Touchstones of Gothic Horror

Explores the origin of Gothic cinema in art and literature, tracing its connection to the Gothic revival in architecture, the Gothic novel, landscape, ruins, Egyptology, occultism, sexuality, the mythology of werewolves, the philosophy of Hegel, and many other aspects of the Romantic and Symbolist movements.

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Gothic cinema, typified by the films of Universal, Hammer, Amicus and Tigon, grew out of an aesthetic that stretches back to the eighteenth century and beyond, even to Shakespeare. This book explores the origin of Gothic cinema in art and literature, tracing its connection to the Gothic revival in architecture, the Gothic novel, landscape, ruins, Egyptology, occultism, sexuality, the mythology of werewolves, the philosophy of Hegel, and many other aspects of the Romantic and Symbolist movements.