The California Gothic in Fiction and Film
- Analyses the key historical events and cultural and social factors which have shaped Californian identity and found expression in horror and Gothic narratives
- Considers contributors to the California Gothic canon, such as: Nathanael West, Clark Ashton Smith, Shirley Jackson, Fritz Leiber, Joan Didion, Richard Matheson and Dave Eggers
- Reconsiders key films in relation to their previously overlooked ‘California Gothic’ significance: including Messiah of Evil (1973), The Fog (1980), The Lost Boys (1987), Sunset Boulevard (1950), Ravenous (1999), Starry Eyes (2014), The Neon Demon (2016), The Invitation (2015), Desierto (2015), Winchester (2018) and Us (2019)
- Draws upon the work of California historians and cultural commentators such as Kevin Starr, Mike Davis, Reyner Banham, Joan Didion, Philip Fradkin, Rebecca Solnit and Benjamin Madeley
This book positions the ‘California Gothic’ as a highly significant regional subgenre which articulates anxieties specific to the historical, cultural and geographical characteristics of the ‘Golden State’. California has long been perceived as a utopian space, but it is also haunted by the spectres of European and Anglo-American imperialism, genocide, racial and economic discrimination, natural disaster and aggressive infrastructural and commercial development. Drawing on the work of California historians and cultural commentators, this study explores the ways in which the nightmarish flipside of the ‘California Dream’ has been depicted within horror and Gothic.
Acknowledgements
Introduction: ‘Evil Lurks in California’
Part 1: Foundational Horrors
1. ‘What Happened a Hundred Years Ago is Happening Again!’ The Ghosts of the California Past
2. The Dark Side of the ‘Good Life’: California and the Birth of Modern Horror
Part 2: Hollywood Gothic
3. ‘Sunshine is Never Enough’: Hollywood Gothic Origins
4. Fallen Stars in Sunset Boulevard (1950) and Whatever Happened to Baby Jane (1962)
5. ‘It’s a Gateway Part!’ Twenty-First Century Hollywood Gothic
Part 3: Cult California: New Gods and New Selves
6. Cult Nightmares in Our Lady of Darkness (1977) and Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978)
7. ‘The Usual Utopian Vision: Contemporary Cult California in The Invitation (2015), 1BR (2019) and The Circle (2013)
Conclusion:
8. ‘It’s Our Time Now’: Us (2019) and Desierto (2015)
Index
California Gothic is a brilliant, insightful and richly historical book, one that will jolt you into awareness of the glaring omission (until now) of California from the American Gothic. It offers figures that take their rightful place in the Gothic canon – the ‘Fallen Star’ of the ’Hollywood Gothic’ and the ‘California Cult’ – and delivers the most innovative intervention into Gothic criticism in years.
