Marxism and the Horror Genre

[Jimmie Higgins]

Split from the "scary movie" thread:

Does anyone know of any books about the horror genre in film (or more generally in lit) from a Marxist perspective? I have this book called "Let's Pretend We're Dead: Capitalism's Monsters" which has a sort of soft marxist-criticism perspective. It's more academic Marxism than revolutionary as far as I can tell - the author so far doesn't even say "marxist criticism" she says "economic-based critique of horror" and contrasts it to feminist-lit theory and Freudian criticism and then used Marxist concepts such as base and superstructure, LTV, etc to base her critiques on!

At any rate, I bought it because I just read a pretty interesting book called "Red Planets" (if overly academic sometimes too - but from a less passive Marxist perspective - in other words marxism is more than just a tool of academic criticism to them). It has essays by China Mielville and Fredric Jameson and people like that discussing Sci-Fi and Utopian lit from a Marxist perspective. I didn't agree with all the essays or points raised but it was a really interesting book and I'd love to read something similar on horror-fiction. Sci-Fi has a much more over connection to Marxist thinking and social criticism and I think there's more of a tradition of Marxist thought on that genre (many SF writers were Marxists or influenced by Socialist ideas). Horror is a little more murky, tends to focus on internal and personal fears and had a pretty pronounced reactionary strands and traditions that seems less of an issue in SF lit (maybe movies are different).

Anyway any recommendations are appreciated.

[GiantMonkeyMan]

Although not explicitly marxist, Stacey Abbot's Celluloid Vampires: Life after death in the modern world and Rob Latham's Consuming Youth: Vampires, cyborgs and the culture of consumption show some critique of capitalism through a study of vampires. Been a while since I read either of them, though.

Also, Robin Wood takes a supposedly Marxist-Freudian model on slasher horror of the 70's in a chapter of his book, Hollywood from Vietnam to Reagan, called 'The American Nightmare: Horror in the 1970s'.

[Franz Fanonipants]

my understanding is that john carpenter is a red. idk if being a communist really leaks out into his work much, but "THEY LIVE" is kind of on record as being a class consciousness parable from what i know.

[GiantMonkeyMan]

my understanding is that john carpenter is a red. idk if being a communist really leaks out into his work much, but "THEY LIVE" is kind of on record as being a class consciousness parable from what i know.

Escape from New York is about as reactionary as dystopia gets. I really like Carpenter and his work but he's no socialist.

[Franz Fanonipants]

hence my disclaimer that i don't know if his politics don't leak into his work much

[Sasha]

Marxist movies no, but the original Dawn of the dead is the classic horror movie with clear anti-capitalist themes. Pans labyrinth is set during the Spanish civilwar. Eat the rich is a quite silly but obviously revolutionary leftist splatter movie. Children of man is also worth watching from a leftist perspective.
I'll try to think of some more...

[Jimmie Higgins]

Escape from New York is about as reactionary as dystopia gets. I really like Carpenter and his work but he's no socialist."Halloween" and "Escape from NY" have been utilized to promote reactionary ideas and politics, but John Carpenter is overtly and vocally a (liberal) leftist (though, yes, not a socialist as far as I'm aware). Personally I think "Escape" was more a satire on US urban policies at the start of the neoliberal era: quite literally prisons not urban services; white flight and the war on crime taken to their satirical extremes.

I think Carpenter and Romero represent the left-wing of the 70s-80s genre wave and, personally, I think both see their horror films as a continuation of a sort of counter-cultural culture-war - which has interesting implications, the hippie dreams were destroyed by the economic crisis and rise of the new-right leaving them with only "nightmares" to give expression to.

[GiantMonkeyMan]

"Halloween" and "Escape from NY" have been utilized to promote reactionary ideas and politics, but John Carpenter is overtly and vocally a (liberal) leftist (though, yes, not a socialist as far as I'm aware). Personally I think "Escape" was more a satire on US urban policies at the start of the neoliberal era: quite literally prisons not urban services; white flight and the war on crime taken to their satirical extremes.

I think Carpenter and Romero represent the left-wing of the 70s-80s genre wave and, personally, I think both see their horror films as a continuation of a sort of counter-cultural culture-war - which has interesting implications, the hippie dreams were destroyed by the economic crisis and rise of the new-right leaving them with only "nightmares" to give expression to.

My issue with Escape From New York and They Live mainly stems from the overt masculinity and individualism of the protagonists. Escape is definitely allogorical of the rise of neoliberalism but, in my perception, the narrative of pitting an individualistic masculine character against the transgressions of an overly powerful state is not a leftist perspective. Snake Plisskin's masculinity goes far enough to give him a cobra tattoo coming out of his trousers for god's sake and he's pitted against an underclass of non-white enemies. Unwittingly, perhaps, but he clearly only co-operates with white characters such as Brain and Cabbie.

They Live suffers from this as well with the working class characters represented as overly masculine and individualistic and therefore able to succeed where the unmasculine and collective resistance movement (comprised of families and scientists) had failed. It also follows a portrayal of white patriarchal dominance as Keith David's character is clearly content to continue in blissful ignorance until Roddy Piper essentially takes charge by beating the shit out of him and Holly, the obligatory female character, betrays him for a chance at wealth and power.

Representations are not John Carpenter's strongest leftist trait... I mean, I love both these movies, I'm a huge John Carpenter fan, but I don't want to hold them up as paragons of leftist thought.

[Jimmie Higgins]

Marxist movies no, but the original Dawn of the dead is the classic horror movie with clear anti-capitalist themes. Pans labyrinth is set during the Spanish civilwar. Eat the rich is a quite silly but obviously revolutionary leftist splatter movie. Children of man is also worth watching from a leftist perspective.
I'll try to think of some more...Thanks, I meant marxist writing on horror, not marxist horror films and lit, sorry. But I like "Pan's" and "Dawn" and haven't seen "Eat the Rich" so I'll have to check it out. The book I'm reading now talks about a US movie called "Society" which is about incestuous aliens that live in Beverly Hills, concentrating wealth and feeding off the flesh of the poor. It was made, but not released, in the US :lol:.

At any rate, from Google-searches and looking at bibliographies from film books and articles talking about horror, I've discovered that there isn't much written about the subject from a Marxist perspective. There isn't really much "horror studies" in academics to speak of and usually it's looked at in terms of slashers and violence against women.

So I propose that someone other than me on this site begin researching and make this their area of specialization. I need you to become the Howard Zinn of Horror or at least the Jameson of Horror, write the definitive word on a Marxist view of Horror lit and film, and then send me a free copy to read.


My issue with Escape From New York and They Live mainly stems from the overt masculinity and individualism of the protagonists. Escape is definitely allogorical of the rise of neoliberalism but, in my perception, the narrative of pitting an individualistic masculine character against the transgressions of an overly powerful state is not a leftist perspective. Snake Plisskin's masculinity goes far enough to give him a cobra tattoo coming out of his trousers for god's sake and he's pitted against an underclass of non-white enemies. Unwittingly, perhaps, but he clearly only co-operates with white characters such as Brain and Cabbie.

They Live suffers from this as well with the working class characters represented as overly masculine and individualistic and therefore able to succeed where the unmasculine and collective resistance movement (comprised of families and scientists) had failed. It also follows a portrayal of white patriarchal dominance as Keith David's character is clearly content to continue in blissful ignorance until Roddy Piper essentially takes charge by beating the shit out of him and Holly, the obligatory female character, betrays him for a chance at wealth and power.

Representations are not John Carpenter's strongest leftist trait... I mean, I love both these movies, I'm a huge John Carpenter fan, but I don't want to hold them up as paragons of leftist thought. Lol. No arguments there. Like I said, I think these two directors in particular take their cues from a sort of counter-cultural world-view which was often a progressive individual vs. "the system" knee-jerk sentiment. This lends itself to both social-democratic conclusions as well as right-wing libertarian conclusions and I think that both can be seen in the 70s horror wave as well as the Sci-Fi wave around the same era. A lot of these distopias and horrors were much better in terms of representation and consciousness of oppression following the various social liberation movements of the 1970s - but there is also a sort of pulp/lit and film divide. Pulp authors could be more daring with genre work and in fact being more daring and pushing things can help their work stand out from the crowd, but genre-work in film tends to be a lot more conservative at the default level. So whereas 70s sci-fi lit often took on issues of race and gender, this progressive trend in Hollywood really only tended to go as far as adding female or black side-characters (Night of the Living Dead is a nice exception, though the female lead is passive - I think Romero has tried to make amends for this by usually having tough female characters in later movies - but again it was super low-budget and could take more risks). This is even true of the more recent Matrix movies.

Never the less I think within a lot of these more broad issues in the entertainment industry and given genre conventions, Romero and Carpenter still represent the progressive side of the genre in films at that time.

[Sasha]

Ah, got it, last (offtopic) film tips than: the crucible (1957) and the 1956 original of the invasion of the bodysnatchers are clear critiques of the redscare/mcCarthyism...

[x359594]

"Does anyone know of any books about the horror genre in film (or more generally in lit) from a Marxist perspective"

The classic text is The American Nightmare: Essays on the Horror Film (1979) by Robin Wood. Wood also wrote about horror films in Hollywood: From Vietnam to Reagan (1986.) Here's a link to the Introduction to The American Nightmare: ftp://128.175.122.115/hross/horror/WOOD.htm

[Fawkes]

Much of what's been written about German Expressionism comes from a marxist perspective -- not too surprising given that many of the movies themselves were very leftist. Can't think of any specific articles off the top of my head, but just google german expressionism and you should find some pretty quick.

[Proukunin]

Jesus Franco considered himself a Communist..He's a Spanish exploitation director and he did do some "horror porn" movies that aren't very well known..but he directed movies like Oasis of the Zombies and Bloody Moon. I don't actually think you could interpret Marxist theory inside his movies but I think there was one where an "evil" warden thinks Communists are plotting to stop their insane activities that they do..He is a very controversial director and some of his movies were banned in Britain along with like millions of others in the 80's..I'm quite sure he joined the Spanish Communist Party at one time or another..Again I know he claimed to be Communist but I don't know how heavy he was into Marxism

[Os Cangaceiros]

Men, Women and Chainsaws by Carol Clover is a pretty well-known examination of horror from an academic perspective.


but "THEY LIVE" is kind of on record as being a class consciousness parable from what i know.

A lot of nazis also like it. (AKA the white man awakens to discover that there are a bunch of jew-aliens everywhere.)

It's one of those movies which can be interpreted in a few different ways.


Jesus Franco considered himself a Communist..He's a Spanish exploitation director and he did do some "horror porn" movies that aren't very well known..but he directed movies like Oasis of the Zombies and Bloody Moon. I don't actually think you could interpret Marxist theory inside his movies but I think there was one where an "evil" warden thinks Communists are plotting to stop their insane activities that they do..He is a very controversial director and some of his movies were banned in Britain along with like millions of others in the 80's..I'm quite sure he joined the Spanish Communist Party at one time or another..Again I know he claimed to be Communist but I don't know how heavy he was into Marxism

I feel really sorry for anyone who watches anything Jess Franco did and expects to see deep social analysis. "Hey guys, let's do a Marxian analysis of Women in Cellblock 9!"

[gorillafuck]

this may be a stupid question but how does marxism at all relate to the horror genre?:confused:

[Proukunin]

Men, Women and Chainsaws by Carol Clover is a pretty well-known examination of horror from an academic perspective.



A lot of nazis also like it. (AKA the white man awakens to discover that there are a bunch of jew-aliens everywhere.)

It's one of those movies which can be interpreted in a few different ways.



I feel really sorry for anyone who watches anything Jess Franco did and expects to see deep social analysis. "Hey guys, let's do a Marxian analysis of Women in Cellblock 9!"

haha..you've got a point..I just wanted to point out that he has referred himself as being a Commie before I'm quite sure of it..

I Don't actually expect people to find anything remotely Marxist or Socialist in his films whatsoever.

[x359594]

...how does marxism at all relate to the horror genre?:confused:

Here's a link to the Introduction to The American Nightmare: ftp://128.175.122.115/hross/horror/WOOD.htm (http://www.anonym.to/?ftp://128.175.122.115/hross/horror/WOOD.htm) by Robin Wood, a Marxist film critic who pioneered the seriuos study of horror films from a Marxist perspective. And incidently, Men, Women and Chainsaws builds on his work.

[Jimmie Higgins]

this may be a stupid question but how does marxism at all relate to the horror genre?:confused:Well because horror relates to Capitalism. We live in a world build on "dead labor" run by Faustian forces that are man-made but come to rule us; where our own bodies and time are turned against our own interests; where workers are pitted against eachother and told to see eachother with suspicion; where the ruling class extends its life and power by sucking the life and energy from the toiling masses; where women's bodies are chopped up and commodified (figuratively most of the time) and their own biological reproductive powers become their chains. Capitalism comes into the world dripping with blood.

But part of my question is just personal, and part of my question is just a curiosity as to why this cultural subject isn't looked into by Marxists more often. There's long been a sort of neo-Marxist academic focus on Sci-Fi as a potentially "utopian and revolutionary" genre and I've read a few things on this, but I've never been really deeply involved in Sci-Fi (maybe more familiar than the average fiction reader, but would probably be considered a rube novice to the average fanboy) whereas I have been attracted to the horror genre much more than Sci-Fi. Also I'm kind of suspicious of some of these claims - not that Sci-fi isn't an interesting cultural subject to look into, just that it's more interesting than romance novels or horror films or pulp detective genres (actually noir and detectives are already generously covered by academics).

My suspicion is that both Marxists and academic-marxists (and academia in general) ignore this subject and basically think that it's an inherently reactionary form. As a genre, focusing on the negative (and often irrationalities), can't really offer a "progressive" or "positive" vision.

But I think horror is interesting because it gets to some of the fears in society - to make horror lit or films, to a certain extent you MUST find more commonly held or social fears otherwise you can't have an impact on an audience. I think the concept of "American Nightmares" is also attractive to me. I don't think there's any coincidence that post-Vietnam horror films have often focused on the most gory aspects of horror to the point where "gore" is actually sort of a commodity on its own not just one aspect of the film or book (whole magazines just dedicated to gore).

I think potentially any work of horror lit can tell us a lot about our society. Dracula is an aristocrat trying to adapt to the bourgeois world, but is a corrupting and backwards force of regression and superstition to the local bourgeois. Frankenstein is a bourgeois scientist who taps into revolutionary powers, but suddenly comes to fear that what he has unleashed has interests and an agenda of its own and can not be corralled and controlled. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is almost a dramatization of the Marxist concept of the division between the mental and physical forms of labor as is "the Time Machine" (ok, that one is definitely Sci-Fi whereas Dr. Jekyll is more of a gray area). Modern Zombie movies are an expression of alienation in this society and many hint at suggesting that maybe a world over-run by zombies might actually be better because zombies aren't racists (Night of the Living Dead) and aren't elitist (the protagonists of 28 days later, Shaun of the Dead and the Dawn of the Dead remake are all shown as service-job "loosers" in regular capitalist society but heroes under zombie-rule:lol:).

Anyway it's fertile ground and I like monsters, so that's why I'd like to read about this.

[Jimmie Higgins]

Here's a link to the Introduction to The American Nightmare: ftp://128.175.122.115/hross/horror/WOOD.htm (http://www.anonym.to/?ftp://128.175.122.115/hross/horror/WOOD.htm) by Robin Wood, a Marxist film critic who pioneered the seriuos study of horror films from a Marxist perspective. And incidently, Men, Women and Chainsaws builds on his work.Thanks, yeah Wood seemed to be the most cited writer in the other articles I found so I'll definitely look into this.

[Sperm-Doll Setsuna]

A lot of nazis also like it. (AKA the white man awakens to discover that there are a bunch of jew-aliens everywhere.)

It's one of those movies which can be interpreted in a few different ways.


But we do know that Carpenter is a leftie - not a revolutionary communist by any means, but I think we can exclude the racist interpretation as being canonical (he commented something on this in a single-episode show where he attended a diner hosted by Clive Barker together with Ramsey Campbell and Roger Corman and so on; and he made that episode for Masters of Horror about the abortion of the daemon baby being prevent by the christian lunatics, ironic in that they came to serve the daemons unwittingly, ostensibly a heavy-handed commentary on Republican politic). The original story, on which it is based, is scarcely a page long and doesn't seem to have any clear themes whatsoever (it's quite bad, frankly), so much of the plot was elaborated for the film, and reflects something of a liberal discourse on the realisation of the late 80's that the supposedly good years had really brought no improvement for the working class whereas the wealthy had prospered immensely.

As to the "jew-aliens", related to that, the aliens of the series V were originally supposed to be Nazis, but the TV company thought aliens were more in line with the era Zeitgeist... an amusing twist, as it were, was when old David Icke, loaded on unknown experimental hallucinogens one night caught a re-run of the show and actually did start raving about the jew-alien conspiracy-- perhaps not quite an intended pregnancy.

[GiantMonkeyMan]

this may be a stupid question but how does marxism at all relate to the horror genre?:confused:

"Capital is dead labour, that, vampire-like, only lives by sucking living labour, and lives the more, the more labour it sucks." - Marx

In Marx's near-incomprehensible fashion, he understands the correlation between horrific fiction and the horrific truth of capitalism. More contemporary horror deals with more contemporary capitalism in both reactionary (having the working class being represented by hill-billy murders out to butcher 'pure' young girls) and leftist terms (zombies congregate to the mall because they consume and that's all they know).