Educational Institutions in Horror Film

Transcription

1 Educational Institutions in Horror Film

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3 Educational Institutions in Horror Film A History of Mad Professors, Student Bodies, and Final Exams Andrew L. Grunzke

4 EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS IN HORROR FILM Copyright Andrew L. Grunzke Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition All rights reserved. First published in 2015 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN in the United States a division of St. Martin s Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY Where this book is distributed in the UK, Europe and the rest of the world, this is by Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number , of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS. Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies and has companies and representatives throughout the world. Palgrave and Macmillan are registered trademarks in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries. ISBN ISBN (ebook) DOI / Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Grunzke, Andrew L. Educational institutions in horror film : a history of mad professors, student bodies, and final exams / Andrew L. Grunzke. pages cm Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Horror films History and criticism. 2. Schools in motion pictures. 3. Education in motion pictures. I. Title. PN H6G '6164 dc A catalogue record of the book is available from the British Library. Design by Amnet. First edition: April

5 To my wife, Rebecca, who stayed up past midnight watching hundreds of scary movies with me

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7 Contents Acknowledgments ix 1 Introduction 1 2 Is There a Doctor in the House? The Evolution of Van Helsing and Frankenstein as Intellectual Archetypes, The Transformation of Dr. Jekyll: The Evolution of Film and Television Portrayals of Stevenson s Intellectual in the Age of Academe 67 4 Student Bodies: The School as Locus of Trauma in American Horror Films of the 1970s and 1980s 89 5 Final Exams and Greek Tragedies: Colleges and Universities in American Horror Films of the 1970s and 1980s Survival Training: Summer Camp as Educational Institution in Slasher Films of the 1980s Some Concluding Thoughts 167 Notes 177 Index 199

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9 Acknowledgments A project like this is not possible without owing numerous debts of gratitude to the people who have provided intellectual and emotional support over the course of years. My wife has been wonderful throughout this entire process, staying up late night after night watching (what were admittedly sometimes terrible) movies with me, serving as a sounding board for new ideas, and providing the encouragement to continue working. I am also extremely thankful for my colleagues in the History of Education Society, especially the members of the Florida Fringe. Your willingness to take an expansive definition of what it means to conduct history of education provided the intellectual space to hone the ideas contained in this book. My friends and coworkers at Mercer University have created an atmosphere of congeniality and support that has given me the freedom to pursue the type of research agenda I believe represents important work. I am thankful for all of you. Although it no longer exists, the discs-by-mail service of Blockbuster movies provided valuable access to films discussed in this book that would have been prohibitively expensive or otherwise unavailable to me. The discontinuation of this service certainly made this project more difficult. You are missed. Finally, I owe a serious debt of gratitude to my dear friend Alex Trane. Your passion for horror movies was highly contagious. I have thought about you at every step in this project, and I likely would not have continued with it if not for the impact you had on my life. I only wish that you had survived long enough to have one of your movies included in this book.