Table of Contents

New Shocks to the System: An Introduction to the Second Edition of Shocking Cinema of the Seventies Xavier Mendik and Julian Petley Section One: International Visions of the Extreme 1. Walerian Borowczyk: Seventies Sexploitation through Sublimation Aga Skrodzka 2. A Woman’s Grudge: Figuring Female Resentment in Japanese 1970s Grindhouse Cinema Laura Treglia 3. Rethinking Representation, Race and Rape in the 1970s Women in Prison Movie James Newton Section Two: From the Vigilante to the Violated 4. Death Wish: A Vigilante’s Journey, An Urban Tragedy William Gombash 5. Rough Justice: Lone Cops, Vigilantes and Penal Populism Julian Petley 6. Small Screen Shockers: Rape-Revenge Narratives in the TV Movie Jennifer Wallis Section Three: State Sponsored Shocks 7. Tax Shelter Terrors: Cinépix and the Hidden History of 1970s Canadian Horror Cinema Xavier Mendik 8. Shocking Canadian Cinema of the Seventies: An Interview with William Fruet Xavier Mendik 9. ‘You miserable, no good, dirty sons of bitches!’: Queer(y)ing ‘Canuxploitation’ revenge narratives in the films of John Dunning and André Link Robin Griffiths Section Four: Family-sploitation and Threats to the Family 10. Family Entertainment: Psychotic Slaughter in the 1970s Charles Manson Movies Bill Osgerby Conclusion Bibliography Index

Promotional Information

This collection offers a range of fresh perspectives on a wide body of work from a cinematic decade still in need of critical re-evaluation, reclamation and revision.

About the Author

Julian Petley is emeritus and honorary professor of journalism at Brunel University London. He is the principal editor of the Journal of British Cinema and Television. His books include Film and Video Censorship in Modern Britain (2011), Censorship: A Beginner’s Guide (2009) and the co-authored Culture Wars: The Media and the British Left (2019). Xavier Mendik is Professor of Cult Cinema Studies at Birmingham City University, UK, from where he runs the Cine-Excess International Film Festival. He is editor of Shocking Cinema of the Seventies (2002), co-editor of Alternative Europe (2004) and Underground USA (2002).

Reviews

It’s alive … again! Shocking Cinema of the Seventies is back but not as we knew it. More than merely an updating of the previous edition, this volume is a wholly new collection that responds to the profound changes that have taken place in the status of 1970s cinema over the last two decades. An indispensable volume in its own right!
*Mark Jancovich, University of East Anglia, UK*

Mendik and Petley’s new volume unearths little-suspected histories and sub-genre cycles hidden in plain sight and material from darker recesses of criminality and fantasy. Contributors challenge conceptions of cinema and how and why academics study it, disturbing both conservative and radical sensibilities as much as do the films themselves.
*Nigel Morris, University of Lincoln, USA.*

This exciting collection advances significant new research in 70s cult cinema, especially fascinating work in international cinema including Japan. With an introduction rightly interrogating what is meant by ‘shocking’ and asking us to rethink our commonly held assumptions, this is compulsory reading for all film scholars and those interested in cult cinema and television.
*Jason Lee, De Monfort University, UK*

A collection as electrifying and as essential as the wild, diverse range of films from the 1970s it explores, authored by some of the most vital and exciting voices in cult film studies today.
*Alexandra Heller-Nicholas, author of Rape-Revenge Films: A Critical Study (2021)*

It’s hardly shocking that two of the UK’s most distinguished film journalists have produced this impressive new edition of a film book which has long been an essential component of any cinéaste’s shelves.
*Crime Time*

Shocking Cinema of the 70s offers a range of opinion and insight on films which caused public outcry, upset the critics, or troubled governments. Whereas some of these films, looked at almost fifty years later, might make that seem like an overreaction, others might still make for uncomfortable viewing today. This collection enables us to understand what a ‘Shocking’ film is, and what there still is to learn from them. Highly recommended.
*Cinema Retro*