ABOUT THIS BOOK

“The Dread of Difference is a classic. Few film studies texts have been so widely read and so influential. It’s rarely on the shelf at my university library, so continuously does it circulate. Now this new edition expands the already comprehensive coverage of gender in the horror film with new essays on recent developments such as the Hostel series and torture porn. Informative and enlightening, this updated classic is an essential reference for fans and students of horror movies.”—Stephen Prince, editor of The Horror Film and author of Digital Visual Effects in Cinema: The Seduction of Reality

“An impressive array of distinguished scholars . . . gazes deeply into the darkness and then forms a Dionysian chorus reaffirming that sexuality and the monstrous are indeed mated in many horror films.”—Choice

“An extremely useful introduction to recent thinking about gender issues within this genre.”—Film Theory

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

Barry Keith Grant is Professor in the Department of Communications, Popular Culture, and Film at Brock University. He is the author or editor of many books, including 100 Science Fiction Films, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, and four editions of Film Genre Reader.

REVIEWS

"The Dread of Difference is a classic. Few film studies texts have been so widely read and so influential. It’s rarely on the shelf at my university library, so continuously does it circulate. Now this new edition expands the already comprehensive coverage of gender in the horror film with new essays on recent developments such as the Hostel series and torture porn. Informative and enlightening, this updated classic is an essential reference for fans and students of horror movies."

— Stephen Prince, editor of The Horror Film and author Digital Visual Effects in Cinema: The Seduction of Reality

"These essays are highly intelligent, yet also highly readable, and because of that, the book comes highly recommended. It’s a fantastic, meaty-thick collection as is, but also a good gateway for cinephiles who haven’t yet dared make the leap into reading film criticism, as opposed to the mere 'movie review.’"

— Flick Attack

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Part One

1. When the Woman Looks (Linda Williams)

2. Horror and the Monstrous-Feminine: An Imaginary Abjection (Barbara Creed)

3. Her Body, Himself: Gender in the Slasher Film (Carol Clover)

4. The Monster and the Homosexual (Harry M. Benshoff)

Part Two

5. “It Will Thrill You, It Will Terrify You, It Might Even Horrify You”: Gender, Reception, and Classic Horror Cinema (Rhona J. Berenstein)

6. Bringing It All Back Home: Family Economy and Generic Exchange (Vivian Sobchack)

7. Trying to Survive on the Darker Side: 1980s Family Horror (Tony Williams)

8. Genre, Gender, and the Aliens Trilogy (Thomas Doherty)

9. Taking Back the Night of the Living Dead: George Romero, Feminism, and the Horror Film. (Barry Keith Grant)

10. Gender, Genre, Argento (Adam Knee)

11. “Beyond the Veil of the Flesh”: David Cronenberg and the Disembodiment of Horror (Lianne McLarty)

12. The Horror Film in Neoconservative Culture (Christopher Sharrett)

13. Torture Porn and Uneasy Feminisms: Rethinking (Wo)men in Eli Roth’s Hostel Films (Maisha Wester)

Part Three

14. Horror, Femininity, and Carrie’s Monstrous Puberty (Shelley Stamp)

15. The Monster as Woman: Two Generations of Cat People (Karen Hollinger)

16. Here Comes the Bride: Wedding Gender and Race in Bride of Frankenstein (Elizabeth Young)

17. Burying the Undead: The Use and Obsolescence of Count Dracula (Robin Wood)

18. Old Times in Werewolf of London (Robert Spadoni)

19. Daughters of Darkness: The Lesbian Vampire on Film (Bonnie Zimmerman)

20. Birth Traumas: Parturition and Horror in Rosemary’s Baby (Lucy Fischer)

21. The Place of Passion: Reflections on Fatal Attraction (James Conlon)

22. Feminine Horror: The Embodied Surrealism of In My Skin (Adam Lowenstein)

23. Uncanny Horrors: Male Rape in Twentynine Palms (Lisa Coulthard)

Selected Bibliography

Notes on Contributors

Index