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Feeding the Monster

Why Horror Has a Hold on Us

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About this listen

Zombies want brains. Vampires want blood. Cannibals want human flesh. All monsters need feeding.

Horror has been embraced by mainstream pop culture more than ever before, with horror characters and aesthetics infecting TV, music videos and even TikTok trends. Yet even with the commercial and critical success of The Babadook, Hereditary, Get Out, The Haunting of Hill House, Yellowjackets and countless other horror films and TV series over the last few years, loving the genre still prompts the question: what's wrong with you? Implying, of course, that there is something not quite right about the people who make and consume it. In Feeding the Monster, Anna Bogutskaya dispels this notion once and for all by examining how horror responds to and fuels our feelings of fear, anxiety, pain, hunger and power.

©2024 Anna Bogutskaya (P)2024 W.F. Howes Ltd Art Entertainment & Performing Arts Essays Film & TV Social Sciences Scary Inspiring Zombie
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I am a self-confessed wimp when it comes to horror overall and generally I avoid them at all costs. Recently became horror-curious after hearing from a friend about this book. Listening while crafting over the last few days, I’m realising how important horror as a genre is, and how many movies have been made that are feminist in nature, challenge the status quo and centre the marginalised and vulnerable in society as the main characters and heroes of the day. I’m now going to challenge myself to branch out and dive into parts of the genre I have ignored for years, and feed the monster myself.

Horror is a feminist movement!

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Jaw-droppingly insightful (quite literally in places) Anna B might be the most effortlessly intuitive writer in modern horror criticism. This is mind boggling analysis, her easygoing wit and charm somehow enabling the delivery of thesis level content as if it were a bedtime (ghost) story. Really excellent, I consider myself schooled by The Final Girl 👏🏻

A Feast for (and sometimes of) the Brain

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