Listen in on the conversation between women's rights in the U.S. and the cinematic world through six classics of the horror film genre in the adept, intelligent pop-culture history Scream with Me: Horror Films and the Rise of American Feminism (1968-1980) by Eleanor Johnson. Horror is often cited as a misogynistic genre, but here Johnson, professor of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University, points out a golden era of scary stories with a grounding in reproductive rights, domestic violence awareness, and attitudes toward women working outside the home.
Johnson (Waster and the Wasters: Poetry and Ecosystemic Thought in Medieval England) maintains that horror has deep ties with American feminism, especially in a subgenre she terms "domestic horror": films that place the horror within the home and family. Johnson's chapters peel away what the reader thinks they know about each film and point out the subtext, intentional or not. Rosemary's Baby and Alien explore reproductive violence. The Stepford Wives spotlights conflict over women's liberation. Analyses of the women's rights landscape and significant events at the time of each movie's release give context to dissections of each film's plot, placing horror squarely in frame with reality.
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. Johnson's fly-throughs of point-supporting scenes create an instant desire to see for oneself, and the experience may be heightened with a watch-along. This deep excavation of art imitating life is more than positive affirmation for horror fans; it is a call--or scream--to action. --Jaclyn Fulwood, blogger at Infinite Reads