ABOUT

Johnny Walker is a historian of film, media and popular culture specialising in horror and exploitation cinema.​
He is Associate Professor in the Department of Arts at Northumbria University in the UK.

NEW BOOK

Rewind Replay: Britain and the Video Boom, 1978-92

The first history of Britain’s video boom. It considers the first programme distributors who, from the late 1970s, took chances on all sorts of commercial entertainment to attract consumer interest. It considers the birth of the video shop, the speed with which video rental became a habitual practice among the British public, and the key players who, at the height of a recession, invested wholesale into what contemporaneous media reportage was describing as a mere ‘plaything’. 
"Walker traces with exemplary clarity and copious detail the evolution of video distribution and retail in Britain."  
Julian Petley, Brunel University

​"...provides us with essential coordinates for grasping the full significance of this transitional period."
​Paul McDonald, King's College London

BOOKS

ESSAYS

Essays published in academic journals, edited volumes and elsewhere.

RAISING HELL:
BRITISH HORROR CINEMA OF THE 1980s AND 1990s

Fellowship funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (2021-23)
This project explores what British horror film production of the 1980s and 1990s reveals about contemporaneous film culture and society in Britain. It seeks to plug gaps in dominant scholarly and popular narratives regarding commercial filmmaking, and argue that the significance of the genre to the period in question has been understated. Outputs include a monograph, film restorations and more.

VIDEO/AUDIO

Recordings of presentations and other audio-visual media.