Uncanny Bodies - The Coming of Sound Film and the Origins of the Horror Genre (Hardcover)

"Through meticulous historical research, Spadoni in "Uncanny Bodies" provides a fine understanding of the aesthetic and cultural context in which the original Universal film version of "Dracula" appeared. Through analyses of films that came before and after, he successfully restores "Dracula"'s strangeness for a contemporary audience, a strangeness that reflects the rapidly evolving conventions of the early sound film. A significant contribution to reception studies, "Uncanny Bodies" makes us see why "Dracula," while holding little terror for subsequent audiences, is nevertheless both a foundational work for the horror film, and also, paradoxically, an anomaly, one effectively overshadowed by "Frankenstein.""--William Paul, author of "Laughing Screaming: Modern Hollywood Horror and Comedy"
""Uncanny Bodies" is a pleasure to read. I know of no other work that has looked as closely at early sound and horror films to make a persuasive argument about horror's relation to the beginnings of sound film. Given the voluminous literature on Universal horror films, Spadoni presents some very original ideas and frames his inquiry in an interesting way."--Jan-Christopher Horak, editor of "Lovers of Cinema: The First American Film Avant-Garde, 1919-1945"