The Spanish Fantastic: Contemporary Filmmaking in Horror, Fantasy and Sci-fi

Description

In recent decades, the Spanish 'fantastic' has been at the forefront of genre filmmaking. Films such as The Day of the Beast, the Rec trilogy, The Orphanage and Timecrimes have received widespread attention and popularity, arguably rescuing Spanish cinema from its semi-invisibility during the creativity-crushing Franco years. By turns daring, evocative, outrageous, and intense, this new cinema has given voice to a generation, both beholden to and yet breaking away from their historical and cultural roots. Beginning in the 1990s, films from directors such as Alex de la Iglesia, Alejandro Amenabar, and Jaume Balaguero reinvigorated Spanish cinema in the horror, science fiction and fantasy veins as their work proliferated and took centre stage at international festivals such as Sitges, Fantasia International Film Festival and Fantastic Fest. Through an examination of key films and filmmakers, Shelagh Rowan-Legg here investigates the rise of this unique new wave of genre films from Spain, and how they have recycled, reshaped and renewed the stunning visual tropes, wild narratives and imaginative other worlds inherent to an increasingly influential cinematic field.Its emergence is part of a new trend of postnational cinema, led by the fantastic, which approaches the national boundaries of cinema with an exciting sense of fluidity.

Shelagh Rowan-Legg is a writer, filmmaker, and script consultant. She is the Executive Director of The Miskatonic Institute of Horror Studies, a programmer for FrightFest, and a contributing editor for ScreenAnarchy. Her award-winning short films have screened at festivals around the world. She has a PhD in Spanish fantastic film from King's College London.

'The Spanish Fantastic brings a highly informed critical perspective to key works from one of the most exciting production cycles in recent Spanish cinema. From Guillermo del Toro and Alex de la Iglesia, to lesser known genre specialists Jaume Balaguero and Paco Plaza, the author's range is unsurpassed and her approach expertly informed.' - Andy Willis, University of Salford, UK, 'Shelagh Rowan-Legg's innovative monograph eschews the normal auteurist and nationalist approaches to Spanish cinema to offer a series of excellent close readings of genre films, many of them little known.' - Paul Julian Smith, City University of New York (CUNY), 'Accessibly written, and drawing on extensive knowledge and research, Shelagh Rowan-Legg's book blends cultural, historical and industrial perspectives into an engaging account that argues for the originality of this genre. Her authoritative analysis puts the new "Spanish fantastic" firmly on the map of postnational world cinemas.' - Belen Vidal, King's College London, 'If you want to know why contemporary Spanish fantastic films have been commercially and critically successful across the world, this is the book to read. Rowan-Legg's first-hand knowledge and expertise establish a fruitful dialogue with autochthonous and international fantasy traditions and how these traditions circulate locally and globally. Sexy killers and mutants, zombies and ghosts, puzzle plots and dystopian worlds - it's all here in this engaging and valuable book.' - Antonio Lazaro-Reboll, University of Kent