But Seriously Folks: Scholarly Study of Horror Will Prove Useful

by June Pulliam

02/01/2005

Grant, Barry Keith and Christopher Sharrett, eds. Planks of Reason: Essays on the Horror Film. Revised Edition. Oxford, England: Scarecrow Press, 2004.  416 p.

Planks of Reason, originally published in 1984 and reissued twenty years later with very little added or deleted from the previous edition, is still a relevant and informative work for anyone interested in a broad, scholarly treatment of the horror genre. The book is divided into two parts: the first one deals with definitions of horror film and the approaches to studying it, and the second analyzes individual films and subgenres.

Part I considers everything, from fairly broad categories such as the aesthetics of horror and the pleasures of fright, to more specific themes, including the figure of the witch in horror film, the lesbian vampire, and what Lester D. Friedman terms the Jewish horror film (which examines the Jew as monster, victim, and comic character, concluding with an analysis of Jewish horror films without any Jewish characters). An essay about the Yuppie horror film by Grant, one of the anthology’s editors, is also worth looking at. Here Grant examines films that aficionados of the genre would not immediately classify as horror, such as Fatal Attraction and Desperately Seeking Susan.

The essays in Part II analyze specific films in depth. Of particular interest are Janice R. Welsch and Sydny M. Conger’s “The Comic and the Grotseque in James Whale’s Horror Films,”  D. N. Rodowick’s “The Enemy Within: The Economy of Violence in The Hills Have Eyes,” and Ruth Goldberg’s “Demons in the Family: Tracking the Japanese ‘Uncanny Mother Film’ from A Page of Madness to Ringu.”

Planks of Reason is an excellent primer for those interested in both exploring how horror works and attempting to define the boundaries of the genre. The essays tend towards psychoanalytic criticism, with some occasional Marxist analysis on the side. In addition, authors often include a good deal of film history.  For example, Mikkita Brottman’s “Ritual, Terror and Relief: The Terror of The Tingler” provides a good concise history of this B-movie and its maker, parodied in the 1993 movie Matinee. Welsch and Conger’s essay likewise incorporates a brief history of Whale’s Universal Studios horror films that were sufficiently influential in that they defined and redefined particular monsters for generations of moviegoers.

While the language is rather scholarly, it is not overly so (in the way that so many studies of film are written). Therefore, fans and undergraduates, not just graduate level academics, will find the essays accessible and even entertaining. Readers will also appreciate that Scarecrow Press, the anthology’s original and current publisher, have put a great deal more into the production values of this edition. The 1984 edition appears to have been shot from copy, while this one has actually been typeset. This is not a big detail, to be sure, but the improvements make the book seem more “serious.” While texts that aren’t typeset are perfectly usable, their appearance is also unfortunately similar to that of dissertations, thus giving an otherwise informative and useful book an amateurish feel.  This latest version gives Planks of Reason still more credibility, something that is always to be desired when the subject matter is a genre that eternally receives very little respect.