Undead in the West

In Undead in the West: Vampires, Zombies, Mummies, and Ghosts on the Cinematic Frontier, Cynthia J. Miller and A. Bowdoin Van Riper have assembled a collection of essays that explore the many tropes and themes through which undead Westerns make the genre's inner plagues and demons visible, and lay siege to a frontier tied to myths of strength, ingenuity, freedom, and independence. The volume is divided into three sections: "Reanimating Classic Western Tropes" examines traditional Western characters, symbolism, and plot devices and how they are given new life in undead Westerns; "The Moral Order Under Siege" explores the ways in which the undead confront classic values and morality tales embodied in Western films; and "And Hell Followed with Him" looks at justice, retribution, and retaliation at the hands of undead angels and avenger.

The subjects explored here run the gamut from such B films as Curse of the Undead and Billy the Kid vs. Dracula to A-list features like From Dusk 'til Dawn and Jonah Hex, as well as animated films (Rango) and television programs (The Walking Dead and Supernatural). Other films discussed include Sam Raimi's Bubba Ho-Tep, John Carpenter's Vampires, George Romero's Land of the Dead, and Sergio Leone's Once Upon a Time in the West. Featuring several illustrations and a filmography, Undead in the West will appeal to film scholars, especially those interested in hybrid genres, as well as fans of the Western and the supernatural in cinema.

Auteur

Edited by Cynthia J. Miller and A. Bowdoin Van Riper

Contenu

Acknowledgments
Introduction
Cynthia J. Miller and A. Bowdoin Van Riper

Part I: Reanimating Classic Western Tropes

1. "So This Zombie Walks into a Bar . . .": The Living, the Undead, and the Western Saloon
   Cynthia J. Miller
2. "Hey Sammy, We're Not in Kansas Anymore": The Frontier Motif in Supernatural
   Michael J. Klein and Kristi L. Shackelford
3. The Whore with the Vampire Heart: Frontier Romanticism in John Carpenter's Vampires
   Lindsay Krishna Coleman
4. Billy the Kid vs. Dracula: The Old World Meets the Old West
   Rachel E. Page, Robert G. Weiner, and Cynthia J. Miller
5. The West-Reanimated and Regenerated: Hollywood Horror and Western Iconography in Gore Verbinski's Rango (2011)
   Sue Matheson
6. Frontier Values Meet Big-City Zombies: The Old West in AMC's The Walking Dead
   Shelley S. Rees

Part II: The Moral Order under Siege

7. Savage, Scoundrel, Seducer: The Moral Order under Siege in the From Dusk Till Dawn Trilogy
   A. Bowdoin Van Riper
8. Blood on the Border: The Mexican Frontier in Vampires (1998) and Vampires: Los Muertos (2002)
   Thomas Prasch
9. Colliding Modalities and Receding Frontier in George Romero's Land of the Dead
   Outi J. Hakola
10. Zombie Nationalism: Robert Rodriguez's Planet Terror as Immigration Satire
    Christopher Gonzalez
11. Undead and Un-American: The Zombified Other in Weird Western Films
    James Hewitson
12. Hungry Lands: Conquest, Cannibalism, and the Wendigo Spirit
    Robert A. Saunders

Part III: And Hell Followed with Him

13. The Ghost from the Past: The Undead Avenger in Sergio Leone's Once Upon a Time in the West
    Matthias Stork
14. Moving West and Beyond: Life in the Midst of Death in Purgatory
    Hugh H. Davis
15. "You Nasty Thing from Beyond the Dead": Elvis and JFK versus The Mummy in Bubba Ho-Tep
    Hannah Thompson
16. The Subversive Jonah Hex: Jimmy Hayward's Revision and Reconfiguration of a Genre
    Michael C. Reiff
17. Queer Justice: Supernatural Strangers and Different Conceptions of Law and Punishment in Two Horror Westerns
    Fernando Gabriel Pagnoni Berns

A Selected Filmography
About the Contributors
About the Editors