Cheap and Nasty? Home Video and the Global Distribution Trajectory of British Horror Films in the 1980s
Presentation by Dr Johnny Walker
Before its re-launch in the mid-2000s, Britain’s most iconic producer of horror movies, Hammer Films, ceased feature film production in 1979. For some, this sounded the death knell for domestic horror production, prior to the genre’s ‘rebirth’ in the early 2000s with mainstream hits such as 28 Days Later (2002). While little-acknowledged, the intervening two decades saw numerous domestic horror productions materialise, enjoying varying levels of success and international exposure, albeit rarely in cinemas. Indeed, British horror’s presence was most felt in the nascent video cassette market. This presentation, drawing from the AHRC-funded research project, Raising Hell: British Horror Film of the 1980s and 1990s, focuses on the beginnings and maturation of the global home-video market, and the role of British horror film within it. It argues that, whereas the infrastructure to sustain commercial filmmaking in Britain all but collapsed during the 1980s, a series of British films were subsidised by international exploitation film producers looking to use the UK as a base from which internationally exploitable horror films might emerge. Such producers included the Americans Dick Randall and Steve Minasian, whose British films, including the slashers Don’t Open Till Christmas (1984) and Slaughter High (1986), were distributed on video throughout the world, and did good business relative to the climate. By focusing on the distribution trajectories on these films and others, this presentation revises the history of British horror cinema, arguing that the significance of domestic horror production to the period in question has been understated.
Dr Johnny Walker is Associate Professor in the Department of Arts at Northumbria University. His books include, as author Rewind, Replay: Britain and the Video Boom, 1978-92 (Edinburgh University Press, 2022), Contemporary British Horror Cinema: Industry, Genre and Society (Edinburgh University Press, 2015), and, as editor, a new edition of the late Peter Hutchings’ ground-breaking volume, Hammer and Beyond: The British Horror Film (Manchester University Press, 2021).
Also make sure to check out this year's other lecture - Dr Kate Egan: ‘Do As I Say’: Horror, Performance, Laurie Strode and Jamie Lee Curtis: • 9. KURJA POLT: Dr Kate...
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