"Hearths of Darkness: The Family in the American Horror Film"
traces the origins of the 1970s family horror subgenre to certain
aspects of American culture and classical Hollywood cinema. Far
from being an ephemeral and short-lived genre, horror actually
relates to many facets of American history from its beginnings to
the present day. Individual chapters examine aspects of the genre,
its roots in the Universal horror films of the 1930s, the Val
Lewton RKO unit of the 1940s, and the crucial role of Alfred
Hitchcock as the father of the modern American horror film.
Subsequent chapters investigate the key works of the 1970s by
directors such as Larry Cohen, George A. Romero, Brian De Palma,
Wes Craven, and Tobe Hooper, revealing the distinctive nature of
films such as "Bone, It's Alive, God Told Me, Carrie, The Exorcist,
Exorcist 2, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre," as well as the
contributions of such writers as Stephen King. Williams also
studies the slasher films of the 1980s and 1990s, such as the
Friday the 13th series, "Halloween," the remake of "The Texas
Chainsaw Massacre," and "Nightmare on Elm Street," exploring their
failure to improve on the radical achievements of the films of the
1970s.
After covering some post-1970s films, such as "The Shining," the
book concludes with a new postscript examining neglected films of
the twentieth and early twenty-first century. Despite the overall
decline in the American horror film, Williams determines that, far
from being dead, the family horror film is still with us. Elements
of family horror even appear in modern television series such as
"The Sopranos." This updated edition also includes a new
introduction.
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