Stacey Abbott
Stacey Abbott - Reader in Film and Television Studies at Roehampton University - on the horror genre and its relationship to television:
'My main area of research is around popular genres in film and television and for the past 15 years I have been particularly focused on the horror genre. I have found horror to be one of the most exciting genres to research because, at its best, it is challenging, provocative and visually and aurally engaging. Horror films regularly push social, cultural and aesthetic boundaries and yet are still considered disreputable or dismissed as adolescent entertainment. I have developed a particular expertise in the vampire film, beginning with my PhD which was an examination of how vampire mythology has evolved through its adoption by cinema. This research led me, not surprisingly, to the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer, which came on the air in the second year of my PhD. Buffy, and later Angel, led me to a new area of research, that of cult and horror television.
'My current research project is designed to open up an understanding of how the horror genre operates on television. It has long been held that the horror genre and television are incompatible because of the restrictions upon the representation of violence and the body on TV, as well as the positioning of television within the domestic space which can effect how viewers engage with their programmes. Furthermore, horror is generally perceived to be a niche market and in the past television has primarily aimed for the largest possible audience. This, of course, is all changing. The aim of this project is to consider how changes within the broadcast landscape have made horror a far more prevalent presence within both British and American television. Furthermore, it is also looking back at various periods of television history to consider how the horror genre has always been a significant presence on our TV screens but because of the nature of television, the genre has defined itself differently from its cinematic and literary counterparts. As with my initial work on the vampire film, I am interested in the impact a particular medium has on the development of a genre. How does TV Horror operate and what distinguishes it from film and literature? My research focuses on a wide range of television series including classics such as The Twilight Zone, Dark Shadows, Night Gallery, and the Quatermass serials, as well as more contemporary shows such as Being Human, Ultraviolet, True Blood and Dexter.'
Stacey Abbott is the Series Editor for I.B. Tauris' Investigating Cult TV series and is currently co-writing a book on TV Horror with Lorna Jowett. Her other publications include:
- Celluloid vampires: life after death in the modern world (University of Texas Press, 2007)
- Angel: TV Milestones (Wayne State University Press, 2009)
- Reading Angel: the TV spin-off with a soul (I.B. Tauris, 2005) [ed.]
- The Cult TV Book (I.B. Tauris, 2010) [ed.]
- Investigating Alias: secrets and spies (I.B. Tauris, 2007) [co-editor with Simon Brown]
- Falling in love again: romantic comedy in contemporary cinema (I.B. Tauris, 2009) [co-editor with Deborah Jermyn]
September 2010
