The Female Vampires and the Uncanny Childhood

Authors

  • Gabriele Scalessa

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.6092/issn.2280-9481/7376

Keywords:

horror, gothic italian cinema, vampire, female, 50s, 60s, 70s, Romero, Bava, Fulci

Abstract

By referring to some of the major movies by Riccardo Freda, Mario Bava and Lucio Fulci, the author discusses some of the recurrent themes of Italian Gothic cinema from the Fifties to the Seventies. Far from the political horror directed in the same years by American directors such as Romero, Italians seemed to be more interested in the European literary tradition of the Gothic (e.g. Hoffman and Poe), and infused their movies with psychoanalytical issues. Based on this premise, in his essay the author focuses on the figure of the vampire, which he interprets as symbolic of otherness; on the ghost, as alluding to the ungovernable forces of the unconscious; and on the figure of the child as emblematic of an unknown and uncanny dimension of human life.

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Published

2013-11-01

How to Cite

Scalessa, G. (2013). The Female Vampires and the Uncanny Childhood. Cinergie – Il Cinema E Le Altre Arti, 2(4), 183–191. https://doi.org/10.6092/issn.2280-9481/7376

Issue

Section

Film Criticism, Cinephilia and Festival Studies