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Aesthetic Deviations

A Critical View of American Shot-on-Video Horror, 1984-1994

The first serious critical evaluation of American shot-on-video horror cinema. By Vincent A. Albarano.

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Advertisement for SOV film Twisted Issues.

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

  • Labels such as Saturn’s Core Audio/Video and Visual Vengeance continue to release high-profile home video editions of SOV horror titles;
  • Popular recent books like Analog Nightmares and Bleeding Skull! offer less intensive reviews and coverage of SOV horror films;
  • Fanzines and numerous websites continue to praise SOV horror titles, but no printed text has yet offered serious consideration of the films and their place in history;
  • SOV horror continues to grow in visibility and more films are made available on home video.

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. 

Newton Talks PodcastJames Newton
“My guest in this episode is Vincent A. Albarano, who joins me to talk about his new book, Aesthetic Deviations: A Critical View of American Shot-on-Video Horror, 1984-1994.”
Nick CatoStink
Read More
“First official book-length exposé of Shot On Video horror movies […] With rare pics and useful sources for further reading, Aesthetic Deviations is one of the more unique and needed film books to come around in quite some time.”
Rod LottFlick Attack
“Albarano has written a work of true scholarship, conceived as a thesis, which accounts for the use of words like 'pugnacity,' 'egalitarian' and 'simulacrum.' It just so happens to study, in part, a horny ventriloquist’s dummy that looks like Rick James. (If your reluctance needs further calming, remember this one unassailable fact: Guys, it’s published by Headpress, K?).”
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Vincent A. Albarano

VINCENT A. ALBARANO is from Columbus, OH. A graduate of Denison University and The Ohio State University, he has written extensively on underground horror cinema. Vincent is the author of Pinhead Music: the Underground Sights and Sounds of Keyser, WV, and a contributor to Dangerous Encounters.

Aesthetic Deviations

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