rachbake's review
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
informative
reflective
slow-paced
4.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Cannibalism, Rape, and Murder
lizzie_r's review against another edition
challenging
funny
slow-paced
5.0
If you feel like taking in some academic writing, Halberstam’s shines by its incisiveness & wit.Â
astralumpia's review against another edition
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
medium-paced
3.75
henrygravesprince's review against another edition
informative
reflective
medium-paced
3.75
Interesting analysis of gothic horror, but leans a bit too heavy on Freud for my taste sometimes.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Antisemitism, Gore, Homophobia, Misogyny, Murder, Racism, and Transphobia
grannyweatherwax88's review
2.0
I'm sure that many wonderful and insightful point were made in this book, but they largely went over my head since I'm not well versed in psychoanalysis (and think that Freud's theories were seriously flawed). The final chapter on slasher films was the best one as it analyzed the use of skin in Texas Chainsaw Massacre Two and Silence of the Lambs and I wish the whole book had been so interesting. I found it curious that in his exploration of the gothic, Jack Halberstam failed to mention Daphne Du Maurier or Shirley Jackson. It was particularly noteworthy since he examined the movie version of The Birds at great length. I just feel like any conversation of the gothic that does not feature the undisputed queens of gothic horror is incomplete. For an examination of gothic horror, the whole thing felt quite dry and bloodless.
hojichad's review
5.0
One of my favorite theory books that I reread and come back to all the time. I think about this book constantly, it changed the way I think about horror. This book has some points of contention that have not aged well, particularly how Halberstam writes off Candyman as irredeemably racist and undeserving of the nuanced analysis he later gives to Dracula or Buffalo Bill. But, there are so many things in this book that are still salient and rare to see even 25 years later, whether it's horror analysis from an LGBTQ perspective, or even the fact that psychoanalysis is insufficient without sociopolitical context. The final chapter on postmodern horror and the way that "the banality of evil" has changed horror and even most fiction (I'm thinking blockbuster superhero movies) is still so relevant today.
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