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Household Horror: Cinematic Fear and the Secret Life of Everyday Objects Kindle Edition

by Marc Olivier (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
5.0 out of 5 stars 5 ratings
A scholar examines 14 everyday objects featured in horror films and how they manifest their power and speak to society’s fears.

Take a tour of the house where a microwave killed a gremlin, a typewriter made Jack a dull boy, a sewing machine fashioned Carrie’s prom dress, and houseplants might kill you while you sleep. In Household Horror, Marc Olivier highlights the wonder, fear, and terrifying dimension of objects in horror cinema. Inspired by object-oriented ontology and the nonhuman turn in philosophy, Olivier places objects in film on par with humans, arguing, for example, that a sleeper sofa is as much the star of Sisters as Margot Kidder, that The Exorcist is about a possessed bed, and that Rosemary’s Baby is a conflict between herbal shakes and prenatal vitamins. Household Horror reinvigorates horror film criticism by investigating the unfathomable being of objects as seemingly benign as remotes, radiators, refrigerators, and dining tables. Olivier questions what Hitchcock’s Psycho tells us about shower curtains. What can we learn from Freddie Krueger’s greatest accomplice, the mattress? Room by room, Olivier considers the dark side of fourteen household objects to demonstrate how the objects in these films manifest their own power and connect with specific cultural fears and concerns.

“Provides a lively and highly original contribution to horror studies. As a work on cinema, it introduces the reader to films that may be less well-known to casual fans and scholars; more conspicuously, it returns to horror staples, gleefully reanimating works that one might otherwise assume had been critically “done to death” (Psycho, The Exorcist, The Shining).” —Allan Cameron, University of Auckland
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  1. Part of series
    The Year's Work: Studies in Fan Culture and Cultural Theory
  2. Print length
    350 pages
  3. Language
    English
  4. Publisher
    Indiana University Press
  5. Publication date
    February 11, 2020
  6. File size
    12.2 MB
  7. Page Flip
    Enabled
  8. Word Wise
    Enabled
  9. Enhanced typesetting
    Enabled
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"Household Horror provides a lively and highly original contribution to horror studies. As a work on cinema, it introduces the reader to films that may be less well-known to casual fans and scholars; more conspicuously, it returns to horror staples, gleefully reanimating works that one might otherwise assume had been critically "done to death" (Psycho, The Exorcist, The Shining). The close readings of individual films provide sophisticated, nuanced and even startling insights."―Allan Cameron, University of Auckland

Review

Household Horror provides a lively and highly original contribution to horror studies. As a work on cinema, it introduces the reader to films that may be less well-known to casual fans and scholars; more conspicuously, it returns to horror staples, gleefully reanimating works that one might otherwise assume had been critically "done to death" (Psycho, The Exorcist, The Shining). The close readings of individual films provide sophisticated, nuanced and even startling insights.

-- Allan Cameron, University of Auckland

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B07Z1D2XD8
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Indiana University Press; Illustrated edition (February 11, 2020)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ February 11, 2020
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 12.2 MB
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 350 pages
  • Customer Reviews:
    5.0 out of 5 stars 5 ratings

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Top reviews from the United States

  • Jessie Tanner
    5.0 out of 5 stars A perfect read for the horror-lover- Don't sleep on this!!
    Reviewed in the United States on November 24, 2020
    Verified Purchase
    This is possibly the most entertaining scholarly book I’ve ever read. The table of contents is organized like a floor plan: each section represents a different room and the chapters in a section are objects in that room. So, for example, the kitchen section contains chapters on the refrigerator, the microwave, the telephone, and a table, with one or more films showing the role the objects play in horror. I had never thought of analyzing the film Possession entirely through its refrigerators, yet somehow the movie makes way more sense now. I remembered the Gremlins microwave explosion, but the way the book connects it to WWII, urban legends, Russian spying, and environmental activism was pretty genius. There’s a great mix of horror movies—some classics (the shower curtain in Psycho, the bed in The Exorcist  and A Nightmare on Elm Street), and some deeper cuts (I’m not even sure where to find Noriko’s Dinner Table, but now I want to).  Since I’m a Steven King fan, I decided to read the “Typewriter” chapter about  Misery and The Shining, and then watch the movies as a double feature to celebrate their 30th and 40th anniversaries this year (and btw, how appropriate is it that two horror movies about being housebound are celebrating big anniversaries in 2020!) . I’d love to a read-then-watch with each chapter. I recommend this book to any horror fan who wants to dig deeper into films in an original way. I’m buying a copy for my horror-obsessed brother-in-law for his birthday.
    4 people found this helpful
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  • Sara & Jack M.
    5.0 out of 5 stars This Book Made Me Jealous of Insomniacs
    Reviewed in the United States on December 25, 2023
    In some respects, this book is an exercise in futility. An approach to horror from on object-oriented perspective must grapple with the supposed fundamental irreducability and inaccessibility of objects. That's not really conducive to descriptive elaborations, but Olivier doesn't let that stop him. The perverse brilliance of this book is that it's elucidations are perfectly calibrated to reveal their own insufficiency, and thus the aggressive independence of the objects under consideration. In giving them this agency, Oliver arrives at his stated goal indirectly, bringing wonder back into "dead" objects, and, in the case, tinge the wonder with dread.

    All that is nonsense talk to say that this book is too smart for it's own good. It's a little obscene how it can be so magnetically interesting, witty, and tongue-in-cheek, while casually instilling object-oriented perspectives into the reader. Shower curtains have never been so mutli-layered.

    As a sleeper unacquainted with insomnia, this book is not written for me, but I'll be damned if I didn't lose sleep staying up late into the night reading it. For fans of horror movies, or for those grappling with the horror in the quiet voices in a dark room, this book is a must read.
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Top reviews from other countries

  • Theadora Young
    5.0 out of 5 stars Fabulous
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 11, 2021
    Verified Purchase
    Loved it - never look at a fold-out sofa the same way again ! Great inspiration for horror nerds. Brill.
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