The dread of difference : gender and the horror film /

Gathering an impressive array of distinguished scholars in the thematic shadows of gender and the horror film, Grant (Brock Univ.) thrills and enlightens readers with assorted patriphobic essays. The editor works from the premise that horror films invite a wide and complex assortment of divergent readings and interpretations, and he divides this collection of generally feminist essays into three parts. The first builds on and against Laura Mulrey's classic "Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema" dealing with the "gendered dynamics of looking in the horror film." In the second part, theoretical studies critique specific historical contexts (such as the 1930s and 1980s) or directorial signatures (such as George Romero and David Cronenberg). The ten essays in the final section provide close textual readings of films like King Kong, Cat People, and Carrie. This voluminous symposium gazes deeply into the darkness and then forms a Dionysian chorus reaffirming that sexuality and the monstrous are indeed mated in many horror films. Particularly worthy are Rhona J. Berenstein's "Gender, Reception, and Classic Horror Cinema" and Harvey Roy Greenberg's psychoanalytic study of King Kong as an angst-ridden adolescent. A weighty and remarkably accessible work, with aptly selected stills. Upper-division undergraduate through faculty. T. Lindvall; Regent University