Review by Choice Review
Clover's provocatively titled book is one of the most remarkably readable pieces of scholarship on the study of gender and horror films. She examines three species of the popular low culture genre of horror: slasher films, occult and satanic possession films, and rape/revenge films. In her psychoanalytic reading of these marginal films, based upon Laguer's "one-sex model" of gender construction, she argues that male spectators can and do identify with female victim/heroes. This thorough, well-informed, and intelligent work avoids the obtuse specialized jargon of much contemporary cultural theory and raises stimulating questions for feminist, genre, and audience studies. The bibliography is splendidly comprehensive for so focused a study. Finely tuned to stir debate, disagreement, and insight, it is highly recommended for academic libraries. T. Lindvall; Regent University
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Clover contends that contemporary horror films are not simply the misogynist fantasies that critics have made them out to be. Photos. (Apr.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
Can Friday the 13th (1980) be analyzed logically? Is a potboiler like Hell Night (1981) worth consideration? This examination of these and better splatter, occult, and rape-revenge films of the past three decades will stir discussion among informed, inveterate filmgoers as well as students of sociology and psychology. Clover (literature, Univ. of California) persuasively argues that identification with the ``Final Girl''--she who triumphs over Jason/Michael/Leatherface--transcends any anti-female inclination the mostly young male audience might have during a movie's early stages. She also recognizes that exploitation films usually foreshadow the subject matter of mainstream cinema. This well-researched study is heartily recommended for academic libraries.-- Kim Holston, American Inst. for Chartered Property Casualty Underwriters, Malvern, Pa. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
