Ghosts and Angels in Hollywood Films

Ghosts and Angels in Hollywood Films
Author: James Robert Parish
Publisher:
Total Pages: 440
Release: 1994
Genre: Performing Arts
ISBN:

Since the early 1900s, movies dealing with ghosts and angels have been a recurring subject for Hollywood's studios. These otherworldly characters are not bound by the same conventions as mere mortals, and thus often give moviemakers a vehicle to tie up loose ends, proselytize on good and evil, or showcase special effects. This reference work provides a comprehensive filmography of ghosts and angels in American movies through 1991. Each entry includes full cast and credits, production information, contemporary reviews, and an essay blending a summary of the film and critical commentary. Fully indexed.

Giving Up the Ghost

Giving Up the Ghost
Author: Katherine A. Fowkes
Publisher: Wayne State University Press
Total Pages: 214
Release: 1998
Genre: Body, Mind & Spirit
ISBN: 9780814327210

Arguing that our enjoyment of ghost films is linked to masochistic pleasure, Giving up the Ghost provides us with a new way of thinking about the relation between film viewing and gender. A deft but readable application of psychoanalytic theories, especially masochism (by way of Deleuze and Studlar), extends the utility of psychoanalysis to the understanding of film genre and film audiences. It is indispensable reading for scholars and students of film theory.

Hauntings and Poltergeists

Hauntings and Poltergeists
Author: James Houran
Publisher: McFarland
Total Pages: 337
Release: 2015-08-13
Genre: Body, Mind & Spirit
ISBN: 1476613168

Few people can claim the distinction of experiencing first-hand such occurrences as hauntings and the presence of poltergeists, but countless numbers of people are fascinated by these unexplainable events. Written by the world's most knowledgeable authorities in this field, the essays in this work promote a better understanding of the manifestations of and various reasons for hauntings and poltergeist phenomena. The experts come from such backgrounds as anthropology, history, philosophy, psychiatry, and sociology, and provide sober yet highly readable in-depth discussions of numerous ideas and rationalizations for hauntings and poltergeists, from a critical and scientific perspective. Divided into three major sections--sociocultural, physical and physiological, and psychological perspectives--this work provides an overview of each perspective and also addresses the general psychology of belief in the paranormal and how that belief relates to experiences with ghosts and poltergeists.

Angels

Angels
Author: George J. Marshall
Publisher: McFarland
Total Pages: 486
Release: 2015-08-13
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1476609586

In the 1990s alone, more than 400 works on angels were published, adding to an already burgeoning genre. Throughout the centuries angels have been featured in, among others, theological works on scripture; studies in comparative religions; works on art, architecture and music; philological studies; philosophical, sociological, anthropological, archeological and psychological works; and even a psychoanalytical study of the implications that our understanding of angels has for our understanding of sexual differences. This bibliography lists 4,355 works alphabetically by author. Each entry contains a source for the reference, often a Library of Congress call number followed by the name of a university that holds the work. More than 750 of the entries are annotated. Extensive indexes to names, subjects and centuries provide further utility.

The Encyclopedia of Angels

The Encyclopedia of Angels
Author: Rosemary Guiley
Publisher: Infobase Publishing
Total Pages: 417
Release: 2004
Genre: Angels
ISBN: 1438130023

An encyclopedia describing and giving the history of angels from the time when the earth was created forward, using texts from Hebrew, Arabic, ancient and contemporary works.

Celebrity Ghosts and Notorious Hauntings

Celebrity Ghosts and Notorious Hauntings
Author: Marie D. Jones
Publisher: Visible Ink Press
Total Pages: 865
Release: 2019-09-01
Genre: Body, Mind & Spirit
ISBN: 1578597013

Rich. Famous. Glamorous. Dead ... and Immortal! From old Hollywood silent film stars to rock stars to athletes, past presidents, and famous generals, celebrated individuals sometimes become celebrity ghosts, and they haunt their homes, workplaces, and even burial places. In turn, those places become famous, even notorious, thanks to the ghost that is haunting it! Celebrity Ghosts and Notorious Hauntings looks at many famous ghosts—dead celebrities that haunt old Hollywood locales, famous generals that appear to witnesses at great battlefields, and noted politicians that roam the hallways of courthouses, statehouses, and even the White House! Plus, this fascinating frightfest examines the famous haunted locations themselves, such as the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, the Hotel del Coronado, Gettysburg, the Stanley Hotel (which inspired Stephen King’s The Shining) and so many others that claim the supernatural as part of their heritage and history. This riveting look at the unexplained also investigates movie lore, including the unsettling incidents on the Amityville Horror set; “The Dark Knight” curse that includes on-set accidents from the horrible death of Heath Ledger, who played the Joker, to the mass shooting at a midnight screening of The Dark Knight Rises; the deaths and curse surrounding The Matrix; the Infamous Stage 28 at Universal Studios; and Paramount Studios’ long history of hauntings and strange goings-on. Elvis Presley, John Lennon, Frank Sinatra, and Hank Williams. Presidents John Adams, Abraham Lincoln, Andrew Jackson, and Harry Truman. Henry VIII, beheaded Sir Walter Raleigh, and Prince Edward V. Rudolph Valentino, Mary Pickford, Marilyn Monroe, and “Superman” actor George Reeves. Houdini, Redd Foxx, Liberace, and serial-killer Ted Bundy. They all lurk in this riveting book. Haunted graveyards (of course), haunted historical landmarks and battlefields, plus haunted libraries, courthouses, ships, submarines, lighthouses, hotels, roadways, byways, bridges, prisons, and hospitals are all gathered together in this comprehensive look at the ghastly afterlife of the renowned. From famous faces to famous places, if it involves fame and celebrity, fortune and notoriety, legend and lore, Celebrity Ghosts and Notorious Hauntings covers it.

Screening the Afterlife

Screening the Afterlife
Author: Christopher Deacy
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 251
Release: 2012-03-12
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1136597506

Screening the Afterlife is a unique and fascinating exploration of the ‘last things’ as envisaged by modern filmmakers. Drawing on a range of films from Flatliners and What Dreams May Come to Working Girl and The Shawshank Redemption, it offers the first comprehensive examination of death and the afterlife within the growing field of religion and film. Topics addressed include: the survival of personhood after death the language of resurrection and immortality Near-Death Experiences and Mind-Dependent Worlds the portrayal of ‘heaven’ and ‘hell’. Students taking courses on eschatology will find this a stimulating and thought provoking resource, while scholars will relish Deacy’s theological insight and understanding.

Ghost Images

Ghost Images
Author: Tom Ruffles
Publisher: McFarland
Total Pages: 280
Release: 2015-03-07
Genre: Performing Arts
ISBN: 0786484217

The possibility of life after death is a significant theme in cinema, in which ghosts return to the world of the living to wrap up unfinished business, console their survivors, visit lovers or just enjoy a well-wreaked scaring. This work focuses on film depictions of survival after death, from meetings with the ghost of Elvis to AIDS-related ghosts: apparitions, hauntings, mediumship, representations of heaven, angels, near-death experiences, possession, poltergeists and all the other ways in which the living interact with the dead on screen. The work opens with a historical perspective, which outlines the development of pre-cinematic technology for "projecting" phantoms, and discusses the use of these skills in early ghost cinema. English-language sound films are then examined thematically with topics ranging from the expiation of sins to "hungry" ghosts. Six of the most significant films, Dead of Night, A Matter of Life and Death, The Innocents, The Haunting, The Shining, and Jacob's Ladder, are given a detailed analysis. A conclusion, filmography, and bibliography follow.

Celluloid Saviours

Celluloid Saviours
Author: Emily Caston
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
Total Pages: 220
Release: 2020-05-22
Genre: Performing Arts
ISBN: 1527553418

In Celluloid Saviours, the author analyses a corpus of US films dating from the silent era that she calls film blanc. In these fantasy films a guardian spirit with extraordinary powers suspends the ordinary, known laws of time and space, and a main character reforms himself or herself in life-changing ways. The author argues that the historical pattern of film blanc relates to the rise and fall of liberal and reform thought in US politics, specifically to conceptions of human nature as a tabula rasa. This conception is evident both in the early feature films featuring angels such as Chaplin’s The Kid and much later examples such as the 1980s box office hit, Trading Places. She argues that this narrative tradition runs from Hollywood’s beginnings to the present day and is foreshadowed in the English ghost stories of Charles Dickens. The classic era of film blanc is epitomised in the enduringly popular film, It’s a Wonderful Life. More recent examples of narrative form analysed by Caston include The Truman Show and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.

Critical Approaches to the Films of M. Night Shyamalan

Critical Approaches to the Films of M. Night Shyamalan
Author: Jeffrey Andrew Weinstock
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 251
Release: 2016-02-23
Genre: Performing Arts
ISBN: 0230112099

Critical Approaches to the Films of M. Night Shyamalan represents the first serious academic engagement with auteur director M. Night Shyamalan and his work. The essays, including contributions from established film scholars David Sterritt, Murray Pomerance, Emmanuel Burdeau, R. Barton Palmer, Matt Hills, and Katherine Fowkes, explore the Hollywood blockbusters from The Sixth Sense to The Happening in terms of their themes, aesthetics, and marketing. Taken together, the collection recognizes and explores Shyamalan s "star status" and offers the concerted analysis that this cultural phenomenon requires.