Apocalyptic Dread: American Film at the Turn of the MillenniumIn Apocalyptic Dread, Kirsten Moana Thompson examines how fears and anxieties about the future are reflected in recent American cinema. Through close readings of such films as Cape Fear, Candyman, Dolores Claiborne, Se7en, Signs, and War of the Worlds, Thompson argues that a longstanding American apocalyptic tradition permeates our popular culture, spreading from science-fiction and disaster films into horror, crime, and melodrama. Drawing upon Kierkegaard's notion of dread—that is, a fundamental anxiety and ambivalence about existential choice and the future—Thompson suggests that the apocalyptic dread revealed in these films, and its guiding tropes of violence, retribution, and renewal, also reveal deep-seated anxieties about historical fragmentation and change, anxieties that are in turn displaced onto each film's particular "monster," whether human, demonic, or eschatological. |
Contents
1 | |
Familial Dread | 29 |
Candyman and Supernatural Dread | 59 |
Memorial Dread | 83 |
Dystopian Dread | 105 |
Apocalyptic Dread | 127 |
Uncanny Dread | 145 |
Notes | 155 |
175 | |
181 | |
Other editions - View all
Apocalyptic Dread: American Film at the Turn of the Millennium Kirsten Moana Thompson Limited preview - 2007 |
Apocalyptic Dread: American Film at the Turn of the Millennium Kirsten Moana Thompson No preview available - 2007 |
Common terms and phrases
abuse aliens already American anxiety apocalyptic apocalyptic dread appears becomes begins believes body Book of Revelation Bowden Cabrini-Green Cady Cady’s calls Candyman Cape Fear castration chapter Christian connection continues crime crisis crop circles culture Danny daughter death desire Detective Doe’s Dolores Dolores Claiborne Dolores’s dread face faith father figure film film’s final flashback foregrounds further future Graham hand Helen Hess historical horror husband invasion John kill later Leigh live look memory Mills mirror monster mother murder narrative natural opening original past play political present produced rape reflection relationship repressed reveals says scene secrets Selena serial killer seven sexual shot shows signs social Somerset space Steven Spielberg story suggests tells threat trauma turn uncanny unconscious understanding urban victim violence wife women