The first serious critical evaluation of American shot-on-video horror cinema. By Vincent A. Albarano.
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Filmed with consumer-grade camcorders and other analog video formats, amateur SOV efforts are generally regarded as the lowest-common-denominator of genre films by fans and scholars of paracinema, if acknowledged at all.
Long considered the dead-end of genre cinema, Shot-On-Video (SOV) horror finally gets its due as a serious filmmaking practice.
Using classic fanzines, promotional materials, and especially the theories of several important film scholars, Vincent Albarano brings SOV horror into critical focus for the first time in print. Prior to this moment, Video Violence, Twisted Issues, Alien Beasts, and more have never been mentioned in the same breath as André Bazin and Siegfried Kracauer, despite their common ground.
AESTHETIC DEVIATIONS delves deep into several of the most famous SOV horror titles to give credit for their unique and singular contributions to independent genre cinema. Informed equally by a fan’s passion and the studied approaches of scholarly analysis, Albarano offers the first-ever detailed examination of the SOV horror cycle, proving that this strain of amateur filmmaking is deserving of proper appraisal. Sure to enlighten and provoke thought among fans and converts to the unique charms of SOV cinema, as well as inspire newcomers, Albarano’s book proves an invaluable resource for a neglected area of cinematic inquiry.
Introduction
1: Amateur Cinema and the Dawn of Shot-on-Video Horror
2: Demon Dolls and Quadead Zones: Amateur Cinephilia and the Alternative Function of Realism
3: Todd Sheets and SOV Medium Specificity
4: SOV Horror and the Unexpected Avant-Garde
5: Splatter Video: Mutating the Slasher Film
6: Excess and Outrage: The Transgressive Video Underground
7: Underground Economies: SOV Reception in the 2020s
Sources / Index
Title: AESTHETIC DEVIATIONS
Subtitle: A Critical View of American Shot-on-Video Horror, 1984-1994
Author: Vincent A. Albarano
ISBN: 978-1-915316-23-3
Street Date: August 3, 2023
Category: Film
Retail Price: UK £19.99 / US $27.95
Binding: Paperback
Size: 203mm x 127mm
Pages: 200
Illos: 52 b&w video ads and artwork
As the trade paperback, except the special hardback edition this special NO-ISBN hardback is exclusive to this website. Because it carries No ISBN number, this edition of the book is off the grid in as much as it doesn’t appear on any database, in any library, cannot be ordered through mainstream bookshops or online retailers.
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