A critical analysis of the 21st-century fascination with the past, from horror films to haunted music. By William Burns
£9.99 – £23.00
Be aware of our processing and delivery times, which may take up to 3 weeks on some titles.
Also, customers not in the UK or USA please click here before placing an order.
Headpress is people
The future ain’t what it used to be.
Is nostalgia revitalizing or killing 21st-century culture? The concept of nostalgia has seeped into almost all aspects of modern-day media, none more so than horror culture and its borderlands of Hauntology, Folk Horror, and found footage film.
Ghost of an Idea: Hauntology, Folk Horror, and the Spectre of Nostalgia examines the use and effect of nostalgia in the Horror and Hauntological realms. It asks why these genres hold such a fascination in popular culture, often inspiring devoted fanbases. From Candyman to The Blair Witch Project, and Dark Shadows to American Horror Story, are the folk horror and found footage phenomena significant artistic responses to political, social, and economic conditions, or simply an aesthetic rebranding of what has come before? How has nostalgia become linked to other concepts (psychogeography, residual haunting) to influence Hauntological music such as Boards of Canada or The Caretaker? What can the ‘urban wyrd’ or faux horror footage tell us about our idealized past? And how will these cultures of nostalgia shape the future?
Combining the author’s analysis with first-hand accounts of fans and creators, Ghost of an Idea offers a critical analysis of our cultural quest to recognize, resurrect, and lay to rest the ghosts of past and present, also summoning up those spectres that may haunt the future.
Introduction: The Seductive Liar, or Are We What We Used to Be?
Chapter 1: Today is Tomorrow’s Yesterday: The Philosophy of Nostalgia
Chapter 2: The Yearning to Return: Folk Horror and Nostalgia
Chapter 3: The Illusionary Precipice: Found Footage and Nostalgia
Chapter 4: The Longing of the Permanently Lost: Franchise Nostalgia
Chapter 5: An Ethereal Composition of Disjointed Memories: Nostalgia as Catalyst for the New
Chapter 6: The Vice of the Aged: Do They Still Got It or Living Off Past Glories?
Chapter 7: The Enemy of Truth: Is Nostalgia Counter-Revolutionary?
Index
Title: GHOST OF AN IDEA
Subtitle: Hauntology, Folk Horror, and the Spectre of Nostalgia
Author: William Burns
ISBN: 978-1-915316-31-8
Street Date: March 6, 2025
Category: Pop Culture / Hauntology
Retail Price: UK £19.99 / US $27.95
Binding: Paperback
Size: 203mm x 127mm
Pages: 286
Illos: N/A
As the trade paperback, except 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.
THIS BOOK ISN’T an encyclopaedia of contentious films or an attempt to discuss every video that has had a run-in with the law or the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC). Cannibal Error is primarily a chronicle of video culture in Britain, and of political anti-film propaganda from the late seventies through to the end of the millennium. A substantial part deals with the Video Recordings Act 1984 and the so-called ‘video nasties’. It was during this turbulent era — to paraphrase the little boy in one ‘banned’ film, Shogun Assassin — that everything changed forever.
The original edition was published as See No Evil: Banned Films and Video Controversy (Headpress, 2000). It concluded with the retirement of BBFC director James Ferman, a figure unpopular with filmmakers (he kept cutting their films) and later out of sorts with members of the British government and arguably the Board itself. In revising the book, the authors have stuck with the original framework and not diffused what, in hindsight, is a solid time-capsule of a key period of film and socio-political culture in Britain. Without Ferman the narrative changes and the ‘video nasties’ become another story. However, the inclusion of new material, notably the appendix, offers an insight into the Board today and a timely reflection on attitudes towards this volatile era. […]
PREFACE
A Note on Film Titles | Acknowledgements | Why ‘Cannibal Error’?
BEGINNINGS: ‘TIME MARCHES ON!’
UNEASE: ‘AN ORGY OF COMMERCIALISM’
CLAMPDOWN: ‘PRIVATELY FUNDED BY INDIVIDUALS AND CHURCHES’
SIEGE: ‘DRAINING THE BLOOD OF THE INNOCENT!’
BLACK MARKET & PIRATES: ‘HARD TO FIND RARITIES’
THE BIG INFLUENCE: ‘WHO SUPPORTS VIOLENT FILMS NOW?’
SEX & WRECKS: ‘AT THE LEAST PROVOCATION’
THE DPP39: ‘SCENES OF EXTREME AND EXPLICIT VIOLENCE’
APPENDIX
A miscellany of rejected video works, 1990–Present
Two interviews with independent video distributors
Two interviews with the B B F C
Anatomy of a raid
The ‘video nasties’ — Where are they now?
“You can’t run all these machines off the standard mains”
Black market mailing list
Sources: Bibliography | Periodicals | Websites
Notes
Index
Title: CANNIBAL ERROR
Subtitle: Anti-Film Propaganda and the ‘Video Nasties’ Panic of the 1980s
Author: David Kerekes & David Slater
ISBN: 978-1-909394-95-7
Street Date: March 7, 2024
Category: Film / Popular Culture / Social Studies
Retail Price: UK £25.99 / US $32.95
Binding: Paperback
Size: 240mm x 171mm
Pages: 596
Illos: 450+ B&W stills and ads
As the trade paperback, except 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.
Click Image For Sample Pages
The first book devoted to power electronics, written by artists, fans, and critics.
“I thought I was desensitized. I’m not. No hope for humanity… I feel like my quest is over.” — Comment online in reaction to the video, 3 Guys 1 Hammer
The Watergate scandal was a horror show. What better way to satirize it than with a horror movie? A fascinating minute-by-minute exploration of many uncanny connections between The Texas Chain Saw Massacre and Watergate.
For fans of old Times Square and midnight, cult, horror, and exploitation movies.
“The Mondo Cane films were an important key to what was going on in the media landscape of the 1960s, especially post the JFK assassination. Nothing was true, and nothing was untrue…” J.G. Ballard from his Introduction
The strangest place I ever went on movie business was North Korea … and other true stories of a one-man, zero-budget touring film company.
If you are based in the UK, USA, or any country listed here, please go ahead and place your order on our website.
If you are not ordering from the UK, USA, or one of the countries listed, please contact us before placing your order for a shipping price. This is to ensure you are charged the most sensible price for delivery, wherever you are in the world.
Click on the link below and send us:
(1) Info and quantity for the item/s you are after;
(2) Delivery details, i.e. Country, State and Postcode
Alternatively, email us with any questions here
Hey! We are making every effort to beat Santa, but under the present circumstances we don't want to disappoint and so cannot guarantee delivery for Christmas.
