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The vampire and the zombie, the two most popular incarnations of the undead, are brought together for a forensic critical investigation in this book. Both have a long history in popular fiction, film, television, comics and games; the vampire also remains central to popular culture today, from literary paranormal romance to cult TV and movie franchises by turns romantic, tortured, grotesque, countercultural, a goth icon or lonely outsider. The zombie can shamble or sprint with alarming velocity, and even dance. It frequently lends itself to metaphor and can stand in for fascism or ecological disaster, but is perhaps most frequently a harbinger and instrument of the apocalypse. Leading writers on Horror and cult media consider the sexy vampire and the grotesque zombie, as well as hybrid figures who do not fit neatly into either category. These are examined across a range of contexts, from the Swedish vampire to the Afro-American Blacula, from the lesbian vampire to the gay zombie, from the Spanish Knights Templar riding skeletal horses to dancing Japanese zombies. This book sheds new light on these two icons of terror - and desire - whose popular longevity has taken them Beyond Life Machine generated contents note: pt. 1 The Mark of the Vampire -- Race, Place, Gender and Identity in the Modern Vampire Film -- 1. Manson, Drugs and Black Power: The Countercultural Vampire / Ian Cooper -- 2. Taking Back the Night: Dracula's Daughter in New York / Stacey Abbott -- 3. Northern Darkness: The Curious Case of the Swedish Vampire / Peter Hutchings -- 4. Let Them All In: The Evolution of the `Sympathetic' Vampire / Milly Williamson -- pt. 2 Rewriting the Living Dead -- The Zombie in Popular Culture -- 5. Dead Metaphors/Undead Allegories / Jeffrey Sconce -- 6. Nightmare Cities: Italian Zombie Cinema and Environmental Discourses / Russ Hunter -- 7. Diaries of a Plague Year: Perspectives of Destruction in Contemporary Zombie Film / Emma Dyson -- 8.`Death is the New Pornography!': Gay Zombies, Homonormativity and Consuming Masculinity in Queer Horror / Darren Elliott-Smith -- pt. 3 Hybrid Bloodlines Contents note continued: 9. From Mexico to Hollywood: Guillermo Del Toro's Treatment of the Undead and the Making of a New Cult Icon / Costas Constandinides -- 10.`Nollywood, Our Nollywood': Resisting the Vampires / Nicola Woodham -- 11. The Ultimate Super-Happy-Zombie-Romance-Murder-Mystery-Family-Comedy-Karaoke-Disaster-Movie-Part-Animated-Remake-All-Singing-All-Dancing-Musical-Spectacular-Extravaganza: Miike Takashi's The Happiness of the Katakuris as `Cult' Hybrid / Steve Rawle -- 12. Amando de Ossario's `Blind Dead' Quartet and the Cultural Politics of Spanish Horror / Andy Willis
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