Studies in Groovy Gothic Cinema

Trash, Horror, and the Hemispheric Sixties

Antonio Barrenechea

• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
• Year: 2026
• Edition: 1
• eBook ISBN:
  9798216258421
• Topic: Media & Performing Arts
• Subtopic: Film & Video

In Studies in Groovy Gothic Cinema, Antonio Barrenechea launches an inquiry into inter-American exploitation cinema-a horror cinema which captured the rise of '60s counterculture and youth-oriented lifestyles-as it harnessed the cultural zeitgeist through gratuitous depictions of sex, blood, and music.

Despite the genre's cultural impact, Barrenechea argues, its association with vulgar taste, shoestring budgets, and cheap thrills makes it often overlooked in existing cinema history and scholarship. This book places film studies and comparative American studies into a new conversation involving exploitation cinema, targeting an American hemispheric tradition and considering how art and trash intersect in undisciplined ways.

Barrenechea examines low-budget cinema produced in filmmaking capitals of the Western Hemisphere, including Mexican monster films, Brazilian psychedelia, Argentine sci-fi, Canadian splatter, and Hollywood grindhouse, ultimately yielding a new cinema history that is both messier and more inclusive.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction: From Universal to Hemispheric Monsters
• Chapter 1: US-Mexican Bloodlines: Vampire Migrants at Cinematográfica ABSA (1957–61)
• Chapter 2: Fear and Loathing in São Paulo: Cannibal Metaphysics in the Coffin Joe Triptych (1964–2008)
• Chapter 3: Youth Flesh Trafficking: Psychedelia, Sexploitation, and the Argentine Counterculture (1966–74)
• Chapter 4: They Came from Quebec: Primary Operating Theaters of David Cronenberg (1975–9)
• Conclusion: The Grindhouse Archives
• Bibliography
• Index
• About the Author