A timely exploration of the horror genre from one of Columbia University’s most popular professors, shedding light on how classic horror films demonstrate larger cultural attitudes about women’s rights, bodily autonomy, and more.
This commentary on the horror genre's ability to shape and echo the political landscape is riveting, enlightening, and occasionally scream-inducing in its reminders of the not-so-long past. Readers should expect to be entertained while finding new respect for the genre, though the author does not sugarcoat the abuses of the male directors behind the projects.
Johnson entertains and educates as she dissects six films, detailing domestic and reproductive violence, misogyny and patriarchy with wit and relish ... With women’s political, physical, medical and legal equality again under threat, there is new reason to witness the violence enacted on women—and to scream.
