Traces the history of horror films, discusses the social themes that are reflected in their stories, and looks at the leading directors, writers, and actors
Amazon.com Review
This study of the visual horror genre from Dr. Caligari to Dr. Hannibal Lecter starts with a discussion of Diane Arbus's photographs of freaks. David Skal then suggests that he will seek to "explain why the images resonated in the culture ... [and] why so much of our imaginative life in the 20th century has been devoted to peeling back the masks and scabs of civilization, to finding, cultivating, and projecting nightmare images of the secret self." Whether or not you agree with his thesis that horror is a symptom of society's ills (war, disease, poverty), you will find much of value in this thorough, highly readable history--especially the detailed accounts of the work of filmmaker Tod Browning, and of how Frankenstein and Dracula made their way from books to plays to films. The book is handsomely designed (hardcover has dust jacket by Edward Gorey), with illustrations, footnotes, and index.
From Publishers Weekly
This entertaining survey mixes behind-the-scenes Hollywood anecdotes with intriguing social analysis. Skal ( Hollywood Gothic ) considers the archetypes depicted in Dracula , Frankenstein , Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Tod Browning's Freaks as responses to the Great Depression that contained metaphors of class warfare. Scientific sadism in films of the 1940s drew on partial knowledge of the Third Reich, he argues, while movie monsters of the '50s personified Bomb-bred mutants or Cold War brainwashers. Skal links 1960s films' anxiety about sex and reproduction to the introduction of the Pill and Thalidomide, and suggests that horror flicks of the '70s and '80s show signs of the post-traumatic stress syndrome suffered by many Vietnam veterans. Though he analyzes Stephen King's novels, Michael Jackson's "Thriller" video and Famous Monsters magazine, his book might have been richer had he delved into more non-Hollywood aspects of pop culture, such as heavy metal music. Illustrations not seen by PW. Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
Skal, author of a terrific history of the Dracula subgenre, Hollywood Gothic: The Tangled Web of "Dracula" from Novel to Stage to Screen ( LJ 9/15/90), offers an incisive analysis of the (mostly) American horror film. He demonstrates how historical, social, and political factors influenced (and were influenced by) Hollywood's production of this changing but almost always popular genre. Skal ventures from Tod Browning's "mutilation allegories" of the post-World War I 1920s, to the early archetypes of the 1930s (Dracula, Frankenstein, and the one-of-a-kind movie Freaks ), to the mid-1950s, and on to the AIDS metaphors in today's sex-and-splatter films. Skal also includes fresh production information and trivia. The Monster Show is much better than Walter Kendrick's recent The Thrill of Fear (Grove Pr., 1991), which deals more with literature than film. This sharply written, thoroughly researched, and unflaggingly compelling book is the best "serious" nonsurvey of the genre to date. For all cinema collections. - David Bartholomew, NYPL Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Description:
Traces the history of horror films, discusses the social themes that are reflected in their stories, and looks at the leading directors, writers, and actors
Amazon.com Review
This study of the visual horror genre from Dr. Caligari to Dr. Hannibal Lecter starts with a discussion of Diane Arbus's photographs of freaks. David Skal then suggests that he will seek to "explain why the images resonated in the culture ... [and] why so much of our imaginative life in the 20th century has been devoted to peeling back the masks and scabs of civilization, to finding, cultivating, and projecting nightmare images of the secret self." Whether or not you agree with his thesis that horror is a symptom of society's ills (war, disease, poverty), you will find much of value in this thorough, highly readable history--especially the detailed accounts of the work of filmmaker Tod Browning, and of how Frankenstein and Dracula made their way from books to plays to films. The book is handsomely designed (hardcover has dust jacket by Edward Gorey), with illustrations, footnotes, and index.
From Publishers Weekly
This entertaining survey mixes behind-the-scenes Hollywood anecdotes with intriguing social analysis. Skal ( Hollywood Gothic ) considers the archetypes depicted in Dracula , Frankenstein , Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Tod Browning's Freaks as responses to the Great Depression that contained metaphors of class warfare. Scientific sadism in films of the 1940s drew on partial knowledge of the Third Reich, he argues, while movie monsters of the '50s personified Bomb-bred mutants or Cold War brainwashers. Skal links 1960s films' anxiety about sex and reproduction to the introduction of the Pill and Thalidomide, and suggests that horror flicks of the '70s and '80s show signs of the post-traumatic stress syndrome suffered by many Vietnam veterans. Though he analyzes Stephen King's novels, Michael Jackson's "Thriller" video and Famous Monsters magazine, his book might have been richer had he delved into more non-Hollywood aspects of pop culture, such as heavy metal music. Illustrations not seen by PW.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
Skal, author of a terrific history of the Dracula subgenre, Hollywood Gothic: The Tangled Web of "Dracula" from Novel to Stage to Screen ( LJ 9/15/90), offers an incisive analysis of the (mostly) American horror film. He demonstrates how historical, social, and political factors influenced (and were influenced by) Hollywood's production of this changing but almost always popular genre. Skal ventures from Tod Browning's "mutilation allegories" of the post-World War I 1920s, to the early archetypes of the 1930s (Dracula, Frankenstein, and the one-of-a-kind movie Freaks ), to the mid-1950s, and on to the AIDS metaphors in today's sex-and-splatter films. Skal also includes fresh production information and trivia. The Monster Show is much better than Walter Kendrick's recent The Thrill of Fear (Grove Pr., 1991), which deals more with literature than film. This sharply written, thoroughly researched, and unflaggingly compelling book is the best "serious" nonsurvey of the genre to date. For all cinema collections.
- David Bartholomew, NYPL
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Kirkus Reviews
Frightfully well-done survey of modern horror, eclipsing Stephen King's seminal Danse Macabre (1981) for clarity of writing, if not personableness or depth of idea, and Walter Kendrick's The Thrill of Fear (1991) for cultural savvy. Where Kendrick found horror literature, film, etc., to be primarily a way of coping with fear of death, Skal (Hollywood Gothic, 1991, etc.) stands with King in discerning within the genre responses to myriad contemporary social ills, from economic stagnation to AIDS. Skal opens with a striking symbol of the symbiosis of horror and societal unease: Diane Arbus, photographer of outcasts and misfits, sitting in a darkened Manhattan theater in 1961 watching a rare screening of Tod Browning's notorious horror masterpiece, Freaks. A rundown of Browning's life and of the nearly parallel career of Bram Stoker's Dracula and its many offshoots follows (some of the Dracula material is cribbed from Hollywood Gothic), culminating in the watershed year 1931, when Dracula, Frankenstein, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and Freaks burst onto the screen, defining American horror (like King and unlike Kendrick, Skal avoids extensive discussion of premodern horror). While Skal's text is intensely (sometimes forcibly) idea-driven (he finds the 1931 films, for instance, revolving around fantasies of `alternative' forms of reproduction,'' responses to thedust bowl sterility and economic emasculation'' of the time), he never forgets that horror is foremost a mass entertainment, and he enlivens his narrative with a wealth of enjoyable anecdote and fact (e.g., that Bela Lugosi, who spoke almost no English, learned his lines phonetically) as he covers every aspect of contemporary horror--from EC comic books, Aurora plastic models, and Stephen King to oddball TV horror hosts and the impact of latex makeup. Skal's love and respect for the genre shine through this impeccably researched, lively chronicle: a top-drawer choice for horror fans. (One hundred illustrations--not seen.) -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.