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Rating: 
Summary: "I like the dark. . . . It's friendly."
Review: Nightmares in Red, White and Blue is not just a history of themes in American horror movies and how those themes relate to the country's idea of itself (in other words, all the subtext-hunting B-movie lovers love). It's the best book on American horror movies and their reasons for existing I've ever read. (One of my fantasies of paradise is to receive in the mail a copy of every book on movies McFarland & Company publishes. Fortunately I live near a university library that orders most of them.)Joseph Maddrey proves that 200 pages is long enough to do justice to almost any subject if you're organized and know what you want to say. Part I takes a historical view of the eras of American horror movies - - Universal monsters shuffling through the ruins the Great War; invaders from the depths of communist space; rebellious Roger Corman cheapies; sharks, slashers, and shinings; postmodern monstrosities impersonating European movie stars (Bela Lugosi's not dead, he's Catherine Deneuve). My favorite chapter title is "What the Fifty Foot Woman Did to the Incredible Shrinking Man." In that chapter the book shows on consecutive pages three iconic images of woman-as-victim from famous seventies horror films. Part II is a detailed examination of auteurs, including Tod Browning, Roger Corman, George Romero, John Carpenter, Larry Cohen, David Lynch, and Wes Craven. Maddrey deserves an award for accomplishing something few critics do - - he quickly summarizes stories and what those stories are saying about American society without spoiling all the plot surprises. But you still know what the films are about, both on the surface and underneath. I suspect we're on the verge of a new American nightmare to answer the American dream. I hope we can wake up from this one, too.
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