I recently received an update on the book Butcher Knives & Body Counts: Essays on the Formula, Frights and Fun of the Slasher Film edited by Vince Liaguno and a publication of Dark Scribe Press.
The publisher is hopeful that the multi-contributor volume will ready for publication this October, and this post includes a copy of the finalized cover by Deena Warner Designs. My contribution is a brief essay titled “Slasher Films as Modern Chaos Monster Myths.” My thesis is that just as ancient near eastern cultures feared the breakdown in the social order with resulting chaos as personified by various monstrous deities, so the killer in slasher films might be understood to fulfill this function for audiences in modern cultures who still fear chaos as our continued fascination with apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic indicates.
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