The Highway Horror Film (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9781137391193)

The Highway Horror Film argues that 'Highway Horror' is a hither-to overlooked sub-genre of the American horror movie that articulates profound unease about the increasingly transitory nature of modern American life, as well as the wider impact of mass automobility. Along with the establishment of the suburbs, the post-1956 construction of the Interstate Highway System represents one of the most dramatic innovations of post-war American society. The new network of well-maintained and well-constructed roads provided Americans with a freedom to move around the entire nation that had previously been denied to them. In addition, the car assumed the vitally important practical and symbolic function it holds to this day. Both of these innovations are questioned in this landmark study. In Highway Horror films, the American landscape is by its very accessibility rendered terrifyingly hostile, and encounters with other travellers (and with those whose roadside businesses depend on highway traffic) almost always have sinister outcomes.

Author: Bernice M. Murphy
ISBN-10: 1137391197
ISBN-13: 9781137391193
Publisher: Palgrave Pivot
Language: English
Published: 03/12/2014
Pages: 113
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 0.67lbs
Size: 8.50h x 5.50w x 0.44d