Elder Horror

Cynthia J. Miller, a cultural anthropologist focusing on popular culture and visual media, teaches in the Marlboro Institute for Liberal Arts at Emerson College in Boston. She is the editor or coeditor of twenty scholarly volumes, many exploring the horror genre. A. Bowdoin Van Riper is an historian specializing in depictions of science and technology in popular culture. He is the reference librarian at the Martha’s Vineyard Museum, and is the author or editor of a wide range of volumes, ranging from science to science fiction to horror.

• Table of ContentsAcknowledgmentsIntroductionCynthia J. Miller and A. Bowdoin Van RiperI. Victims No More“Ask not what your rest home can do for you”: ­Self-Agency and Public Service in Bubba ­Ho-Tep (Philip L. Simpson)Panic in Detroit: Don’t Breathe and the Fear of Old Cities, Homes and Men (Isaac Rooks)“It’s the work of a crazy old woman”: Revenge of the Elderly in The ­Devil-Doll (Martin F. Norden)From Beneficent Elderly to Vile M’others: Familial Relations and Cannibalism in Troma’s Rabid Grannies (1988) (Steve J. Webley)II. Aesthetics of DecayThe Shock of Aging (Women) in Horror Film (Dawn Keetley)“To Grandmother’s house we go”: Documenting the Horror of the Aging Woman in Found Footage Films (Maddi McGillvray)“More like music”: Aging, Abjection and Dementia at the Overlook Hotel (Sue Matheson)The Skeleton Key, the Southern Gothic and the Uncanny Decay of Teleological History (Jessica Balanzategui)III. Elders as Others/OutsidersMaking the Hard Choices: The Economics of Damnation in Drag Me to Hell (Cynthia J. Miller)“Mirror, mirror on the wall, who is the ugliest of them all?” The Elderly as “Other” in Countess Dracula (Jennifer Richards)Old and In the Way: Torments of the Aging Male in PsychoHans StaatsThe Limits of “Sundowning”: M. Night Shyamalan’s The Visit and the Horror of the Aging Body (Stephanie M. Flint)IV. Fighting Back Time“The powers of time can be altered”: The Ambiguities of Aging in Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992) (Thomas Prasch)“You can be young forever”: The Dread of Aging in Tony Scott’s ­Art-Horror Film The Hunger (James J. Ward)The Brittle Body: The Elderly and Cars in The Brotherhood of Satan (Brian Brems)The Evil Aging Women of American Horror Story (Karen J. Renner)V. What the Old Folks KnowDisturbing the Past: Horror and Historical Memory in Ghost Story (1981) (A. Bowdoin Van Riper)Becoming Dr. Caligari (Robert B. Luehrs)“Some kind of special”: Queering Death Through Elder/Child Relationships in The Haunting in Connecticut 2: Ghosts of Georgia(Olivia ­Oliver-Hopkins)Flowers in the Attic: The Elderly as Monster (Liam T. Webb)About the ContributorsIndex