Scream with me Horror films and the rise of American feminism (1968-1980)

Columbia University English professor Johnson (Waste and the Wasters) explores the intersection between 1960s and '70s horror films and the feminist movement in this urgent critical study that doubles as a call to arms. The book was born out of a lecture Johnson gave about the 1968 film Rosemary's Baby following the overturning of Roe v. Wade in 2022. She realized the movie--about a woman whose pregnancy has sinister consequences--was an ideal lens for understanding the fight for women's rights, as were other thrillers of the time. For example, Johnson argues that the 1979 film Alien was not only a commentary on forced reproduction but also a direct response to the public's fear that women would become eligible for the draft under the Equal Rights Amendment. Also explored is the 1975 film The Stepford Wives, which Johnson paints as a dystopian tale of domestic abuse. Johnson highlights each film's relevance through sharp historical observations and astute readings, pulling dark political realities from movies that on the surface are about extraterrestrial or supernatural realms. This astute survey will fire up readers to fight back against the patriarchy. (Sept.)

Johnson (comparative literature, Columbia Univ.; Waste and the Wasters) examines the struggles of the women's-rights movement by looking at six films in the subgenre of domestic horror that, while couched in the supernatural and extraterrestrial, reflected the lived realities of countless women. Johnson focuses primarily on Rosemary's Baby (1968), The Exorcist (1973), The Stepford Wives (1975), The Omen (1976), Alien (1978), and The Shining (1980). She explains how Rosemary's Baby resonated with audiences in a pre-Roe v. Wade landscape and juxtaposes the competency shown by Alien's Ripley against U.S. conservative concerns over the proposed Equal Rights Amendment. The films support Johnson's feminist reading, but she also calls out problematic choices the movies made and the directorial abuse sometimes involved in their production. Looming in the background is the United States' current political landscape, resulting in these films being as frighteningly relevant today as they were generations ago. Johnson finds no comfort in poorly made sequels to these movies but is reassured by a new slate of horror films that also confront feminist issues, especially those helmed by women directors, like Sarah Polley's Women Talking (2020). VERDICT Spawned from an impassioned college lecture on Rosemary's Baby after the Dobbs decision, Johnson's book is accessible and thought-provoking.--Terry Bosky