The Revolting Child in Horror Cinema

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-ix

   PDF

2. Introduction

   • Andrew Scahill

   Pages 1-11

3. Revolting Children

   • Andrew Scahill

   Pages 13-30

4. Malice in Wonderland

   • Andrew Scahill

   Pages 31-56

5. Demons Are a Girl’s Best Friend

   • Andrew Scahill

   Pages 57-78

6. Raising Hell

   • Andrew Scahill

   Pages 79-111

7. It Takes a Child to Raze a Village

   • Andrew Scahill

   Pages 113-142

8. Afterthoughts

   • Andrew Scahill

   Pages 143-148

9. Back Matter

   Pages 149-193

   PDF

The monstrous child is the allegorical queer child in various formations of horror cinema: the child with a secret, the child 'possessed' by Otherness, the changeling child, the terrible gang. This book explores the possibilities of 'not growing up' as a model for a queer praxis that confronts the notion of heternormative maturity.

• cinema
• film
• youth
• childhood studies

“The Revolting Child in Horror Cinema is an insightful contribution to queer studies, communication/media studies and childhood studies. While providing needed scholarship on the figure of the child in horror cinema, Scahill also opens up new and exciting possibilities for queer viewing practices and spectator identity negotiations, simultaneously highlighting possibilities and impossibilities, pleasure and disruptions” (Sasha Cocarla, Queer Studies in Media & Popular Culture, Vol. 02 (3), September 01, 2017)

"Deftly weaving together similar strands of queer theory, childhood studies, and horror film scholarship, Andrew Scahill argues for the queer pleasures and revolutionary potentials inherent in the figure of the monstrous child. His work makes a significant contribution to the growing scholarship on childhood and monstrosity, offering fresh perspectives on iconic bad kids from Rhoda (The Bad Seed) to Regan (The Exorcist). Informed, informative, and fun-to-read, The Revolting Child in Horror Cinema explores why we love to hate our monstrous offspring." - Harry Benshoff, author of Monsters in the Closet: Homosexuality and Horror Film

"Andrew Scahill knows that childhood can be scary. His new book seeks to explain the real terrors of The Exorcist and Village of the Damned by using a convincingly sharp, jargon-free discussion of queer theory that breathes new life into cinematic texts weighed down by past interpretations. Politically vibrant and thoughtfully subversive, The Revolting Child in Horror Cinema is a welcome addition to the growing number of cultural studies on horror." - W. Scott Poole, author of Monsters in America and Vampira

Andrew Scahill is Lecturer in the Department of English at Georgetown University, USA.

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