Typically, films are suspenseful when they keep us on the edge of our seats, when glimpses of a turning doorknob, a ticking clock, or a looming silhouette quicken our pulses. Exemplified by Alfred Hitchcock’s masterworks and the countless thrillers they influenced, such films captivate viewers with propulsive plots that spur emotional investment in the fates of protagonists. Suspense might therefore seem to be a curious concept to associate with art films featuring muted characters, serene landscapes, and unrushed rhythms, in which plot is secondary to mood and tone. This ambitious and wide-ranging book offers a redefinition of suspense by considering its unlikely incarnations in the contemporary films that have been called “slow cinema.” Rick Warner shows how slowness builds suspense through atmospheric immersion, narrative sparseness, and the withholding of information, causing viewers to oscillate among boredom, curiosity, and dread. He focuses on works in which suspense arises where the boundaries between art cinema and popular genres—such as horror, thriller, science fiction, and gothic melodrama—become indefinite, including Chantal Akerman’s La captive, Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s Memoria, Jonathan Glazer’s Under the Skin, Kelly Reichardt’s Night Moves, Lucrecia Martel’s Zama, Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s Creepy, and David Lynch’s Twin Peaks: The Return. Warner investigates the pivotal role of sound in generating suspense and traces how the experience of suspense has changed in the era of digital streaming. The Rebirth of Suspense develops a fresh theory, history, typology, and analysis of suspense that casts new light on the workings of films across global cinema.

A young woman falls for her stalker and a complicated relationship begins.

Arthouse Crime Scenes is the first book to address the relationship between art cinema and crime, contributing to the study of both categories. Case studies are provided of works by celebrated filmmakers including Lucretia Martell, Kleber Mendonça Filho, Bong Joon Ho, Nuri Bilge Ceylan, Hirokazu Koreeda, Jia Zhangke, Andrey Zvyagintsez and Lee Chang-dong. How is crime represented in art cinema? And how can this be understood in the context of global sociopolitical and film-industrial trends? Arthouse crime scenes draw on variable combinations of elements associated with art cinema and crime genres. Crime might be shown or lurk only at the edges. It might be left unresolved or unexplained. Crime can be petty and small scale or raise big questions associated with the arthouse sector: political issues, the nature of humanity, truth and knowability. In this book, close textual analysis is combined with focus on social and industrial contexts. A recurring theme is the situation of arthouse crime films within differing manifestations of broader processes of late-modern neoliberal globalization and cultural hybridity. Approaches examined range from the oblique to social realism and other mixtures of crime and arthouse tendencies.

Join a rigorous scholar and Buddhist monk on a brisk tour of rebirth from ancient doctrine to contemporary debates. German Buddhist monk and university professor Bhikkhu Analayo had not given much attention to the topic of rebirth before some friends asked him to explore the treatment of the issue in early Buddhist texts. This succinct volume presents his findings, approaching the topic from four directions. The first chapter examines the doctrine of rebirth as it is presented in the earliest Buddhist sources and the way it relates to core doctrinal principles. The second chapter reviews debates about rebirth throughout Buddhist history and up to modern times, noting the role of confirmation bias in evaluation of evidence. Chapter 3 reviews the merits of current research on rebirth, including near-death experience, past-life regression, and children who recall previous lives. The chapter concludes with an examination of xenoglossy, the ability to speak languages one has not learned previously, and chapter 4 examines the particular case of Dhammaruwan, a Sri Lankan boy who chants Pali texts that he does not appear to have learned in his present life. Rebirth in Early Buddhism and Current Research brings together the many strands of the debate on rebirth in one place, making it both comprehensive and compact. It is not a polemic but an interrogation of the evidence, and it leaves readers to come to their own conclusions.

This is the ultimate feast of fear by a host of horror writers such as Robert Bloch, Ray Bradbury, Ramsey Campbell, and others. Twenty-four macabre tales include the nerve-twisting novelette The Mist by Stephen King.

“Russell’s new high fantasy series launch is well written with a definite steampunk vibe and sword-and-sorcery appeal.” —Library Journal A world consumed by war. An ancient evil resurrected. A millennia-old bargain comes due . . . When two blades clash, the third will fall, and the fate of all will be jeopardized. To save Lozaria, the failures of the past must be atoned for by a new generation of heroes. The time has come for mortals to cast off sight and, in doing so, truly come to see . . . Victory is never absolute. Seven centuries ago, the forces of order won the Illyriite War on the plains of Har’muth. Darmatus and Rabban Aurelian slew their elder brother, Sarcon, the despotic architect of the conflict, then sacrificed themselves to banish the cataclysmic vortex opened with his dying breath. The first advent of the Oblivion Well was thwarted. Even without their vanished gods, the seven races of Lozaria proved themselves capable of safeguarding their world. Or so the story goes. The year is now 697 A.B.H. (After the Battle of Har’muth). Though war itself remains much the same, the weapons with which it is waged have evolved. Airships bearing powerful cannons ply the skies, reducing the influence of mages and their spells. Long-range communication has brought far-flung regions of Lozaria closer than ever before. At the center of this technological revolution are the three Terran states of Darmatia, Rabban, and Sarconia, who have fought a near ceaseless campaign of seven hundred years in an attempt to best each other. The roots of their enmity lie buried beneath the wasteland of Har’muth, a place all three nations consider best forgotten. However, an ancient power sealed within Har’muth has not forgotten them, and the descendants of those who fought on that field must now take a stand to rectify the mistakes of the past . . .

There are Pretenders among us, geniuses with the ability to become anyone they want to be. In 1983 a corporation known as The Centre isolated a young Pretender named Jarod and exploited his genius for their 'research. Then, one day, their Pretender ran away... Written by the creators of the cult-hit TV show The Pretender - Rebirth is a slick mystery thriller about a brilliant human chameleon named Jarod who after escaping from the notorious Centre, plunges headlong into his newfound freedom. While also discovering the joys and intricacies of everyday life with the pure wonderment of the man/child he is, Jarod uses his unequaled abilities to literally become anyone he wants to be (a surgeon, a pilot, a physicist, etc.) as well as his dazzling mind over muscle vigilante-like skills to bring down the powerful and corrupt and protect those who can't defend themselves. All the while he must stay a step ahead of his relentless pursuers from The Centre. First and foremost is the sexiest woman on the planet, the complex, bitch-on-wheels, Miss Parker who wants him recaptured at any cost - alive - preferably. Parker is a deliciously cunning woman Jarod has known since childhood and theirs is a truly multifaceted cat and mouse relationship - one driven by Jarod who holds the key to the emotional secrets at her very core, secrets that fuel her relentless drive to recapture him. Then there is Sydney, Jarod's surrogate father figure and psychologist who raised and nurtured his genius for The Centre's disreputable purposes. To Jarod, Syd is both friend and foe, confidante and captor, counselor and betrayer. But Syd's calm paternal connection to Jarod remains strong, often in conflict with The Centre agenda. Jarod senses Sydney holds the emotional keys to his core - the truth about his past and the identity of the parents he was stolen from and whom he longs to reunite with. In Rebirth, Jarod employs multiple sophisticated pretends in his quest to save one missing boy and hundreds of other innocent lives hanging in the balance at the hands of multi-national corporate terrorists and mercenaries. Rebirth is at once an enthralling tale of one man's exploration of life around him, intricate suspenseful mystery and intense edge-of-your-seat thrill ride - that captures and reignites the cult hit TV series for both loyal fans of the show and new readers alike. There are Pretenders among us...

I’m no one—just a magic-less woman who fled the supernatural world after being dumped and humiliated by the most powerful vampire in Britain. He made me a laughing stock, a cautionary tale. I had no choice but to leave. That was a long time ago. I got over the betrayal. Now, I’m on the mend. But when an assassin tracks me down to London, claiming that a deadly power thrums beneath my veins, only one person is strong enough to save my hide: Valentine Sargon—the Vampire King who stole my virginity and broke my heart. He will help, but only if I move into a safe house. With him. Valentine is as handsome as the devil, silver-tongued and seductive as sin. I don’t trust him or the way he hungers for my blood. But I’ve run out of choices and can’t refuse.

In a zombie-infested California, a woman must face a deadly cult to help a friend in need in this dystopian sequel to Aftertime. Civilization has fallen, leaving California an unforgiving, decimated place. Cass Dollar beat terrible odds to get her missing daughter back. Yet as the first winter approaches, Ruthie retreats into silence. Flesh-eating Beaters still dominate the land. And Smoke, Cass’s lover and strength, departs on a quest for vengeance that can end only in disaster. Now the leader of the survivalist community where Cass has planted roots needs her help. Dor wants to recover his own lost daughter, taken by the Rebuilders. Soon Cass finds herself thrust into the dark heart of an organization promising humanity’s rebirth—at all costs. Bound to two men blazing divergent paths across a savage land, Cass must overcome the darkness in her wounded heart, or lose those she loves forever.