Two Dismembered Thumbs Up! A Review of HORROR: A Thematic History in Fiction and Film
05/02/2006
Jones, Darryl. HORROR: A Thematic History in Fiction and Film. London. Arnold Publishing-Oxford University Press, 2002. 220 p.
If you are in search of light reading, perhaps a book with some superficial observations about the horror genre, then do not attempt to read Darryl Jones’s HORROR: A Thematic History in Fiction and Film.
However, if you love horror and are serious about wanting to gain a better understanding of the genre….
Jones is a lecturer at Trinity College, Dublin. So it should come as no surprise that this book has a somewhat scholarly bent to it, and a decidedly Brit … oops, Welsh perspective at that (yes, I read the notes, Dr. Jones). This is not to say it that the book is dry, or that it is uninteresting reading; in fact it is highly entertaining. But don’t get me wrong: It is a serious work, and as the title indicates, it is a thematic history. Therefore, your favorite fright flick or book might not be mentioned, simply because it does not fit in with the point that Dr. Jones is attempting to make in any particular chapter.
I do not want to give the impression that Darryl Jones is in any respect an ivory towered snob. There are indeed studies of obscure, scholarly works contained in this volume. However, during the course of his first chapter, “Hating Others,” Jones declares The Texas Chain Saw Massacre to be the greatest of all modern horror movies. This is in a chapter that begins with a discussion of Matthew “Monk” Lewis’s 1796 Gothic novel The Monk, and that book’s role in vilifying Catholicism for an English Protestant target audience. One might ask how one can go from this type of discussion to musing about the brilliance of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre in one chapter. Suffice it to say that Jones manages to do this, in a coherent and entertaining—not to mention enlightening—manner at that.
The book is a grabber right from the introduction, “Ban This Sick Filth,” which is a discussion of censorship and horror. The introduction also gives the reader a sense of how the author came by his love of the horror genre. A highlight of this discussion is Jones’s take on how The Exorcist was actually beneficial to the Catholic Church, despite calls for it’s banishment in some quarters. Jones then moves on to other thematic dialogues, delineated by chapter: “Hating Others,” “Mad Science,” ” Vampires,” “Monsters from the Id,” etc., winding up with “Hail Satan.” In these chapters, Jones discusses a lot of the literature and film one would expect to find in a tome of this nature, and he usually comes up with something new and insightful to say about whatever subject he addresses.
The Wicker Man is discussed at some length, along with James Whale’s interpretation of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein story. The Hammer Dracula films are examined in relation to the original film, Stoker’s novel, and their predecessors, including Polidori’s The Vampyre, as well as the folklore that inspired all of these tales. The Silence of the Lambs, Rosemary’s Baby, The Omen, Edgar Allan Poe, H. P. Lovecraft, M.R. James, Arthur Machen, Clive Barker, and other staples of the horror literary and film traditions are given ink, including an in-depth analysis of the work of Stephen King. Other less well known works are also discussed. Antique literary obscurities such as Northanger Abbey, Melmoth the Wanderer, Salammbo’, The Castle of Otranto, and the Last Man are given analysis, but they are given no more scholarly weight than such stellar films as Basket Case, Cannibal Holocaust, and a host of other films of a similar bent. Dr. Jones is nothing if not egalitarian.
There are also extensive notes at the end of each chapter, some of which are more informative than the bulk of the material contained within the chapter itself. And then there is the extensive bibliography….
All of the above make for a truly excellent study, and I highly recommend HORROR: A Thematic History in Fiction and Film to any reader who wishes to learn more about the horror genre.