A review by messyshelves
The 1990s Teen Horror Cycle: Final Girls and a New Hollywood Formula by Alexandra West

3.0

3.5/5

I love horror movies - especially 90s horror movies. Maybe it's because I was a kid in the 90s and I was never allowed to watch these movies.

This book was definitely interesting but it did often feel like I was reading a university paper and often felt dry and lacked it's own distinct voice. The first two chapters set up what America was like in the 90s and while I get how important that is because it influences the movies I found them hard to get through. Maybe because I'm not American? But I found myself skimming a lot of it. It picked up once we got to the analysis of the movies.

Each chapter focuses on a series or movies with similar themes. It gives a summary of these films and then offers an analysis of the themes. There was a lot of really interesting stuff here. I really liked looking at the themes of trauma especially in Scream and I Know What You Did Last Summer (aka HELEN SHIVERS SHOULD HAVE BEEN THE FINAL GIRL!). It is hard to review this without critiquing the analysis themselves. Some of them I found really interesting and agreed with while others I felt like saying - honey, it's not that deep.

I did find the number of quotes in this annoying (though I did like the perspective of some of them). Even though the tone was very academic and dry at times I did find this a fairly quick read. If you like horror movies especially 90s ones you may find some interesting stuff here.

Or you could just watch the movies themselves, lol.