Bright Darkness: The Lost Art of the Supernatural Horror Film

Bright Darkness: The Lost Art of the Supernatural Horror Film by Dyson, Jeremy. paperback edition. ISBN: 9780304340385.

The cult sub-genre of the supernatural film has been much maligned, but, at its best, supernatural horror allows us an awe-inspiring glimpse of another world, exhibiting all the facets of the cinemas possibilities as a narrative art form. This is an exploration of the supernatural horror film, providing a detailed analysis of individual films, concentrating on the "golden age" of horror films, from the earliest Universal talkies and the B movies produced for RKO, to an in-depth examination of Robert Wises "The Haunting", made in 1963. The book aims to illuminate the developing complexities of themes, styles and techniques, identifying their often-overlooked influence on mainstream cinema, and pointing out some surprising similarities between movies such as "Citizen Kane" and Hitchcocks "Vertigo", and some of their less celebrated genre antecedents.