1. Introduction: When the Lights Go Down; Daniel Sullivan and Jeff Greenberg PART I: TERROR MANAGEMENT THEORY AND FILM 2. A Terror Management Analysis of Films from Four Genres: The Matrix, Life is Beautiful, Iron Man 2, and Ikiru; Jeff Greenberg and Alisabeth Ayars 3. Mortality Salience in Apocalyptic Films; Joel Lieberman and Mark Fergus PART II: ASPECTS OF DEATH DENIAL IN INDIVIDUAL FILMS AND GENRES 4. Little Murders: Cultural Animals in an Existential Age; Sheldon Solomon and Mark J. Landau 5. Icons of Stone and Steel: Death, Cinema, and the Future of Emotion; Jennifer L. McMahon 6. Consumed in the Act: Grizzly Man and Frankenstein; Kirby Farrell 7. Black Swan/White Swan: On Female Objectification, Creatureliness, and Death Denial; Jamie L. Goldenberg 8. Death, Wealth, and Guilt: An Analysis of There Will be Blood; Daniel Sullivan 9. The Birth and Death of the Superhero Film; Sander L. Koole, Daniel Fockenberg, Mattie Tops, and Iris K. Schneider PART III: DIRECTORS ENGAGING WITH DEATH 10. Bergman and the Switching off of Lights; Peter Cowie 11. Death in the Films of Stanley Kubrick; Susan White 12. Haneke's Amour and the Ethics of Dying; Asbjorn Gronstad PART IV: THE PROSPECT OF TRANSCENDENCE 13. Visions of Death: Native American Cinema and the Transformative Power of Death; Jennifer L. McMahon 14. From Despair and Fanaticism to Awe: A Post-traumatic Growth Perspective on Cinematic HorrorL; Kirk J. Schneider 15. Conclusion: Cinematic Death Benefits; Daniel Sullivan and Jeff Greenberg