Beneath Still Waters: Brian Yuzna’s Ritualistic Return to Indonesian Cinema

Mendik, Xavier (2014) Beneath Still Waters: Brian Yuzna’s Ritualistic Return to Indonesian Cinema. Plaridel: A Philippine Journal of Communication, Media and Society, 11 (2). pp. 140-161. ISSN 1656-2534

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Abstract

This article offered the first academic consideration of American director/producer Brian Yuzna’s recent films in Indonesia. Since the mid 1980s, Yuzna worked across the USA, Europe and the Far East, pioneering a distinctive international brand of horror cinema combining social critique with explicit imagery. Despite these transnational credentials, Yuzna’s work in Indonesia was largely been ignored by those critics interested in reclaiming 1970s/80s genre entries as ‘legitimate’ symbols of Indonesian cinema.
By considering Yuzna’s 2010 title Amphibious, I argued that the film contained elements of hybridity and generic impurity that critics such as Karl G. Heider have long attributed to Indonesian film traditions. As well as considering these transnational elements, the article explored connections between abject constructions of the transformative female body in both Indonesian film and Brian Yuzna’s wider cinema. The article also featured exclusive interviews with Brian Yuzna and screenwriter John Penney discussing the reception of the film.

Item Type:	Article
Dates:	Date Event 1 January 2014 Accepted 5 June 2014 Published
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Amphibious, Brian Yuzna, Indonesian horror, transnational cinema
Subjects:	CAH25 - design, and creative and performing arts > CAH25-01 - creative arts and design > CAH25-01-04 - cinematics and photography
Divisions:	Faculty of Arts, Design and Media > College of English and Media
Depositing User:	Xavier Mendik
Date Deposited:	05 Sep 2020 09:59
Last Modified:	12 Jan 2022 16:57
URI:	https://www.open-access.bcu.ac.uk/id/eprint/9812

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