The remarkable commercial success of Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ in 2004 came as a surprise to the Hollywood establishment, particularly considering the film’s failure to find production funding through a major studio. Since then the Biblical epic, long thought dead in terms of mainstream marketability, has become a viable product. This collection examines the new wave of the genre, which includes such varied examples as Darren Aronofsky’s Noah (2014) and Ridle...

Sean S. Cunningham and Victor Miller’s Friday the 13th franchise is one of the most successful horror film franchises in history. To date, it includes twelve movies, a television show, comic books, and video games, among other media. In SEE! HEAR! CUT! KILL! Experiencing “Friday the 13th,” Wickham Clayton explores several aspects of the films including how the technical aspects relate to the audience, their influence on filmmaking, and the cultural impact of the franchise...

Scholars of religion have begun to explore horror and the monstrous, not only within the confines of the biblical text or the traditions of religion, but also as they proliferate into popular culture. This exploration emerges from what has long been present in horror: an engagement with the same questions that animate religious thought – questions about the nature of the divine, humanity's place in the universe, the distribution of justice, and what it means to live a good life, among many...

The Twilight saga, a series of five films adapted from Stephanie Meyer's four vampire novels, has been a sensation, both at the box office and through the attention it has won from its predominantly teenaged fans. This series has also been the subject of criticism and sometimes derision - often from critics and on occasion even from fans. However, it also offers rich opportunities for analytic and critical attention, which the contributors to Screening Twilight demonstrate with energy and ...