The Monster Show: A Cultural History of Horror; Revised Edition with a New Afterword [Paperback]

David J. Skal (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 15, 2001

Illuminating the dark side of the American century, The Monster Show uncovers 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 Show is a compulsively readable, thought-provoking inquiry into America's obsession with the macabre.

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

• Paperback: 448 pages
• Publisher: Faber & Faber; 1st edition (October 15, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0571199968
• ISBN-13: 978-0571199969
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.4 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #298,008 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

39 of 41 people found the following review helpful

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

By Ian M. Enriquez

Format: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.

30 of 39 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars An odyssey into dodgy cultural analysis July 15, 2005

By Lars Peder Kallar Devold

Format:Hardcover

This is simply one of the worst books on horror I've ever read.

Before you purchase this book, know what you are getting: the first half of the book focuses on the horror films of the twenties and thirties, and is embroiled (as would be expected) with anecdotes, stories and information about people like James Whale, Tod Browning and Bela Lugosi. This is all highly interesting, but unfortunately the author makes some very far-reaching conclusions about the cultural place of horror films in the 1930s, and especially about Frankenstein and Dracula, the two subjects to which he devotes the most time. In the second half, the book starts collapsing under the weight of its own grand conclusions and impossible correlations. Gradually, almost unnoticeably, facts and figures are entirely replaced with dodgy social and cultural analysis.

Mr. Skal completely fails to mention Jesus Franco, Ruggero Deodato, Lucio Fulci and other famous Italian horror directors. Hammer Horror has less than a page devoted to it. Roger Corman is mentioned in passing in a rambling two-page essay about "Masque of the Red Death". Even Dario Argento, who should be known to all but the least knowledgeable cinephiles, is not mentioned at all in this book. Instead, Skal spends 80 pages discussing AIDS, vampirism and Anne Rice. The author reaches conclusions that are drawn from a set of banal connections: for instance, in the chapter "Bad Blood", Michael Jackson is made out to be a modern-day Lon Chaney. The connection? That both practiced physical transformation (Jackson is a pop star with plastic surgery, Lon Chaney was a make-up pioneer film-star. The connection is superficial at best). Horror icons are constantly made out to be "christ figures".

This book is full of holes when it comes to the subject it's supposed to be a "comprehensive" study of: Italian/Spanish horror, Indian horror and Asian horror are not mentioned at all, and neither is the VHS revolution in the 80s. To add to insult, the cultural analysis is weak and contrived, delivered in hyper-eloquent, grandiose prose and takes up about half of the book. Go with Steven J. Schneiders "The Horror Film and Psychoanalysis: Freud's Worst Nightmares" instead, which covers much of the same subjects in an infinitely better package.

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Frightfully good August 5, 2004

By Charlus

Format: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!