Modern Ghost Melodramas

Cover -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- 1. Introduction -- The Gothic Tradition -- Freud and Motifs -- 2. Three Major Predecessors -- The Haunted House -- The Changeling (Peter Medak, Canada, 1979) -- The Malevolent Hotel -- The Shining (Stanley Kubrick, GB, 1980) -- The Avenging Ghost -- Ghost Story (John Irvin, US, 1981) -- 3. The Fallow Years: An Assortment of Ghosts -- Bringing Back the Past -- Lady in White (Frank LaLoggia, US, 1988) and Ijintachi tono natsu/The Discarnates (Nobuhiko Obayashi, Japan, 1988) -- Lady in White -- The Discarnates -- Benevolent Ghosts -- Ghost (Jerry Zucker, US, 1990) -- Always (Steven Spielberg, US, 1989) -- The Seductive Revenant -- Haunted (Lewis Gilbert, UK/ US, 1995) -- Seminal Films -- 4. Ghosts in the City -- A Ghost World -- The Sixth Sense (M. Night Shyamalan, US, 1999) -- Working-class Tensions -- Stir of Echoes (David Koepp, US, 1999) -- 5. Ghosts in the Machine -- Ringu/Ring (Hideo Nakata, Japan, 1998) and Ringu 2/Ring 2 (Nakata, Japan, 1999) -- Ringu 2 -- 6. Schoolgirl Angst -- Kokkuri-san/Kokkuri (Takahisa Zeze, Japan, 1997) -- Memento Mori (Kim Tae-yong & Min Kyu-dong, South Korea, 1999) -- 7. Childhood Abuse -- In Dreams (Neil Jordan, US, 1998) and The Dark (John Fawcett, UK/Germany, 2005) -- The Haunting (Jan de Bont, US, 1999) -- Evolution of the cycle -- 8. Generic Developments 1: Messages from the Dead -- A Ghost Movie Thriller -- What Lies Beneath (Robert Zemeckis, US, 2000) -- Southern Gothic -- The Gift (Sam Raimi, US, 2000) -- Bereaved Husband -- Dragonfly (Tom Shadyac, US/Germany, 2002) -- 9. Spain and History 1: Politics and War -- El espinazo del diablo/ The Devil's Backbone (Guillermo del Toro, Spain/Mexico, 2001) -- The Others/Los otros (Alejandro Amenábar, Spain/ US, 2001) -- 10. Hollywood Reinflections -- The Ring (Gore Verbinski 2002) and The Ring Two (Hideo Nakata 2005)