Gothic Cinema closes a gap in German-language film discourse: for the first time the volume
sheds light on a hitherto little-discussed film context. It considers Gothic Cinema as a form
of unofficial historiography that allows a look not only at the history of film and its
technique but also at moral concepts gender relations collective fears or aesthetic
currents. A delimitation and definition of the term and the central elements of the Gothic are
followed by a comprehensive historical overview from 1896 to the present day. Three in-depth
analyses of individual post-2015 gothic films and television series round out the review. On
the one hand the examples examined are representative in terms of typical elements motifs or
topoi and on the other hand they exhibit peculiarities and breaks that prove fruitful for a
cultural and media studies investigation.
