The Monster Show A Cultural History of Horror [Paperback]

Illuminating the dark side of the American century,The Monster Showuncovers the surprising links between horror entertainment and the great social crises of our time, as well as horror's function as a pop analogue to surrealism and other artistic movements.

With penetrating analyses and revealing anecdotes, David J. Skal chronicles one of our most popular and pervasive modes of cultural expression. He explores the disguised form in which Hollywood's classic horror movies played out the traumas of two world wars and the Depression; the nightmare visions of invasion and mind control catalyzed by the Cold War; the preoccupation with demon children that took hold as thalidomide, birth control, and abortion changed the reproductive landscape; the vogue in visceral, transformative special effects that paralleled the development of the plastic surgery industry; the link between the AIDS epidemic and the current fascination with vampires; and much more. Now with a new Afterword by the author that looks at horror's popular renaissance in the last decade,The Monster Showis a compulsively readable, thought-provoking inquiry into America's obsession with the macabre.

David J. Skalis the author several critically acclaimed books on fantastic literature and genre cinema, includingHollywood Gothic: The Tangled Web ofDraculafrom Novel to Stage to Screen; Screams of Reason; Mad Science and Modern Culture; V Is for Vampire: The A to Z Guide to Everything Undead;and, with Elias Savada,Dark Carnival: The Secret World of Tod Browning. With Nina Auerbach, he is co-editor of the Norton Critical Edition of Bram Stoker'sDracula. His writing has appeared in a variety of publications, ranging fromThe New York TimestoCinefantastique,and for television, on the A&E seriesBiography.He has written, produced, and directed a dozen original DVD documentaries, including features on the Universal Studios' classic monster l“'