From Charlie Chaplin’s The Gold Rush to Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction , Gehring presents a theory of the black comedy film genre. Placing the movies he discusses in an historical and literary context, Gehring explores the genre’s obsession with death and the characters’ failure to be shocked by it. Movies discussed include: Slaughterhouse Five , Catch 22 , Clockwork Orange , Harold and Maude , Heathers and Natural Born Killers .