Performing Arts and the Gothic | S. S. Prawer (Essay Date 1980)

S. S. PRAWER (ESSAY DATE 1980)

SOURCE: Prawer, S. S. "The Making of a Genre." In Caligari's Children: The Film as Tale of Terror, pp. 8-47. New York: Oxford University Press, 1980.

In the following excerpt, Prawer traces the history and development of the horror film genre, highlighting seminal figures and works throughout the twentieth century.

Quite a good scene, isn't it? One man crazy—and three very sane spectators!

                                Frankenstein (1931)

ON THE SUBJECT OF … BELA LUGOSI (1882–1956) AND DRACULA

With his aristocratic accent, distinctive profile, slicked-back dark hair, spidery fingers, mesmerizing eyes, and swirling black cape, Hungarian-born actor Bela Lugosi helped to create cinema's definitive Dracula, the vampire as sexual and charming as he is villainous. Born Béla...

[The entire page is 11775 words long]

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