Contributors use a variety of theoretical frameworks to analyze distinct areas of Craven’s work, including ecology, auteurism, philosophy, queer studies, and trauma. Scholars of cinema studies, horror, and ecology will find this book of particular interest.

In A Critical Companion to Wes Craven, contributors use a variety of theoretical frameworks to analyze distinct areas of Craven’s work, including ecology, auteurism, philosophy, queer studies, and trauma. This book covers both the successes and failures contained in Craven’s extensive filmography, ultimately revealing a variegated portrait of his career. Scholars of film studies, horror, and ecology will find this book particularly interesting.

Table of Contents

Introduction. Fernando Gabriel Pagnoni and John Darowski

Part I: Space, Time, Urbanities

1.“Destabilizing Safety: Space, Place, and Risk in Craven’s Last House on the Left, A Nightmare on Elm Street, and Red Eye.” Jacob Babb

2.““What If?” The Unrealized in Wes Craven’s The Twilight Zone (1985) and Nightmare Cafe.” Emiliano Aguilar

3.“Ruined Landscapes, the EcoGothic and Eco-Horror in the Early Films of Wes Craven: Last House on the Left, The Hills Have Eyes, Deadly Blessing, Swamp Thing, The Hills Have Eyes II.” Michael Stock

4.“Nowhere Is Safe: Suburban Terror in A Nightmare on Elm Street, Shocker and Scream.” Daniel P. Compora

Part II: Traumatic Aspects

5. “Teenage alienation and Fractured Identities: Re-evaluating Wes Craven’s My Soul to Take.” Reece Goodall

6.“Wes Craven and BIPOC Horror: Contrasting The People Under the Stairs with The Possession of Joel Delaney.” Joshua W. Katz, Taksala Abeygunawardena, Natalie O’Reilly, Brenan R.R. Smith and Todd G. Morrison

7.“Dismembering Craven’s The Last House on the Left: Excavating Structures of Whiteness in the American Horror Film.” Stephanie Chang

Part III: The Authorial Voice

8. ““Not in My Movie”: Parodic Transformations of Wes Craven’s Final Girl in the Narrative and Soundtrack of Scream.” Joel Kirk

9. “Welcome to Prime Time: Wes Craven’s Television Films.” Will Dodson

10.“Practical Magic: The Role of Practical Special Effects in Creating Fear.” Kat Albrecht

11.“The Most Dreadful of Horrors: Studio Interference and Authorship in The Fireworks Woman (1975), Vampire in Brooklyn (1995) and Cursed (2005).” Fernando Gabriel Pagnoni Berns and Eduardo Veteri

12. “Recombinant Narrative: Wes Craven, Adaptation, and Swamp Thing.” John Darowski

Part IV: Sociological/Philosophical Inquiries

13.“Wes Craven’s Monsters of Capitalism.” Eric Brinkman

14.“Beyond Freddy’s Revenge: Wes Craven’s Slasher Films as Queer Texts.” Ezra Brain and Olivia Wood

15.“Transgressing the Boundaries of Faith: Belief Systems, Evil and the Human Subject in Wes Craven Films.” Sony Jalarajan Raj and Adith K. Suresh

16.“Rubber Reality and its Variations in the Films of Wes Craven.” Brian Keiper

17.“Screaming for Relevance: Reflecting on Scream 4 in the Age of Influencers,” Andrew Smith

About the Contributors