This book examines eleven horror films in-depth and their relationships to Romantic Gothic literary conventions--mainly, but not solely, found in works dating from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. To illustrate the use of these conventions in film, Michael Sevastakis analyzes shots from scenes and sequences of all films discussed. Due to the large quantity of horror films produced during this period, the films in this book have been selected on the basis of their supernatural and preternatural content, and upon four conventions predicated on fictional literary models dealing with the villain-hero as "Necrophile," "Modern Prometheus," "Symbol of Destiny," and "Tormented Hero." These four sections comprise eleven chapters; in addition, there is an introduction and conclusion. Some of the movies that are discussed include Tod Browning's Dracula (1931), and Devil Doll (1936), Karl Freund's The Mummy (1932), and Mad Love (1935), James Whale's Frankenstein (1931), and The Invisible Man (1933), Erle Kenton's Island of Lost Souls (1933), Ruben Mamoulian's Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1932), abd Lambert Hillyer's Dracula's Daughter (1936).

The Italian giallo film genre--the equivalent of the American whodunit but incorporating extreme violence and sex--was based on popular British and American fiction of the 30s and 40s, adapted to the explicitly liberal filmmaking of 1970s and 1980s Europe. Seldom released in American theaters, these films were usually distributed as redacted bootlegs, awaiting digital technology to be restored to their original content and pristine visual form. This book analyzes the censored sex and violence of giallo films, finding in them an inherent beauty and tracing their literary antecedents to the elements of the fairy tale as described by Russian folklorist Vladimir Propp. Each chapter covers a film and its director, from 1962 to 1987. The author argues that despite their formulaic production and designation as ""Euro-sleaze,"" these films are works of individuality and artistic virtue.