Hollywood Horror from the Director’s Chair

Profitable, relatively inexpensive to produce, and with a faithful built-in audience, Hollywood horror franchise films have long dominated the market for generic feature film productions. This work examines the significant effects, good and bad, that the horror franchise genre has had on the careers of several American film directors, including Wes Craven (Nightmare on Elm Street), Don Coscarelli (Phantasm), and Joe Berlinger (Blair Witch 2: Book of Shadows). A comprehensive bibliography is included, along with an extensive alphabetical filmography of popular horror franchise films.

Simon A. Wilkinson is teaching and living in London, England and has recently completed his first novel, The Fourth Wall.

Simon A. Wilkinson

Format: softcover (6 x 9)
Pages: 272
Bibliographic Info: 25 photos, filmography, notes, bibliography, index
Copyright Date: 2008
pISBN: 978-0-7864-3232-5
Imprint: McFarland

Acknowledgments      v
Preface      1
Introduction      5

1. Don Coscarelli: In Search of Phantasm’s End      27
2. Cursed: Wes Craven’s Franchise Nightmares      51
3. Tom Savini and William Peter Blatty: They Came from Within      76
4. Joe Berlinger: Rage Against the Machine      105
5. Jeff Burr: Divided We Fall      132

Conclusions      157
Hollywood Horror Series Filmography      179
Chapter Notes      219
Bibliography      247
Index      253