Film, Folklore And Urban Legends

F rom Alien to When a Stranger Calls, many films are based on folklore or employ an element of urban legend to propel the narrative. But once folklore aspects within such films have been identified, do they warrant further scrutiny? In Film, Folklore, and K O VEN FILM • FOLKLORE Urban Legends, Mikel J. Koven explores the convergence of folklore with popular cinema studies, bringing attention to the significance of these intertwined modes of storytelling. Going well beyond the identification of traditional motifs in popular cinema, Koven reveals book focuses on the study of urban legends and how they inspired numerous films. This book begins with a general survey of existing literature on folklore and film, predominantly from the perspective of folklore studies. Subsequent chapters address discourses of belief, how urban legends provide the organizing principle of some films, and how certain films “act out” or perform a legend. Movies discussed include Alligator, Candyman, The Curve, Dead Man on Campus, I Know What You Did Last Summer, Urban Legend, Weekend at Bernie’s, and The Wicker Man, as well as zombie films, killer-bee movies, and slasher films, including Black Christmas, The Burning, Halloween, and Terror Train. Koven also devotes attention to such key television shows as The X-Files and Most Haunted. In his analysis, Koven explains not only how film and television narratives are built upon preexisting popular culture beliefs but also how those beliefs are recycled back into popular culture. Film, Folklore, and Urban Legends stands on its own both as the first book-length study of folklore and popular cinema and as an introductory textbook for the study of folklore and film. MIKEL J. KOVEN is senior lecturer in film studies at the University of Worcester. He is the author of Blaxploitation Films (2001) and La Dolce Morte: Vernacular Cinema and the Italian Giallo Film (Scarecrow, 2006). For orders and information please contact the publisher SCARECROW PRESS, INC. A wholly owned subsidiary of The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc. 4501 Forbes Boulevard, Suite 200 Lanham, Maryland 20706 1-800-462-6420 • fax 717-794-3803 www.scarecrowpress.com ISBN-13: 978-0-8108-6025-4 ISBN-10: 0-8108-6025-2 Cover image from Urban Legend (1998), Tri-Star Pictures/Photofest © Tri-Star Pictures Cover design by Allison Nealon Film Folklore and Urban_PBK.indd1 1 FILM, FOLKLORE, AND URBAN LEGENDS new paradigms of film analysis that expand through the lens of folklore. In particular, this FILM, FOLKLORE, AND URBAN LEGENDS M I K E L J . K OV E N 9/28/07 9:58:34 AM 07_428_01_FM.qxd 10/3/07 12:42 PM Page i Film, Folklore, and Urban Legends Mikel J. Koven The Scarecrow Press, Inc. Lanham, Maryland • Toronto • Plymouth, UK 2008 07_428_01_FM.qxd 10/3/07 12:42 PM Page ii SCARECROW PRESS, INC. Published in the United States of America by Scarecrow Press, Inc. A wholly owned subsidiary of The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc. 4501 Forbes Boulevard, Suite 200, Lanham, Maryland 20706 www.scarecrowpress.com Estover Road Plymouth PL6 7PY United Kingdom Co