Illuminating the dark side of the American century, The Monster Show uncovers th
e surprising links between horror entertainment and the great social crises of o
ur 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 expres
sion. 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 visio
ns of invasion and mind control catalyzed by the Cold War; the preoccupation wit
h demon children that took hold as thalidomide, birth control, and abortion chan
ged the reproductive landscape; the vogue in visceral, transformative special ef
fects that paralleled the development of the plastic surgery industry; the link
between the AIDS epidemic and the current fascination with vampires; and much mo
re. Now with a new Afterword by the author that looks at horror's popular renais
sance in the last decade, The Monster Show is a compulsively readable, thought-p
rovoking inquiry into America's obsession with the macabre.
