Books as Author
The Wicker Man (BFI Film Classics)
Forthcoming, Bloomsbury/BFI Publishing
Information Coming Soon
£12.99
SEE!HEAR!CUT!KILL!: Experiencing Friday the 13th
2020, University Press of Mississippi
Hardcover : 9781496830319, 238 pages, 64 b&w illustrations, October 2020
Paperback : 9781496830326, 238 pages, 64 b&w illustrations, October 2020
Description
Sean S. Cunningham and Victor Miller’s Friday the 13th franchise is one of the most successful horror film franchises in history. To date, it includes twelve movies, a television show, comic books, and video games, among other media. In SEE! HEAR! CUT! KILL! Experiencing “Friday the 13th,” Wickham Clayton explores several aspects of the films including how the technical aspects relate to the audience, their influence on filmmaking, and the cultural impact of the franchise.
Clayton looks at how perspective is established and communicated within the Friday the 13th films, which is central to the way the audience experiences and responds emotionally to these movies. Then he considers how each sequel gives viewers, whether longtime fans or new audiences, a “way in” to the continuous story that runs through the series. Clayton also argues that the series has not developed in isolation. These films relate to contemporary slasher films, the modern horror genre, and critically successful Hollywood films in general. They reflect popular trends of film style and often act as key examples in the genre and beyond.
Reviews
"Through its cogent and convincing examination of the long-maligned Friday the 13th franchise, SEE! HEAR! CUT! KILL! proves that low-budget genre cinema is worth taking seriously. "
- Blair Davis, author of The Battle for the Bs: 1950s Hollywood and the Rebirth of Low-Budget Cinema
"Providing a witty and chatty but deeply serious and comprehensive analysis of the slasher franchise Friday the 13th, Wickham Clayton offers arguments about using the series to explore developing aesthetics of several decades of cinema. Something for both fans and cinephiles. "
- Janet Staiger, professor emeritus, University of Texas at Austin
"Clayton places foundational academic horror texts in conversation with recent scholarship to produce compelling critical observations about the franchise. . . . SEE! HEAR! CUT! KILL!: Experiencing “Friday the 13th” contains a treasure trove of information that caters well to general readers, students, and scholars."
- Sean Woodard, Horrorbuzz.com
"Overall, Clayton’s book is an excellent and well-detailed critical analysis of the Friday the 13th franchise, proving beyond a doubt that these films—as well as their slasher brethren—are well worth academic consideration and that the viewer experience is a complex and variable phenomenon. . . . See! Hear! Cut! Kill! is an excellent resource for the casual fan, the horror aficionado, and the film scholar alike."
- Alyssa Burger, Journal of Popular Film and Television
"Wickham Clayton is arguably one of, if not the, eminent scholar of slasher films arising out of the recent generation of film scholars. . . . See! Hear! Cut! Kill! provides an outstanding contribution to the existing literature in slasher studies and horror film studies. His work offers a novel theoretical take on analyses of the slasher film and provides readers with a fresh lens through which to view these films. I believe this book belongs on the bookshelves of every slasher scholar, horror scholar, film scholar, film student, and horror film enthusiast."
- Khara Lukancic, Film and History
Hb $110.00
Pb $35.00
As Editor
The Bible Onscreen in the New Millennium: New Heart and New Spirit
2020, Manchester University Press
Hardcover : 9781526136572, 304 pages, January 2020
Description
The remarkable commercial success of Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ in 2004 came as a surprise to the Hollywood establishment, particularly considering the film's failure to find production funding through a major studio. Since then the Biblical epic, long thought dead in terms of mainstream marketability, has become a viable product. This collection examines the new wave of the genre, which includes such varied examples as Darren Aronofsky's Noah (2014) and Ridley Scott's Exodus: Gods and Kings (2014), along with the telenovelas of Latin America. Such texts follow previous traditions while appearing distinct both stylistically and thematically from the Biblical epic in its prime, making academic consideration timely and relevant. Featuring contributions from such scholars as Mikel J. Koven, Andrew B. R. Elliott and Martin Stollery, and a preface from Adele Reinhartz, the book will be of interest to students and scholars of film, television and religion.
Promotion
Wickham Clayton introduces The Bible Onscreen in the New Millennium
The Bible Onscreen in the New Millennium - Q&A with Wickham Clayton
£85.00
Style and Form in the Hollywood Slasher Film
2015, Palgrave Macmillan
Hardcover : 9781137496461, 270 pages, October 2015
Paperback : 9781349573455, 270 pages, February 2018
Description
While existing work on modern horror tends to focus on a small range of exceptional examples of the genre, and generally finds value in the films through the application of sociopolitical, psychoanalytic or other theoretical frameworks, the broader trend of the for-profit Hollywood studio produced and/or distributed texts and the elements of their construction have been largely ignored. Style and Form in the Hollywood Slasher Film aims to fill this existing gap in scholarship on horror. This book collects essays from a range of academics to consider the place of some of these films within the history of the slasher, how their construction provides a more complex experience than initially conceived, what this can tell us about the genre, and how a study of form can support and aid theoretical analyses.
Reviews
'This collection deserves attention from anyone interested in the interrogation and enjoyment of the Hollywood Slasher film. Offering staunch, articulate, and passionate arguments for adopting formalist methodologies in the study and appreciation of the Hollywood Slasher genre, these essays make valuable contributions to existing horror film scholarship, extending the discussion beyond socio-ideological and theoretical perspectives.'
Valerie Wee, National University of Singapore
'Style and Form in the Hollywood Slasher Film is a welcome addition to critical works on the genre. Wickham Clayton brings together a very focused set of essays exploring the aesthetics and formal structures of the slasher film. The contributors explore a wide range of slasher films, both the typical examples and the unexpected, pushing at the boundaries of the form. This collection will provide interest and raise challenging questions for readers of all levels, shedding new light on formalist approaches to the genre.'
Brigid Cherry, Research Fellow in Screen Media, St Mary's University, Twickenham
'With exciting essays on the slasher subgenre from classic to revisionist films, this timely collection offers a rich vein of enquiry and superb range of scholarship on slasher stylistics. Style and Form in the Hollywood Slasher Film opens up the field of slasher studies for a new generation, challenging dominant theories and offering advanced and innovative perspectives.'
Sorcha Ní Fhlainn, Lecturer in Film Studies and American Literature, Manchester Metropolitan University
Hb £89.99
Pb £39.99
As Co-Editor
Horror that Haunts Us: Nostalgia, Revisionism, and Trauma in Contemporary American Horror Film and Television
with Karrå Shimabukuro
2024, Liverpool University Press
Hardcover : 9781802074628, 264 pages, May 2024
Description
Horror’s pleasures fundamentally hinge on looking backward, either on destabilising trauma, or as a period of comfort and happiness which is undermined by threat. However, this stretches beyond the scares on our screens to the consumption and criticism of the monsters of our past. The horror films of our youth can be locations of psychological and social trauma, or the happy place we go back to for comfort when our lives become unsettled.
Horror That Haunts Us: Nostalgia, Revisionism, and Trauma in Contemporary American Horror is a collection of essays that brings together multiple theoretical and critical approaches to consider the way popular horror films from the last fifty years communicate, embody, and rework our view of the past. Whether we look at our current relationship to the scary movies of decades ago as personal or cultural memory, the way historical and sociopolitical events and frameworks – especially traumas – reframe the way we look at our pasts, or even the way recent horror films and video games look back at our past (and the past of the genre itself) through a filter of experience and history, this collection will show the close relationship between nostalgia and popular horror. These essays also demonstrate a range of unique and diverse points of view from both established and emerging scholars on the subject of horror and the past.
Edited by seasoned horror experts Karrå Shimabukuro and Wickham Clayton, Horror That Haunts Us is a book with the aim of examining why we return again and again to certain popular horror films, either as remakes or reboots or as the basis for pastiche and homage.
Reviews
‘There is much to admire in Horror That Haunts Us. It brings together those sins of the past, those slashers, nightmares and spectres that shaped horror and horror audiences in the 1980s and fin-de-millennium, and reminds us that nostalgia, trauma, and undead economics ensure its continuance today. An excellent addition to 21st-Century horror scholarship.’
Dr. Sorcha Ní Fhlainn, Manchester Metropolitan University
Promotion
Horror That Haunts Us: A Conversation with Karrå Shimabukuro and Wickham Clayton
£115.00
Screening Twilight: Critical Approaches to a Cinematic Phenomenon
with Sarah Harman
2014, Bloomsbury/I.B. Tauris
Hardcover : 9781780766652, 232 pages, June 2014
Paperback : 9781780766669, 232 pages, June 2014
Description
The Twilight saga, a series of five films adapted from Stephanie Meyer's four vampire novels, has been a sensation, both at the box office and through the attention it has won from its predominantly teenaged fans. This series has also been the subject of criticism and sometimes derision - often from critics and on occasion even from fans. However, it also offers rich opportunities for analytic and critical attention, which the contributors to Screening Twilight demonstrate with energy and style. Through examining Twilight, the book unpacks how this popular group of films work as cinematic texts, what they have to say about cinema and culture today, and how fans may seek to re-read or subvert these messages. The chapters addressTwilight in the context of the vampire and myth, in terms of genre and reception, identity, gender and sexuality, and through re-viewing the series fandom. Screening Twilight is also a revelation of how a popular cinematic phenomenon like Twilight rewards close attention from contemporary critical scholars of cinema and culture.
Reviews
'Harman and Clayton have gathered together a dynamic mix of writers who tackle the series in all its complexities [...] This book is a must-read.'
Stacey Abbott, Reader in Film and Television Studies, University of Roehampton
'Screening Twilight [...] examines not only the texts but also how fans and critics have responded to them and it opens up a lively discussion of the cultural significance of this new twist in the vampire tale. In short, this is a terrific book.'
Milly Williams, Senior Lecturer in Film and TV Studies, Brunel University
Hb £100.00
Pb £25.99
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