I recently saw this title on a list of feminist books and was reminded how good it is. It's a very readable academic work exploring gender roles in what at the time were modern horror. The story, as I recall it, is that the author Carol J. Clover was challenged to watch The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. She has assumed that horror was about the dehumanization and destruction of women for the entertainment of mostly teenage boys. In stead what she found was that the survivor's of horror films tended to be what she dubbed the final girl.
Expanding on her essay on the Slasher films that had been popular during the 80s, she then added chapters on the Rape Revenge Films of the late 70s and Early 80s and a chapter on Occult/ Possession films of the same era. I found the second chapter as interesting as the first, but the last one kind of fell flat when I read it.
What is interesting about the book is that it was read widely by horror fans, and it changed the way horror films were viewed by many non-fans.
More Friday Forgotten Books HERE
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