Film critic Steve Hutchison breaks down 29 monster and maniac archetypes, and 33 subgenres from 2782 horror movies reviewed, rated, ranked, and classified. Character and subgenre spreads include the four top-ranking films in each category, their average star rating, the character/subgenre’s relative frequency in the genre, a list of the 10 simplest films, and a list of the 10 most complex ones. This book offers a unique perspective on horror cinema whether you’re looking for niched films to watch, film data for research, or writing inspiration.

Film critic Steve Hutchison breaks down 29 monster and maniac archetypes from 2782 horror movies reviewed, rated, ranked, and classified. Character spreads include the four top-ranking films in each category, their average star rating, the character’s relative frequency in the genre, a list of the 10 simplest films, and a list of the 10 most complex ones. This book offers a unique perspective on horror cinema whether you’re looking for niched films to watch, film data for research, or writing inspiration.

Film critic Steve Hutchison breaks down 33 subgenres from 2782 horror movies reviewed, rated, ranked, and classified. Subgenre spreads include the four top-ranking films in each category, their average star rating, the subgenre’s relative frequency in the genre, a list of the 10 simplest films, and a list of the 10 most complex ones. This book offers a unique perspective on horror cinema whether you’re looking for niched films to watch, film data for research, or writing inspiration.

There are six of them: heroines, heroes, wise elders, mad scientists, servants and monsters. One of the most fascinating and also endearing aspects of horror films is how they use these six clearly defined character types to portray good and evil. This was particularly true of the classics of the genre, where actors often appeared in the same type of role in many different films. The development of the archetypal characters reflected the way the genre reacted to social changes of the time. As the Great Depression yielded to the uncertainty of World War II, flawed but noble mad scientists such as Henry Frankenstein gave way to Dr. Nieman (The Ghost of Frankenstein) with his dreams of revenge and world conquest. This work details the development of the six archetypes in horror films and how they were portrayed in the many classics of the 1930s and 1940s.

This book tells you what kinds of movies have rarely or never been made and warns you about saturated niches. Authors and screenwriters might want to avoid those. The lower the frequency meter, the more unique the concept. These statistics are based on about 3000 horror and horror-adjacent movies I’ve reviewed and rated. 21 subgenres and 27 character types were combined, resulting in 621 permutations. The best movies for each subgenre/character combination are listed for inspiration’s sake.

This book tells you what kind of movies have rarely or never been made and warns you about saturated niches. Authors and screenwriters might want to avoid those. The lower the frequency meter, the more unique the concept. These statistics are based on about 3000 horror and horror-adjacent movies I've reviewed and rated. 21 subgenres and 27 character types were combined, resulting in 621 permutations. The best movies for each subgenre/character combination are listed for inspiration's sake.

Exploring Movie Construction & Production contains eight chapters of the major areas of film construction and production. The discussion covers theme, genre, narrative structure, character portrayal, story, plot, directing style, cinematography, and editing. Important terminology is defined and types of analysis are discussed and demonstrated. An extended example of how a movie description reflects the setting, narrative structure, or directing style is used throughout the book to illustrate building blocks of each theme. This approach to film instruction and analysis has proved beneficial to increasing students¿ learning, while enhancing the creativity and critical thinking of the student.