuals are the first to succumb to the conflagration. The genre experienced a renewal in the 1990s boosted by computer-generated imagery (CGI) and large studio budgets which allowed for greater spectacle, culminating in the cinematic phenomenon that was James Cameron's Titanic in 1997. This book is the assembly of various texts that are freely available on the web, especially from Wikipedia. The next obvious question is: why buy this book? The answer: because it means you avoid having to carry out long and tedious internet searches. The topics are all linked to each other organically, and as a function of the subject and, in most cases, contain additional unpublished topics, not found on the web. Moreover, the inclusion of images completes the work so as to make it unique and unrepeatable. Contents of the book: Horror Disasters Movies: Origins, 1970s, Genre revival. Movies: Airport (1970), The Poseidon Adventure (1972), Earthquake (1974), The Towering Inferno, Armageddon (1998). List of disaster films: Meteoroids, asteroids and impact events, End of days. Of each film: Poster, scenes from the film, plot, criticism and other curiosities.

Hanich looks at fear at the movies – its aesthetics, its experience and its pleasures--in this thought-provoking study. Looking at over 150 different films including Seven, Rosemary's Baby, and Silence of the Lambs, Hanich attempts to answer the paradox of why we enjoy films that thrill us, that scare us, that threaten us, that shock us –affects that we otherwise desperately wish to avoid.

Horror films have always reflected their audiences' fears and anxieties. In the United States, the 2000s were a decade full of change in response to the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the contested presidential election of 2000, and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. These social and political changes, as well as the influences of Japanese horror and New French extremism, had a profound effect on American horror filmmaking during the 2000s. This filmography covers more than 300 horror films released in America from 2000 through 2009, including such popular forms as found footage, torture porn, and remakes. Each entry covers a single film and includes credits, a synopsis, and a lengthy critical commentary. The appendices include common horror conventions, a performer hall of fame, and memorable ad lines.

Lee Gambin examines the extremely popular subgenre of the ecologically themed horror film, or, the natural horror film. Since Alfred Hitchcock gave us The Birds, the natural horror film (where animals or insects cause tremendous damage to the human population) is a much-loved subgenre, but one seldom referenced. This book offers insightful critiques on numerous films such as Them!, Squirm, Orca, The Pack, The Day of the Animals, Prophecy, Tentacles and many more. Over 100 titles are discussed and Gambin thoroughly scrutinizes the social and political impact of these films, dissects fundamental stock standards of this subgenre, as well as offers informative anecdotes relating to the production of these diverse movies. He critiques specific narrative devices and offers an analysis of performance, audience appreciation and filmmaking craft.

American Disaster Movies of the 1970s is the first scholarly book dedicated to the disaster cycle that dominated American cinema and television in the 1970s. Through examining films such as Airport (1970), The Poseidon Adventure (1972), Two-Minute Warning (1976) and The Swarm (1978), alongside their historical contexts and American contemporaneous trends, the disaster cycle is treated as a time-bound phenomenon. This book further contextualises the cycle by drawing on the longer cultural history of modernist reactions to modern anxieties, including the widespread dependence on technology and corporate power. Each chapter considers cinematic precursors, such as the 'ark movie', and contemporaneous trends, such as New Hollywood, vigilante and blaxploitation films, as well as the immediate American context: the end of the civil rights and countercultural era, the Watergate crisis, and the defeat in Vietnam.As Scott Freer argues, the disaster movie is a modern, demotic form of tragedy that satisfies a taste for the macabre. It is also an aesthetic means for processing painful truths, and many of the dramatized themes anticipate present-day monstrosities of modernity.

The Necronomicon Shocking Cinema of the Seventies continues the acclaimed journal's exploration of film culture with a special edition devoted to film from this special era. In a series of innovative articles, leading critics and scholars consider the social and cinematic issues which shaped the films of the decade. Covering genres such as horror, the disaster movie, blaxploitation, and kung fu, the authors discover the truth behind one of the most prolific, turbulent, and challenging periods of cinema history.

For movie fans, trivia buffs, and film students, here is the most popular and matchless film reference boasting over 17,000 entries, including 1,000 of the latest releases. Features cast members, writers, directors, producers; plot synopses and critical evaluations, including extensive coverage of foreign films; quotes from contemporary reviewers; alternate titles; Academy Award winners and nominations; and more.

Hammer Vampire Women, whose subject is the biography and filmography of all the actresses who took part in the Hammer films about Dracula and Vampires, is a work divided into three volumes. Each volume is the assembly of various topics available on the web, especially from Wikipedia. The next obvious question is: why buy this book? The answer: because it means you avoid having to carry out long and tedious internet searches. (20 different topics grouped in one book). All topics are assembled in an organic and chronological way and are enriched by numerous images, these not available on Wikipedia, in order to make the work in its conception unique and unrepeatable, which turns into something new and original. In the form of an eBook, the text is enriched by numerous links to external resources and each actress is linked to films that concern her available on the web. Contents of the book: Hammer Vampire Women: Judy Matheson, Julie Ege, Kate O'Mara, Kathleen Byron, Katya Wyeth, Kirsten Lindholm, Lai Ling, Lalla Ward, Lally Bowers, Linda Cunningham, Linda Hayden, Lisa Collings, Lois Daine, Luan Peters, Lynne Frederick, Madeleine Collinson, Madeline Smith, Malaika Martin, Margo Both, Marion Mathie.