The Monster Show: A Cultural History of Horror [Mass Market Paperback]

David J. Skal (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 1995

Americans love horror. The evolution of our favorite horror icons mirrors the great social crises of our times. Author David Skal shows how Cold War paranoia, nuclear fears, and now AIDS led to films such as Invasion of the Body Snatchers, The Fly, Dracula and other horror hits.

Editorial Reviews

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. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 432 pages
• Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics) (January 1, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0140240020
• ISBN-13: 978-0140240023
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.5 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,918,319 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

33 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Monster Movie Making History, July 4, 2003

By 

Ian M. Enriquez "Counselor and lover of life" (San Francisco, California United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Monster Show: A Cultural History of Horror; Revised Edition with a New Afterword (Paperback)

I have decided to review this book because it needs to be a little clearer about what you are purchasing here. The first half of the book focuses on what is clearly David Skal's expertise-- 30's monster movies. He covers biographies on Tod Browning and Bela Lugosi, James Whale's battles against the censors, the influences of war and the Great Depression, and the move from stage to screen. It was so pleasurable and enlightening to read all about the beginnings of the genre.

After 200 pages on this decade, I soon realized that the following 6 decades could not possibly get the same attention in the second half. Hammer horror from England receives two sentences in the book when it easily deserves at least a lengthy chapter. Italian horror (which has one of the largest cult followings within this genre) is completely unmentioned. To my shock, a film with such powerful cultural relevance as The Stepford Wives also remains completely unmentioned in the book. A chapter that I thought would discuss the cultural emergence and relevance of slasher films ends up covering plastic surgery. Basically the book is greatly unbalanced. There is so much passion in the first half that the second half of the book seems a drought by comparison.

However, if you are even reading this review, then I must say that this book is a must-own. The information is absolutely fascinating (even in the second half). The photos throughout the book are excellent and add so much to the experience of reading it. The information I regretfully did not get is now more accessible to me through the foundations and structure of this book.

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Frightfully good, August 5, 2004

By 

Charlus "charlus" (New York, NY USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Monster Show: A Cultural History of Horror; Revised Edition with a New Afterword (Paperback)

Wonderfully witty and well written, this is a cultural history that well deserves its name. The first half plays up to Skal's strength as a film historian but the second half, which detours into comic books, Stephen King, monster models, the Adams Family, etc. is marred with passages of psychobabble and strained analysis. Mostly however this is an entertaining and near definitive exploration of things delightfully horrible. And the illustrations are great!

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Madness of Movie Monsters, February 10, 2008

By 

mrliteral - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)   

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This review is from: The Monster Show: A Cultural History of Horror; Revised Edition with a New Afterword (Paperback)

It sometimes seems that the history of horror films began with Universal's Frankenstein and Dracula, with an occasional nod to some silent film. It doesn't make much research to find out that there is much more to this history, as David Skal illustrates in The Monster Show. In fact, it is till almost the one-third point in the book that these landmark films are really discussed.

What happened earlier were such crucial films as Nosteratu, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari and The Phantom of the Opera. Skal also relates stories of early figures, including Lon Chaney and Tod Browning and some of the literary and dramatic predecessors to the horror film. Only after laying this foundation does Skal really get into the iconic movies of Dracula and Frankenstein. There were other horror landmark films in this era, including The Mummy, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and Island of Lost Souls, and between the early 1930s and 1940s, others would appear as well, most prominently the Wolf Man.

These films are quite tame by today's standards, but to many overly sensitive and self-righteous souls of the era, these movies practically heralded the end of civilization, leading to de facto censorship. The genie, however, was out of the bottle, and like any good movie monster, it could never be truly killed.

Skal zips from this era to the age of early television, when a new audience got to see these movies (often introduced by figures like Vampira) and the fan base expanded to a new, ardent generation. Then it's on to the era of more modern horror, ushered in by Psycho: not only is horror more gruesome (the result of better special effects and more relaxed ratings standards). As earlier films could be allegories for war or the Depression, newer films could provide symbols for AIDS and birth control. And new or old, sex and religion were always entangled in the themes.

This book is subtitled A Cultural History of Horror, but as fascinating as it often is, perhaps it should be a Cultural History of American Horror made by Major Studios. There is a lot that is omitted here that should be found in any reasonable history of cinematic horror. Val Lewton, the influential horror producer of the 1940s, has only one of his movies really described (Cat People) and only gets a couple pages of text. Roger Corman and his Poe movies are hardly mentioned at all. Most glaringly, Hammer Films, which reinvented horror in the 1950s (when American horror was at its nadir), is discussed in little more than a couple of scattered sentences (let alone any non-English films after the initial German movies).

Despite these omissions, this is still a pretty decent book, but the flaws keep it from earning more than four stars. If you're a horror movie fan, this is worth reading. Skal is pretty knowledgeable on the subject and can add an extra level of appreciation for this film genre.