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Shock Value
Shock Value: How a Few Eccentric Outsiders Gave Us Nightmares, Conquered Hollywood, and Inven ted Modern Horror | Jason Zinoman
7 posts | 11 read | 13 to read
An enormously entertaining account of the gifted and eccentric directors who gave us the golden age of modern horror in the 1970s, bringing a new brand of politics and gritty realism to the genre. Much has been written about the storied New Hollywood of the 1970s, but at the same time as Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg, and Francis Ford Coppola were making their first classic movies, a parallel universe of directors gave birth to the modern horror film-aggressive, raw, and utterly original. Based on unprecedented access to the genre's major players, The New York Times's critic Jason Zinoman's Shock Value delivers the first definitive account of horror's golden age. By the late 1960s, horror was stuck in the past, confined mostly to drive-in theaters and exploitation houses, and shunned by critics. Shock Value tells the unlikely story of how the much-disparaged horror film became an ambitious art form while also conquering the multiplex. Directors such as Wes Craven, Roman Polanski, John Carpenter, and Brian De Palma- counterculture types operating largely outside the confines of Hollywood-revolutionized the genre, exploding taboos and bringing a gritty aesthetic, confrontational style, and political edge to horror. Zinoman recounts how these directors produced such classics as Rosemary's Baby, Carrie, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and Halloween, creating a template for horror that has been imitated relentlessly but whose originality has rarely been matched. This new kind of film dispensed with the old vampires and werewolves and instead assaulted audiences with portraits of serial killers, the dark side of suburbia, and a brand of nihilistic violence that had never been seen before. Shock Value tells the improbable stories behind the making of these movies, which were often directed by obsessive and insecure young men working on shoestring budgets, were funded by sketchy investors, and starred porn stars. But once The Exorcist became the highest grossing film in America, Hollywood took notice. The classic horror films of the 1970s have now spawned a billion-dollar industry, but they have also penetrated deep into the American consciousness. Quite literally, Zinoman reveals, these movies have taught us what to be afraid of. Drawing on interviews with hundreds of the most important artists in horror, Shock Value is an enthralling and personality-driven account of an overlooked but hugely influential golden age in American film.
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BC_Dittemore
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Mehso-so

I saw this sitting unlocked on my Audible wish list and decided it would make a nice palate cleanser, considering the general pattern of my nonfiction listens. (And yes I am aware that I just described a book about horror movies as a ‘palate cleanser‘).

Anyway, it‘s about what I expected and wanted: Most of the info here isn‘t anything too earth shattering for horror hounds. There‘s a sort of fanboy patina around it all. I liked it enough.

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LaurenAsh
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Horror in the snow ❄️ (My reading never lines up with the right time of year 🤣)

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Ephemera
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Pickpick

I‘m not a huge horror movie fan, but I have been known to watch a few over the years. This book was very interesting because it provides insight and background on some of the most well known horror film directors and how they moved the genre forward in the 1960s and 70s. Think Rosemary‘s Baby, Alien, Halloween, etc.So if horror is your thing, you‘ll enjoy this book and learn a lot too.

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PirateJenny
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Murder, horror movies, strange death, disease, witch hunts, human fossils. For me, this is #diversenonfiction I might be living in a bubble but it's a creepy bubble. #uncannyOctober @RealLifeReading

RealBooks4ever Love it! 😆 7y
SkeletonKey I have Shock Value but I'm gonna have to check some of the others out! 7y
PirateJenny Sorry the title of the Lydia Payne got cropped. It's called Seven Skeletons. 7y
TricksyTails 😍 I want them all! 7y
15 likes4 comments
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WoodyWoodson
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26 likes1 stack add
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AMVP
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Pickpick

#Recommendsday #AllHallowsRead plenty of great books on horror flicks out there; this one was one of my first and favorites.

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brendanmleonard
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Pickpick

Recommendsday! If you like horror/movies/the 70s/all of the above, this is a fun, accessible history behind some of your favorite modern films! What I love about it is how it puts the horror of the 70s (Halloween, Alien, etc.) into a cultural context. It's a great companion piece to Easy Riders, Raging Bulls! And it's short enough you could finish it in a weekend. Check it out! #reccomendsday

quirkyreader I rather enjoyed this book. 8y
[DELETED] 3323341091 'tis a fun book. 8y
BekahB Ohhh! So glad you recommended this! I saw this reviewed on a horror blog once and said to myself 'I must read that'. Then I immediately forgot about it. Adding it to my TBR now! Another really fun horror reference book is The Book of Lists: Horror. Lots of great horror recommendations and trivia in list form. 8y
53 likes10 stack adds3 comments