BFI Screen Guides – serie

In this follow up to their original 100 Cult Films volume, Ernest Mathijs and Xavier Mendik provide a guide to one hundred more incredible films, from the 1911 Italian silent Dante's Inferno to Ti West's horror trilogy X, Pearl (2022) and MaXXXine (2024).This richly illustrated guide addresses the work of filmmakers including Stanley Kubrick, Paul Verhoeven, Ana Lily Amirpour, Stephanie Rothman, Rob Reiner and Dario Argento, with movies hailing from Iran to Brazil, South Korea to Sweden, Japan to the USA, and from the high North to the Australian outback. 100 Cult Films: The Sequel presents an alchemy of genres including science-fiction, romance, horror, musical, vampire, comedy and action, and through the debates and controversies that surround them raises issues about identity, home, belonging, exoticism, censorship, and what it means to be truly 'weird'.By presenting 100 films that confirm and interrogate the notion of what makes a film a ‘cult film’, 100 Cult Films: The Sequel reignites the conversation about cult cinema while affirming its foundations in today’s volatile and vibrant cultural climate.

This revised and updated new edition provides a guide to 100 of the most interesting and influential American independent films, from Bonnie and Clyde to Junebug by way of Reservoir Dogs and The Blair With Project with an introduction to the genre and a rich selection of images from the films discussed, plus key credits.

This revised and updated new edition provides a guide to 100 of the most interesting and influential American independent films, from Bonnie and Clyde to Junebug by way of Reservoir Dogs and The Blair With Project with an introduction to the genre and a rich selection of images from the films discussed, plus key credits.

Twenty years ago, animated features were widely perceived as cartoons for children. Today, though, they encompass an astonishing range of films, styles and techniques. There is the powerful adult drama of Waltz with Bashir; the Gallic sophistication of Belleville Rendez-Vous; the eye-popping violence of Japan''s Akira; and the stop-motion whimsy of Wallace & Gromit in The Curse of the Were-Rabbit. Andrew Osmond provides an entertaining and illuminating guide to the endlessly diverse world of animated features, with entries on 100 of the most interesting and important animated films from around the world, from the 1920s to the present day.There are key studio brands such as Disney, Pixar and Dreamworks, but there are also recognised auteur directors such as America''s Brad Bird (The Incredibles) and Japan''s Hayao Miyazaki (Spirited Away). Technologies such as motion-capture, used in films such as Avatar, blur the distinctions between live-action and animation. Meanwhile, lone artists such as Nina Paley (Sita Sings the Blues) and Bill Plympton (Idiots and Angels) make entire films by themselves.Blending in-depth history and criticism, 100 Animated Feature Films balances the blockbusters with local success stories from Eastern Europe to Hong Kong. There are entries on Dreamworks'' Shrek, Pixar''s Toy Story, and Disney''s The Jungle Book, but you will also find pieces on Germany''s silhouette-based The Adventures of Prince Achmed, the oldest surviving animated feature; on the thirty year production of Richard Williams'' legendary opus, The Thief and the Cobbler; and on the lost work of Argentina''s Quirino Cristiani, who reputedly made the first animated feature in 1917.

An exploration of the wonderfully complex and beautifully disorienting world of Japanese animation - anime. Provides an overview of the importance of the anime industry in Japan by analysing 100 of its most important and influential productions. An ideal introduction to a fascinating genre.

An exploration of the wonderfully complex and beautifully disorienting world of Japanese animation - anime. Provides an overview of the importance of the anime industry in Japan by analysing 100 of its most important and influential productions. An ideal introduction to a fascinating genre.

Bollywood film is the national cinema of India, describing movies made in Mumbai, distributed nationally across India and with their own production, distribution and exhibition networks worldwide. This informative screen guide reflects the work of key directors, major stars and important music directors and screenplay writers. Historically important films have been included along with certain cult movies and top box office successes. No guide to Hindi film would be complete without discussing: Mother India, the national epic of a peasant woman''s struggle against nature and society to bring up her family; Sholay, a ''curry western'' where the all-star cast sing and dance, romance and kill; Dilwale Dulhaniya le jayenge, the greatest of the diaspora films, in which two British Asians fall in love on a holiday in Europe before going to India where they show their elders how to incorporate love into family traditions; Junglee, showing how love transforms a ''savage'' (junglee) who yells ''Yahoo!'' before singing and dancing like Elvis, creating a new youth culture; Pyaasa, dramatically shot in black and white film with haunting songs as the romantic poet suffers for his art in the material world; Fans of Bollywood film can debate Rachel Dwyer''s personal selection of these 101 titles while those new to the area will find this an invaluable introduction to the best of the genre.

Bollywood film is the national cinema of India, describing movies made in Mumbai, distributed nationally across India and with their own production, distribution and exhibition networks worldwide. This informative screen guide reflects the work of key directors, major stars and important music directors and screenplay writers. Historically important films have been included along with certain cult movies and top box office successes. No guide to Hindi film would be complete without discussing: Mother India, the national epic of a peasant woman''s struggle against nature and society to bring up her family; Sholay, a ''curry western'' where the all-star cast sing and dance, romance and kill; Dilwale Dulhaniya le jayenge, the greatest of the diaspora films, in which two British Asians fall in love on a holiday in Europe before going to India where they show their elders how to incorporate love into family traditions; Junglee, showing how love transforms a ''savage'' (junglee) who yells ''Yahoo!'' before singing and dancing like Elvis, creating a new youth culture; Pyaasa, dramatically shot in black and white film with haunting songs as the romantic poet suffers for his art in the material world; Fans of Bollywood film can debate Rachel Dwyer''s personal selection of these 101 titles while those new to the area will find this an invaluable introduction to the best of the genre.

Ever since John Grierson popularized the term ''documentary,'' British non-fiction film has been renowned, sometimes reviled, but seldom properly appreciated. ''100 British Documentaries ''provides a uniquely accessible, occasionally provocative introduction to a rich and surprisingly varied tradition by considering 100 examples taken from across a century''s worth of output. The 100 films range from the Victorian period to the present day. Alongside such classics as ''Night Mail ''and ''Touching the Void ''are documentaries that illustrate the many uses to which it has been put  from pro-gram-filler to political propaganda to classroom teaching aid  and the many styles and viewpoints it has embraced. While the focus is on the documentary ''film,'' several television productions are included, indicating how the genre has developed on the small screen.

Ever since John Grierson popularized the term ''documentary,'' British non-fiction film has been renowned, sometimes reviled, but seldom properly appreciated. ''100 British Documentaries ''provides a uniquely accessible, occasionally provocative introduction to a rich and surprisingly varied tradition by considering 100 examples taken from across a century''s worth of output. The 100 films range from the Victorian period to the present day. Alongside such classics as ''Night Mail ''and ''Touching the Void ''are documentaries that illustrate the many uses to which it has been put  from pro-gram-filler to political propaganda to classroom teaching aid  and the many styles and viewpoints it has embraced. While the focus is on the documentary ''film,'' several television productions are included, indicating how the genre has developed on the small screen.

Some films should never have been made. They are too unsettling, too dangerous, too challenging, too outrageous and even too badly made to be let loose on unsuspecting audiences.Yet these films, from the shocking Cannibal Holocaust to the apocalyptic Donnie Darko, from the destructive Tetsuo to the awfully bad The Room, from the hilarious This Is Spinal Tap to the campy Showgirls, from the asylum of Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari to the circus of Freaks, from the gangs of The Warriors to the gangsters of In Bruges and from the flamboyant Rocky Horror Picture Show to the ultimate cool of The Big Lebowski, have all garnered passionate fan followings.Cult cinema has made tragic misfits, monsters and cyborgs, such as Edward Scissorhands or Blade Runner''s replicants, heroes of our times. 100 Cult Films explains why these figures continue to inspire fans around the globe. Cult film experts Ernest Mathijs and Xavier Mendik round up the most cultish of giallo, blaxploitation, anime, sexploitation, zombie, vampire and werewolf films, exploring both the cults that live hidden inside the underground (Nekromantik, Café Flesh) and the cult side of the mainstream (Dirty Dancing, The Lord of the Rings, and even The Sound of Music).100 Cult Films is a true trip around the world, providing a lively and illuminating guide to films from more than a dozen countries, across nine decades, representing a wide range of genres and key cult directors such as David Cronenberg, Terry Gilliam and David Lynch. Drawing on exclusive interviews with some of the world''s most iconic cult creators and performers, including Dario Argento, Pupi Avati, Alex Cox, Ruggero Deodato, Jesús Franco, Lloyd Kaufman, Harry Kümel, H. G. Lewis, Christina Lindberg, Takashi Miike, Franco Nero, George A. Romero and Brian Yuzna, and featuring a foreword by cult director Joe Dante, 100 Cult Films is your ultimate ticket to the midnight movie show.

Documentary films constitute a major part of film history. Cinema''s origins lie, arguably, more in non-fiction than fiction, and documentary represents the other - often submerged and barely visible - ''half'' of cinema history. Historically, documentary cinema has always been an important point of reference for fiction cinema, and the two have often overlapped. Over the last two decades, documentary cinema has enjoyed a revival in critical and commercial success.100 Documentary Films is the first book to offer concise and authoritative individual critical commentaries on some of the key documentary films - from the Lumière brothers and the beginnings of cinema through to recent films such as Bowling for Columbine and When the Levees Broke - and is global in perspective. Many different types of documentary are discussed, as well as films by major documentary directors, including Robert Flaherty, Humphrey Jennings, Jean Rouch, Dziga Vertov, Errol Morris, Nick Broomfield and Michael Moore. Each entry provides concise critical analysis, while frequent cross reference to other films featured helps to place films in their historical and aesthetic contexts.Barry Keith Grant is Professor of Film Studies and Popular Culture at Brock University, Ontario, Canada. He is the author of Film Genre: From Iconography to Ideology (2007), Voyages of Discovery: The Cinema of Frederick Wiseman (1992) and co-author, with Steve Blandford and Jim Hillier, of The Film Studies Dictionary (2001).Jim Hillier is Visiting Lecturer in Film at the University of Reading. He is the author of The New Hollywood (1993), the co-author of The Film Studies Dictionary (2001) and, with Alan Lovell, of Studies in Documentary (1972). His edited books include American Independent Cinema (2001) and two volumes of the English translation of the selected Cahiers du cinema (1985, 1986).

From bloodsucking schoolgirls to flesh-eating zombies, and from psychopathic killers to beasts from hell, ''100 European Horror Films'' provides a lively and illuminating guide to a hundred key horror movies from the 1920s to the present day. Alongside films from countries particularly associated with horror production - notably Germany, Italy, and Spain and movies by key horror filmmakers such as Mario Bava, Dario Argento, and Lucio Fulci, ''100 European Horror Films'' also includes films from countries as diverse as Denmark, Belgium, and the Soviet Union, and filmmakers such as Bergman, Polanski and Claire Denis, more commonly associated with art cinema. The book features entries representing key horror subgenres such as the Italian ''giallo'' thrillers of the late 60s and 70s, psychological thrillers, and zombie, cannibal, and vampire movies. Each entry includes a plot synopsis, major credits, and a commentary on the film''s significance, together with its production and exhibition history. Films covered in the book include early classics such as Paul Wegener''s ''The Golem,'' Robert Wiene''s ''The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari,'' and ''Murnau''s Nosferatu''; 70s horror favorites such as ''Daughters of Darkness, The Beast,'' and ''Suspiria''; and notable recent releases such as ''The Devil''s Backbone, Malefique,'' and ''The Vanishing.''

From bloodsucking schoolgirls to flesh-eating zombies, and from psychopathic killers to beasts from hell, ''100 European Horror Films'' provides a lively and illuminating guide to a hundred key horror movies from the 1920s to the present day. Alongside films from countries particularly associated with horror production - notably Germany, Italy, and Spain and movies by key horror filmmakers such as Mario Bava, Dario Argento, and Lucio Fulci, ''100 European Horror Films'' also includes films from countries as diverse as Denmark, Belgium, and the Soviet Union, and filmmakers such as Bergman, Polanski and Claire Denis, more commonly associated with art cinema. The book features entries representing key horror subgenres such as the Italian ''giallo'' thrillers of the late 60s and 70s, psychological thrillers, and zombie, cannibal, and vampire movies. Each entry includes a plot synopsis, major credits, and a commentary on the film''s significance, together with its production and exhibition history. Films covered in the book include early classics such as Paul Wegener''s ''The Golem,'' Robert Wiene''s ''The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari,'' and ''Murnau''s Nosferatu''; 70s horror favorites such as ''Daughters of Darkness, The Beast,'' and ''Suspiria''; and notable recent releases such as ''The Devil''s Backbone, Malefique,'' and ''The Vanishing.''

From the coming of sound to the 1960s, the musical was central to Hollywood production. Exhibiting – often in spectacular fashion – the remarkable resources of the Hollywood studios, musicals came to epitomise the very idea of ''light entertainment''. Films like Top Hat and 42nd Street, Meet Me in St. Louis and On the Town, Singin'' in the Rain and Oklahoma!, West Side Story and The Sound of Music were hugely popular, yet were commonly regarded by cultural commentators as trivial and escapist. It was the 1970s before serious study of the Hollywood musical began to change critical attitudes and foster an interest in musical films produced in other cultures. Hollywood musicals have become less common, but the genre persists and both academic interest in and fond nostalgia for the musical shows no signs of abating. 100 Film Musicals provides a stimulating overview of the genre''s development, its major themes and the critical debates it has provoked. While centred on the dominant Hollywood tradition, 100 Film Musicals includes films from countries that often tried to emulate the Hollywood style, like Britain and Germany, as well as from very different cultures like India, Egypt and Japan. Jim Hillier and Douglas Pye also discuss post-1960s films from many different sources which adapt and reflect on the conventions of the genre, including recent examples such as Moulin Rouge! and High School Musical, demonstrating that the genre is still very much alive.

In ''100 Road Movies'', each entry will offer an insightful critique in terms of aesthetics, plot structure and defining formal and thematic features, whilst also considering the title in the wider context and understanding of by what criteria a film may be considered a road movie. Full credits, including year of production, principal cast and technical crew and country of origin will also be included at the foot of each entry. There will be a selection of illustrative stills, approximately twenty-five in total. The scope is broad, a consideration of the elements that gave rise to the road movie sub-genre, how this sub-genre corresponds to other traditional genres (the thriller, the western etc) and how various international countries have adopted the road movie to reflect their cultural, social, political and geographical identities.

In ''100 Road Movies'', each entry will offer an insightful critique in terms of aesthetics, plot structure and defining formal and thematic features, whilst also considering the title in the wider context and understanding of by what criteria a film may be considered a road movie. Full credits, including year of production, principal cast and technical crew and country of origin will also be included at the foot of each entry. There will be a selection of illustrative stills, approximately twenty-five in total. The scope is broad, a consideration of the elements that gave rise to the road movie sub-genre, how this sub-genre corresponds to other traditional genres (the thriller, the western etc) and how various international countries have adopted the road movie to reflect their cultural, social, political and geographical identities.

A comprehensive guide to science fiction films, which analyzes and contextualizes the most important examples of the genre, from Un voyage dans la lune (1902), to The Road (2009).

From Oscar-winning British classics to Hollywood musicals and Westerns, from Soviet epics to Bollywood thrillers, Shakespeare has inspired an almost infinite variety of films. Directors as diverse as Orson Welles, Akira Kurosawa, Franco Zeffirelli, Kenneth Branagh, Baz Luhrmann and Julie Taymor have transferred Shakespeare''s plays from stage to screen with unforgettable results. Spanning a century of cinema, from a silent short of ''The Tempest'' (1907) to Kenneth Branagh''s ''As You Like It'' (2006), Daniel Rosenthal''s up-to-date selection takes in the most important, inventive and unusual Shakespeare films ever made. Half are British and American productions that retain Shakespeare''s language, including key works such as Olivier''s ''Henry V'' and ''Hamlet'', Welles'' ''Othello'' and ''Chimes at Midnight'', Branagh''s ''Henry V'' and ''Hamlet'', Luhrmann''s ''Romeo + Juliet'' and Taymor''s ''Titus''. Alongside these original-text films are more than 30 genre adaptations: titles that aim for a wider audience by using modernized dialogue and settings and customizing Shakespeare''s plots and characters, transforming ''Macbeth'' into a pistol-packing gangster (''Joe Macbeth'' and ''Maqbool'') or reimagining ''Othello'' as a jazz musician (''All Night Long''). There are Shakesepeare-based Westerns (''Broken Lance'', ''King of Texas''), musicals (''West Side Story'', ''Kiss Me Kate''), high-school comedies (''10 Things I Hate About You'', ''She''s the Man''), even a sci-fi adventure (''Forbidden Planet''). There are also films dominated by the performance of a Shakespearean play (''In the Bleak Midwinter'', ''Shakespeare in Love''). Rosenthal emphasises the global nature of Shakespearean cinema, with entries on more than 20 foreign-language titles, including Kurosawa''s ''Throne of Blood and Ran'', Grigori Kozintsev''s ''Russian Hamlet'' and ''King Lear'', and little-known features from as far afield as ''Madagascar'' and ''Venezuela'', some never released in Britain or the US. He considers the films'' production and box-office history and examines the film-makers'' key interpretive decisions in comparison to their Shakespearean sources, focusing on cinematography, landscape, music, performance, production design, textual alterations and omissions. As cinema plays an increasingly important role in the study of Shakespeare at schools and universities, this is a wide-ranging, entertaining and accessible guide for Shakespeare teachers, students and enthusiasts.

From Oscar-winning British classics to Hollywood musicals and Westerns, from Soviet epics to Bollywood thrillers, Shakespeare has inspired an almost infinite variety of films. Directors as diverse as Orson Welles, Akira Kurosawa, Franco Zeffirelli, Kenneth Branagh, Baz Luhrmann and Julie Taymor have transferred Shakespeare''s plays from stage to screen with unforgettable results. Spanning a century of cinema, from a silent short of ''The Tempest'' (1907) to Kenneth Branagh''s ''As You Like It'' (2006), Daniel Rosenthal''s up-to-date selection takes in the most important, inventive and unusual Shakespeare films ever made. Half are British and American productions that retain Shakespeare''s language, including key works such as Olivier''s ''Henry V'' and ''Hamlet'', Welles'' ''Othello'' and ''Chimes at Midnight'', Branagh''s ''Henry V'' and ''Hamlet'', Luhrmann''s ''Romeo + Juliet'' and Taymor''s ''Titus''. Alongside these original-text films are more than 30 genre adaptations: titles that aim for a wider audience by using modernized dialogue and settings and customizing Shakespeare''s plots and characters, transforming ''Macbeth'' into a pistol-packing gangster (''Joe Macbeth'' and ''Maqbool'') or reimagining ''Othello'' as a jazz musician (''All Night Long''). There are Shakesepeare-based Westerns (''Broken Lance'', ''King of Texas''), musicals (''West Side Story'', ''Kiss Me Kate''), high-school comedies (''10 Things I Hate About You'', ''She''s the Man''), even a sci-fi adventure (''Forbidden Planet''). There are also films dominated by the performance of a Shakespearean play (''In the Bleak Midwinter'', ''Shakespeare in Love''). Rosenthal emphasises the global nature of Shakespearean cinema, with entries on more than 20 foreign-language titles, including Kurosawa''s ''Throne of Blood and Ran'', Grigori Kozintsev''s ''Russian Hamlet'' and ''King Lear'', and little-known features from as far afield as ''Madagascar'' and ''Venezuela'', some never released in Britain or the US. He considers the films'' production and box-office history and examines the film-makers'' key interpretive decisions in comparison to their Shakespearean sources, focusing on cinematography, landscape, music, performance, production design, textual alterations and omissions. As cinema plays an increasingly important role in the study of Shakespeare at schools and universities, this is a wide-ranging, entertaining and accessible guide for Shakespeare teachers, students and enthusiasts.

100 Silent Films provides an authoritative and accessible history of silent cinema through one hundred of its most interesting and significant films. As Bryony Dixon contends, silent cinema is not a genre; it is the first 35 years of film history, a complex negotiation between art and commerce and a union of creativity and technology. At its most grand – on the big screen with a full orchestral accompaniment – it is magnificent, permitting a depth of emotional engagement rarely found in other fields of cinema. Silent film was hugely popular in its day, and its success enabled the development of large-scale film production in the United States and Europe. It was the start of our fascination with the moving image as a disseminator of information and as mass entertainment with its consequent celebrity culture. The digital revolution in the last few years and the restoration and reissue of archival treasures have contributed to a huge resurgence of interest in silent cinema. Bryony Dixon''s illuminating guide introduces a wide range of films of the silent period (1895–1930), including classics such as The Birth of a Nation (1915), The General (1926), Metropolis (1927), Sunrise (1927) and Pandora''s Box (1928), alongside more unexpected choices, and represents major genres and directors of the period – Griffith, Keaton, Chaplin, Murnau, Sjöström, Dovzhenko and Eisenstein – together with an introductory overview and useful filmographic and bibliographic information.

Addresses the perennial appeal of the Western, exploring its 19th century popular culture, and its relationship to the economic structure of Hollywood. This work considers the defining features of the Western and traces its main cycles, from the epic Westerns of the 1920s and singing cowboys of the 1930s to the Spaghetti Westerns of the 1960s.

Addresses the perennial appeal of the Western, exploring its 19th century popular culture, and its relationship to the economic structure of Hollywood. This work considers the defining features of the Western and traces its main cycles, from the epic Westerns of the 1920s and singing cowboys of the 1930s to the Spaghetti Westerns of the 1960s.

"[A] well-plotted survey." Total FilmIn 100 American Horror Films, Barry Keith Grant presents entries on 100 films from one of American cinema''s longest-standing, most diverse and most popular genres, representing its rich history from the silent era - D.W. Griffith''s The Avenging Conscience of 1915 - to contemporary productions - Jordan Peele''s 2017 Get Out. In his introduction, Grant provides an overview of the genre''s history, a context for the films addressed in the individual entries, and discusses the specific relations between American culture and horror. All of the entries are informed by the question of what makes the specific film being discussed a horror film, the importance of its place within the history of the genre, and, where relevant, the film is also contextualized within specifically American culture and history. Each entry also considers the film''s most salient textual features, provides important insight into its production, and offers both established and original critical insight and interpretation.The 100 films selected for inclusion represent the broadest historical range, and are drawn from every decade of American film-making, movies from major and minor studios, examples of the different types or subgenres of horror, such as psychological thriller, monster terror, gothic horror, home invasion, torture porn, and parody, as well as the different types of horror monsters, including werewolves, vampires, zombies, mummies, mutants, ghosts, and serial killers.

"[A] well-plotted survey." Total FilmIn 100 American Horror Films, Barry Keith Grant presents entries on 100 films from one of American cinema''s longest-standing, most diverse and most popular genres, representing its rich history from the silent era - D.W. Griffith''s The Avenging Conscience of 1915 - to contemporary productions - Jordan Peele''s 2017 Get Out. In his introduction, Grant provides an overview of the genre''s history, a context for the films addressed in the individual entries, and discusses the specific relations between American culture and horror. All of the entries are informed by the question of what makes the specific film being discussed a horror film, the importance of its place within the history of the genre, and, where relevant, the film is also contextualized within specifically American culture and history. Each entry also considers the film''s most salient textual features, provides important insight into its production, and offers both established and original critical insight and interpretation.The 100 films selected for inclusion represent the broadest historical range, and are drawn from every decade of American film-making, movies from major and minor studios, examples of the different types or subgenres of horror, such as psychological thriller, monster terror, gothic horror, home invasion, torture porn, and parody, as well as the different types of horror monsters, including werewolves, vampires, zombies, mummies, mutants, ghosts, and serial killers.

"[A] well-plotted survey." Total FilmIn 100 American Horror Films, Barry Keith Grant presents entries on 100 films from one of American cinema's longest-standing, most diverse and most popular genres, representing its rich history from the silent era - D.W. Griffith's The Avenging Conscience of 1915 - to contemporary productions - Jordan Peele's 2017 Get Out. In his introduction, Grant provides an overview of the genre’s history, a context for the films addressed in the individual entries, and discusses the specific relations between American culture and horror. All of the entries are informed by the question of what makes the specific film being discussed a horror film, the importance of its place within the history of the genre, and, where relevant, the film is also contextualized within specifically American culture and history. Each entry also considers the film’s most salient textual features, provides important insight into its production, and offers both established and original critical insight and interpretation.The 100 films selected for inclusion represent the broadest historical range, and are drawn from every decade of American film-making, movies from major and minor studios, examples of the different types or subgenres of horror, such as psychological thriller, monster terror, gothic horror, home invasion, torture porn, and parody, as well as the different types of horror monsters, including werewolves, vampires, zombies, mummies, mutants, ghosts, and serial killers.

"[A] well-plotted survey." Total FilmIn 100 American Horror Films, Barry Keith Grant presents entries on 100 films from one of American cinema's longest-standing, most diverse and most popular genres, representing its rich history from the silent era - D.W. Griffith's The Avenging Conscience of 1915 - to contemporary productions - Jordan Peele's 2017 Get Out. In his introduction, Grant provides an overview of the genre’s history, a context for the films addressed in the individual entries, and discusses the specific relations between American culture and horror. All of the entries are informed by the question of what makes the specific film being discussed a horror film, the importance of its place within the history of the genre, and, where relevant, the film is also contextualized within specifically American culture and history. Each entry also considers the film’s most salient textual features, provides important insight into its production, and offers both established and original critical insight and interpretation.The 100 films selected for inclusion represent the broadest historical range, and are drawn from every decade of American film-making, movies from major and minor studios, examples of the different types or subgenres of horror, such as psychological thriller, monster terror, gothic horror, home invasion, torture porn, and parody, as well as the different types of horror monsters, including werewolves, vampires, zombies, mummies, mutants, ghosts, and serial killers.

In this follow up to their original 100 Cult Films volume, Ernest Mathijs and Xavier Mendik provide a guide to one hundred more incredible films, from the 1911 Italian silent Dante's Inferno to Ti West's horror trilogy X, Pearl (2022) and MaXXXine (2024).This richly illustrated guide addresses the work of filmmakers including Stanley Kubrick, Paul Verhoeven, Ana Lily Amirpour, Stephanie Rothman, Rob Reiner and Dario Argento, with movies hailing from Iran to Brazil, South Korea to Sweden, Japan to the USA, and from the high North to the Australian outback. 100 Cult Films: The Sequel presents an alchemy of genres including science-fiction, romance, horror, musical, vampire, comedy and action, and through the debates and controversies that surround them raises issues about identity, home, belonging, exoticism, censorship, and what it means to be truly 'weird'.By presenting 100 films that confirm and interrogate the notion of what makes a film a 'cult film', 100 Cult Films: The Sequel reignites the conversation about cult cinema while affirming its foundations in today's volatile and vibrant cultural climate.

In this follow up to their original 100 Cult Films volume, Ernest Mathijs and Xavier Mendik provide a guide to one hundred more incredible films, from the 1911 Italian silent Dante's Inferno to Ti West's horror trilogy X, Pearl (2022) and MaXXXine (2024).This richly illustrated guide addresses the work of filmmakers including Stanley Kubrick, Paul Verhoeven, Ana Lily Amirpour, Stephanie Rothman, Rob Reiner and Dario Argento, with movies hailing from Iran to Brazil, South Korea to Sweden, Japan to the USA, and from the high North to the Australian outback. 100 Cult Films: The Sequel presents an alchemy of genres including science-fiction, romance, horror, musical, vampire, comedy and action, and through the debates and controversies that surround them raises issues about identity, home, belonging, exoticism, censorship, and what it means to be truly 'weird'.By presenting 100 films that confirm and interrogate the notion of what makes a film a 'cult film', 100 Cult Films: The Sequel reignites the conversation about cult cinema while affirming its foundations in today's volatile and vibrant cultural climate.