ABOUT THIS BOOK
The popular and critical successes of films like The Sixth Sense and the Ring film and its sequels in the late 1990s led to an impressive international explosion of scary films dealing with ghosts. This book takes a close look at a number of those films from different countries, including the United States, Japan, South Korea, Spain, and Great Britain. Making a crucial distinction between these atmospheric films and conventional horror, Michael Walker argues that they are most productively seen as ghost melodramas, which opens them up to a powerful range of analytic tools from the study of melodrama, including, crucially, psychoanalysis.

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY
Michael Walker is an independent writer and member of the editorial board of Movie magazine.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. Introduction2. Three major predecessors3. The fallow years: an assortment of ghosts SEMINAL FILMS4. Ghosts in the city5. Ghosts in the machine6. Schoolgirl angst7. Childhood abuseEVOLUTION OF THE CYCLE8. Generic developments 1: Messages from the dead 9. Spain and history 1: Politics and war 10. Hollywood reinflections11. Asian variations 12. Generic developments 2: Ghosts in the woman's film 13. Ghosts and institutions 1: South Korea14. Ghosts and institutions 2: The West 15. National variations 16. Anatomy of the ghost melodrama17. Spain and history 2: The Franco legacy and the Catholic church 18. Return of the British ghost film 19. Recent US developments and conclusionFilmographyBibliography