Evil and the demonic : a new theory of monstrous behavior /

Oppenheimer (CUNY) purports to have written a one-of-a-kind book, a study of evil that is neither theological nor philosophical, but rather descriptive and empirical. Arguing that film acts as an expression of unconscious fears and desires, he "reads" popular culture for evidence of evil in human nature. Although the book has more in common with Carol Clover's Men, Women, and Chain Saws (1992), a study of gender in horror films, than with theological treatises, Oppenheimer focuses more on artistic films and canonized literature and art than on the Friday the 13th films and their ilk that Clover studies. The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1919), The Picture of Dorian Gray (1945), Performance (1970), The Trial (1962), and other limited-release films form the bulk of his subjects. Film clips and several paintings (e.g., Goya's Saturn Devouring His Son) provide sobering illustrations. Oppenheimer generally defines evil as the human destructive force set loose in a landscape that has the potential for annihilation. The study examines that force in three different permutations: pacts with the demonic, desire for superhuman power, and demonized love. Although the author's approach is interdisciplinary, its methodology is seldom detailed. The rambling prose style is more poetic than scientific. Still, as the first of its kind on a compelling topic, this work is likely to invite response. Upper-division undergraduates and above. J. Tharp University of Wisconsin--Marshfield-Wood County