Flares, lava lamps and safari suits and a national cinema dominated by smutty comedy and cheap softcore have all made 1970s popular culture appear too gruesome to recycle as nostalgia and too offensive for academic study. But the generic artefacts of the seventies, such as sexploitation films, skinhead novels, wife-swapping suburbia, football terraces, James Bond and creepy country houses have become important reference points and are now embraced by contemporary popular culture. The book revisits the 1970s through some of its least respectable texts: television programmes such as Jason King and On the Buses; films such as Suburban Wives, House of Whipcord and Confessions of a Windowcleaner; and the prime-time titillation and pornification of Britain by comedians such as Benny Hill. Identifying permissive populism, the trickle down of permissiveness into mass consumption, as a key feature of the 1970s, Leon hunt considers the values of an ostensibly bad decade and analyzes the implications of the 1970s for issues of taste and cultural capital.

The League of Gentlemen Part sitcom, part sketch show, part 'Kitchen Sink', part 'Northern Gothic', The League of Gentlemen is one of British television's most innovative and enduring comedy series. Set in the northern town of Royston Vasey, the series introduced viewers to homicidal Local Shop keepers Tubbs and Edward, vindictive training officer Pauline, demonic butcher Hilary Briss, and the nightmarish circus owner Papa Lazarou. Such was the series' effect that the word 'local' would never seem the same again. The majority of these grotesque characters were played by Mark Gatiss, Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith, who created and wrote the series with Jeremy Dyson. In addition to creating a unique world, where the mundane collided with the macabre, the League showcased a versatility in its performers rarely seen in TV comedy. Leon Hunt's entertaining and illuminating study offers the most sustained analysis of the series. Drawing on original interviews with Dyson and Gatiss, he traces the League's evolution, from fringe theatre to radio to television, from sketch-based material to the longer narratives of the Christmas Special and the contentious third series. Hunt contextualises the series as a 'cult classic', discussing its place within traditions of British comedy, its references to horror and fantasy and its creation of a grotesque and self-contained world. Leon Hunt is Senior Lecturer in Film and TV Studies at Brunel University. He is the author of Kung Fu Cult Masters: From Bruce Lee to Crouching Tiger (2003) and British Low Culture: From Safari Suits to Sexploitation (1998).

The vampire and the zombie, the two most popular incarnations of the undead, are brought together for a forensic critical investigation in Screening the Undead. 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, nowadays, 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. Screening the Undead sheds new light on these two icons of terror - and desire - whose popular longevity has taken them 'Beyond Life'.

Danger: Diabolik (1968) was adapted from a comic that has been a social phenomenon in Italy for over fifty years, featuring a masked master criminal-part Fantomas, part James Bond-and his elegant companion Eva Kant. The film partially reinvents the character as a countercultural prankster, subverting public officials and the national economy, and places him in a luxurious and futuristic underground hideout and Eva in a series of unforgettable outfits. A commercial disappointment on its original release, Danger: Diabolik's reputation has grown along with that of its director, Mario Bava, the quintessential cult auteur, while the pop-art glamour of its costumes and sets have caught the imagination of such people as Roman Coppola and the Beastie Boys. This study examines its status as a comic-book movie, including its relation both to the original fumetto and to its sister-film, Barbarella. It traces its production and initial reception in Italy, France, the U.S., and the U.K., and its cult afterlife as both a pop-art classic and campy "bad film" featured in the final episode of Mystery Science Theatre 3000.

From the balletic intensity of Bruce Lee to the gravity-defying swordplay of "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, " the Chinese Martial Arts film has captured audiences' imaginations around the world, while absorbing influences ranging from Beijing Opera to computer games. Its global impact can be seen in the Hollywood crossover of stars like Jackie Chan and Hong Kong-influenced films like "The Matrix." In this wide-ranging study, Leon Hunt looks at the mythic allure of the Shaolin Temple, the 'Clones' of Bruce Lee, gender-bending swordswomen, and the knockabout comedy of Sammo Hung, bringing new insights to a hugely popular and yet critically neglected genre. In addition, he considers the impact of new technologies on a genre focused on physical performance, from the 'wire fu' of Jet Li to the digital 'stars' of console games like Tekken. Films discussed include both popular and cult classics like "Game of Death, Fist of Legend, The 36th Chamber of Shaolin" and "Drunken Master."

How do we approach a figure like Mario Bava, a once obscure figure promoted to cult status? This book takes a new look at Italy's 'maestro of horror' but also uses his films to address a broader set of concerns. What issues do his films raise for film authorship, given that several of them were released in different versions and his contributions to others were not always credited? How might he be understood in relation to genre, one of which he is sometimes credited with having pioneered? This volume addresses these questions through a thorough analysis of Bava's shifting reputation as a stylist and genre pioneer and also discusses the formal and narrative properties of a filmography marked by an emphasis on spectacle and atmosphere over narrative coherence and the ways in which his lauded cinematic style intersects with different production contexts. Featuring new analysis of cult classics like Kill, Baby ... Kill (1966) and Five Dolls for an August Moon (1970), Mario Bava: The Artisan as Italian Horror Auteur sheds light on a body of films that were designed to be ephemeral but continue to fascinate us today.

How do we approach a figure like Mario Bava, a once obscure figure promoted to cult status? This book takes a new look at Italy’s ‘maestro of horror’ but also uses his films to address a broader set of concerns. What issues do his films raise for film authorship, given that several of them were released in different versions and his contributions to others were not always credited? How might he be understood in relation to genre, one of which he is sometimes credited with having pioneered? This volume addresses these questions through a thorough analysis of Bava's shifting reputation as a stylist and genre pioneer and also discusses the formal and narrative properties of a filmography marked by an emphasis on spectacle and atmosphere over narrative coherence and the ways in which his lauded cinematic style intersects with different production contexts. Featuring new analysis of cult classics like Kill, Baby … Kill (1966) and Five Dolls for an August Moon (1970), Mario Bava: The Artisan as Italian Horror Auteur sheds light on a body of films that were designed to be ephemeral but continue to fascinate us today.

Cinemas from East Asia are among the most exciting and influential in the world. They are attracting popular and critical attention on a global scale, with films from the region circulating as art house, cult, blockbuster and 'extreme' cinema, or as Hollywood remakes. This book explores developments in the global popularity of East Asian cinema, from Chinese martial arts, through Japanese horror, to the burgeoning new Korean cinema, with particular emphasis on crossovers, remakes, hybrids and co-productions. It examines changing cinematic traditions in Asia alongside the 'Asianisation' of western cinema. It explores the dialogue not only between 'East' and 'West', but between different cinemas in the Asia Pacific. What do these trends mean for global cinema? How are co-productions and crossover films changing the nature of Hollywood and East Asian cinemas? The book includes in-depth studies of Park Chan-wook, 'Infernal Affairs', 'Seven Samurai', and 'Princess Mononoke'.

Cinemas from East Asia are among the most exciting and influential in the world. They are attracting popular and critical attention on a global scale, with films from the region circulating as art house, cult, blockbuster and 'extreme' cinema, or as Hollywood remakes. This book explores developments in the global popularity of East Asian cinema, from Chinese martial arts, through Japanese horror, to the burgeoning new Korean cinema, with particular emphasis on crossovers, remakes, hybrids and co-productions. It examines changing cinematic traditions in Asia alongside the 'Asianisation' of western cinema. It explores the dialogue not only between 'East' and 'West', but between different cinemas in the Asia Pacific. What do these trends mean for global cinema? How are co-productions and crossover films changing the nature of Hollywood and East Asian cinemas? The book includes in-depth studies of Park Chan-wook, 'Infernal Affairs', 'Seven Samurai', and 'Princess Mononoke'.