Horror and Science Fiction Cinema and Society

Examining how horror and science fiction films from the 1950s to the present invent and explore fictional "us-versus-them" scenarios, this book analyzes the different ways such films employ allegory and/or satire to interrogate the causes and consequences of increasing polarization in American politics and society. Starting with the killer ants film with an anti-communist subtext Them! (1954) and concluding with Jordan Peele's social horror film with revenge-seeking homicidal doppelgängers Us (2019), Martin Harris highlights social and political contexts, contemporary reviews and responses, and retrospective evaluations to show how American horror and science fiction films reflect and respond to contemporary conflicts marking various periods in U.S. history from post-WWII to the present, including those concerning race, gender, class, faith, political ideology, national identity, and other elements of American society. Horror and Science Fiction Cinema and Society draws upon cinematic sociology to provide a resourceful approach to American horror and science fiction films that integrates discussion of plot construction and character development with analyses of the thematic uses of conflict, guiding readers' understanding of how filmmakers create otherworldly confrontations to deliver real-world social and political commentary.

Martin Harris teaches in the American Studies program at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. He is the author of Poker & Pop Culture: Telling the Story of America's Favorite Card Game (2019) and Leatherface vs. Tricky Dick: The Texas Chain Saw Massacre as Political Satire (2021).

Introduction: "Us vs. Them" in Society and on the Screen 1. Defending the American Way of Life Against Them!2. Surrendering Selfhood in Invasion of the Body Snatchers3. Legend or Monster? Judging The Last Man on Earth4. See No Evil, Hear No Evil, Speak No Evil: Racial Antipathy in Planet of the Apes5. Divided We Fall: Conflict and Crisis in Night of the Living Dead6. Quarantine, Containment, and Covering Up in The Crazies7. "Just Another Stage": Mainstreaming Feminism and the Backlash in The Stepford Wives8. The Enemy Within: Alien's Oppositions 9. A Cop Movie With Aliens: Self-Reflexivity in The Hidden10. "We All Sell Out Every Day": Trickle-Down Ideology in They Live 11. Foregrounding Fascism: Starship Troopers and Satirical Adaptation 12. In-Groups and Out-Groups: Monsters Within and Monsters Without in The Mist13. Cloverfield, 9/11, and the New Normal 14. Get Out and the Struggle to Escape America's Post-Racial Lie 15. Unity on the Surface, Division Underneath: Exploring American Discord in UsAppendix: Other "Us vs. Them" Horror Sci-Fi Films