The American Nightmare

A thorough, intelligent and stylish study of the superior brand of horror movies that emerged from America in the late '60s and '70s. The basic thesis, connecting classics like Night of the Living Dead and Texas Chain Saw Massacre to social and historical phenomena (notably the Vietnam war and its aftermath), is very familiar, but the judicious and generous use of archive footage and clips, coupled with interviews with the likes of Romero, Hooper, Craven and Carpenter, and a number of critics and cultural commentators, makes the argument all the more persuasive. Good solid stuff, though given some of the academic work done on how the films relate to concepts of family, ritual, sexual politics and so on, you sometimes feel the makers might have probed a little deeper.