Horror and Science Fiction Cinema and Society

Martin Harris teaches in the American Studies program at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. He is the author of Poker & Pop Culture: Telling the Story of America’s Favorite Card Game (2019) and Leatherface vs. Tricky Dick: The Texas Chain Saw Massacre as Political Satire (2021).

"This volume offers something novel and taps into genres that span decades that the author ties to the era's relevant ongoing social and political situations, covering history, politics, film criticism, and sociology to understand various concepts that are vital for students across a variety of disciplines to grasp. This book is an exemplary guide to how to do just that.”Michael A. Allen, Professor of Political Science, Boise State University"Using the archive of 1950s thru 2010s horror plus science fiction films, this book explores polarization in society, namely how and why Americans tend to divide into opposing groups and attach their identity to polarization rather than cohesion. Through these films, the author interrogates social polarization from a host of angles, including: race, class, gender, religious belief, politics, nationalisms, and sexuality. These angles promise to elucidate why Americans are attracted to basing their identity in segmented groups that are defined by (and act against) an “other.” As such, this is an incredibly timely book and the prominent place of polarization in American society today makes this book of great potential use in a number of classroom settings."Paul C. Gutjahr, Professor of English, Indiana University

• Introduction: “Us vs. Them” in Society and on the Screen1. Defending the American Way of Life Against Them!2. Surrendering Selfhood in Invasion of the Body Snatchers3. Legend or Monster? Judging The Last Man on Earth4. See No Evil, Hear No Evil, Speak No Evil: Racial Antipathy in Planet of the Apes5. Divided We Fall: Conflict and Crisis in Night of the Living Dead6. Quarantine, Containment, and Covering Up in The Crazies7. “Just Another Stage”: Mainstreaming Feminism and the Backlash in The Stepford Wives8. The Enemy Within: Alien’s Oppositions9. A Cop Movie With Aliens: Self-Reflexivity in The Hidden10. “We All Sell Out Every Day”: Trickle-Down Ideology in They Live 11. Foregrounding Fascism: Starship Troopers and Satirical Adaptation12. In-Groups and Out-Groups: Monsters Within and Monsters Without in The Mist13. Cloverfield, 9/11, and the New Normal14. Get Out and the Struggle to Escape America’s Post-Racial Lie15. Unity on the Surface, Division Underneath: Exploring American Discord in UsAppendix: Other “Us vs. Them” Horror Sci-Fi Films