Re-Presenting Fear: The Slasher Remake as Cumulative Hypertext

Abstract

This thesis argues that the slasher remake functions as a cumulative hypertext, incorporating content not only from the original film, but also the many sequels and intertexts that exist between original and remake. In doing so, it expands analyses of the film remake beyond issues of fidelity to the original, and shows that sequels and intertexts are a crucial consideration when analysing remakes of franchise or previously adapted films.

The first chapter surveys the slasher sub-genre’s history and place within genre theory (with specific reference to theories of horror), highlighting the fact that the implication of sequels, cycles and series for genre theory, and subsequently, the remaking of genre films, is an area which has been commonly overlooked. The second chapter looks at the history of remake studies, and uses Robert Stam’s concept of the cumulative hypertext (drawn from Gerard Genette’s work on intertextuality) as a theoretical framework within which to consider how the slasher remake draws content from each slasher franchise’s sequels and intertexts, as well as the original film. The third and fourth chapters analyse three slasher remakes, Halloween (2007), Friday the 13th (2009) and A Nightmare on Elm Street (2010) in terms of how they have retained and adapted content from the original franchise, in order to affirm and explicate their function as cumulative hypertext.