The 1940s is a lost decade in horror cinema, undervalued and written out of most horror scholarship. This collection revises, reframes, and deconstructs persistent critical binaries that have been put in place by scholarly discourse to label 1940s horror as somehow inferior to a classical period or canonical mode of horror in the 1930s, especially as represented by the monster films of Universal Studios. The book's four sections re-evaluate the historical, political, economic, and cultural factors informing 1940s horror cinema to introduce new theoretical frameworks and to open up space for scholarly discussion of 1940s horror genre hybridity, periodization, and aesthetics. Chapters focused on Gothic and Grand Guignol traditions operating in forties horror cinema, 1940s proto-slasher films, the independent horrors of the Poverty Row studios, and critical reevaluations of neglected hybrid films such asThe Vampires Ghost(1945) and slippery auteurs such as Robert Siodmak and Sam Neufield, work to recover a decade of horror that has been framed as having fallen victim to repetition, exhaustion, and decline.

Mario DeGiglio-Bellemareteaches courses on genre cinema and monster ethics in the Humanities Department of John Abbott College.

Charlie Ellbéhas an M.A. in film studies at Concordia University in Montréal, with a focus on art direction in 1930s Universal horror.

Kristopher Woofterteaches courses on horror cinema and the Gothic in the English Department of Dawson College and is a PhD candidate in Film and Moving Image Studies at Concordia University.

Introduction: Fragments of the MonsterRecovering a Lost DecadeMario DeGiglio-Bellemare, Kristopher WoofterImage:Motion Picture Purgatory:The Devil Bat (1940)Rick TremblesPart I. Interventions Chapter 1.A Darkly Hypothetical Reality: Gothic Realism in 1940s Hollywood Horror
Kristopher Woofter
Chapter 2. Strange Pleasure: 1940s Proto-Slasher Cinema
Peter Marra
Chapter 3.Dead Zone: Genre, Gender, and the Lost Decade of Horror Cinema, 1946-56
Ian Olney
Chapter 4. Val Lewton, Mr. Gross, and the Grand-Guignol: Re-Staging the Corpse in The Body Snatcher
Mario DeGiglio-Bellemare
Part II. HybridityChapter 5. Robert SiodmaksThe Spiral Staircase: Horror Genre Hybridity, Vertical Alterity and the Avant-GardeAnne Golden
Chapter 6.The Child Witness: Peril and Empowerment in 1940s Horror, from The East Side Kids toThe Window
Kier-La Janisse
Chapter 7.Making Visible the Sonic Threat: TheInner Sanctum Mysteries Radio Series and Its Universal Studios Film Adaptations
Charlie Ellbé
Chapter 8.Poe, Horror, and the Cinematic Mystery Hybrids of the 1940s
Dennis Perry
Chapter 9.The Murderer's Mind: Edward G. Robinson, Humphrey Bogart and the Monstrous Psychologies of 1940s Horror Film
Mark Jancovich
Part III. HistoryChapter 10.Serial Killers, Deals with the Devil and the Madness of Crowds: The Horror Film in Nazi-Occupied FranceDavid Hanley
Chapter 11.Always Hearing Voices, Never Hearing Mine: Sound and Fury inThe Snake Pit
Karen Herland
Chapter 12.The Demise of the Cinematic Zombie: From the Golden Age of Hollywood to the 1940s
Louise Fenton
Chapter 13.Fears New and Old: The Post-War American Horror Film
Gary D. Rhodes
Part IV. Poverty RowChapter 14.Hypodermic Needles and Evil Twins: The Poverty Row Wartime Horrors of Sam Newfield
Paul Corupe
Chapter 15.Of Apes and Men (and Monsters and Girls): The Ape Film and 1940s Horror Cinema
Blair Davis
Chapter 16.The Perfect Neanderthal Man: Rondo Hatton asThe Creeper and the Cultural Economy of 1940s B-Movies
Cory LegassicChapter 17.TheVampires Ghost: The Case for a Poverty Row Horror Classic
Selma Purac