Undead in the West: Vampires, Zombies, Mummies, and Ghosts on the Cinematic Frontier

Undead in the West: Vampires, Zombies, Mummies, and Ghosts on the Cinematic Frontier

Cynthia J. Miller, A. Bowdoin Van Riper

Language: English

Pages: 344

ISBN: 0810885441

Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub


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.

Survivors (The Morningstar Strain)

Plague of the Dead (The Morningstar Strain)

Unity (Six Feet from Hell, Book 5)

Dead Stop

Beyond Exile (Day by Day Armageddon, Book 2)

Apocalypse Z: The Wrath of the Just (Apocalypse Z, Book 3)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

moral dissolution in the third. Savages: From Dusk Till Dawn and the Vampire as Indian The Steven Seagal thriller Under Siege (1992) was, famously, pitched to studio executives as “Die Hard on a boat.”1 The third act of Rodriguez’s original From Dusk Till Dawn is, in the same sense, “Stagecoach in a bar.” It traps an unlikely crew of travelers in a confined space from which they cannot escape, surrounds them with enemies determined to destroy them, and sets them the challenge of staying alive

ex-soldier named Frost (Fred Williamson); and the two outlaws who unleashed mayhem in the opening moments of the film, Seth Gecko (George Clooney) and his psychotic brother Richard (Quentin 12_228_Miller.indb 99 7/19/12 7:41 AM 100 w A. Bowdoin Van Riper Tarantino). Looking at them, even a casual fan of Westerns can plot their character arcs. Under the vampire onslaught, the preacher will regain his faith, the outlaw will reveal his humanity, and the boy will learn that being a man means

Church, patrols the southwestern United States, maintaining a constant watch for vampires trying to cross the border and infiltrate the country, in Vampires. 12_228_Miller.indb 115 7/19/12 7:41 AM 116 w Thomas Prasch The Vampire Moves West Edward Dein’s Curse of the Undead, a Universal release penned by Dein and his wife Mildred, is widely recognized as the first vampire Western, although it has received little critical evaluation.4 Its generic hybridity has less to do with self-conscious

frontier conflicts in Westerns. When these themes travel across genre boundaries, the mythologies, ideologies, and narrative structures created within one fictional world travel with them. Modalities are both productive and intertextual. Gledhill argues that the capability to cross the boundaries of medium and genre reveals the cultural productivity of modalities, which can also “circulate back to form social expectations and practices.”6 Westerns, for example, are set on the actual frontier, and

barbeque, are united in their fight against the zombie horde. The rupture in their relationship is healed only when both are dying 12_228_Miller.indb 160 7/19/12 7:41 AM Zombie Nationalism w 161 from gunshot wounds, and, as an act of brotherly love and kindness, J. T. begins to explain his cooking process, which an eager Sheriff Hague jots in his memo pad. Two relationships in the film in particular demonstrate how the “us” versus “them” binary present within the social dynamic of zombie

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