The Canadian Horror Film

"An interesting and wide-ranging collection that makes a valuable contribution to work on both Canadian film and the genre of horror" -- Mark Jancovich, Professor of Film Studies, School of Film, Television, and Media Studies, University of East Anglia "This volume represents a welcome expansion of both horror film studies and Canadian film studies." -- Adam Lowenstein, Director, Film Studies Program, University of Pittsburgh, author of 'Dreaming of Cinema: Spectatorship, Surrealism, and the Age of Digital Media'

Featuring chapters on Pontypool, Ginger Snaps, 1970s slasher films, Quebec horror, and the work of David Cronenberg, among many others, The Canadian Horror Film unearths the terrors hidden in the recesses of the Canadian psyche.

From the cheaply made “tax-shelter” films of the 1970s to the latest wave of contemporary “eco-horror,” Canadian horror cinema has rarely received much critical attention. Gina Freitag and André Loiselle rectify that situation in The Canadian Horror Film with a series of thought-provoking reflections on Canada’s “terror of the soul,” a wasteland of docile damnation and prosaic pestilence where savage beasts and mad scientists rub elbows with pasty suburbanites, grumpy seamen, and baby-faced porn stars.

Featuring chapters on Pontypool, Ginger Snaps, 1970s slasher films, Quebec horror, and the work of David Cronenberg, among many others, The Canadian Horror Film unearths the terrors hidden in the recesses of the Canadian psyche. It examines the highlights of more than a century of Canadian horror filmmaking and includes an extensive filmography to guide both scholars and enthusiasts alike through this treacherous terrain.