Having just re-read Robin Wood's "Hollywood from Vietnam to Reagan", which includes a great deal of material on horror films, especially "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre", the "Living Dead" trilogy and the films of De Palma and Cohen, I'd resist any attempt to dismiss the genre as vacuous or beneath contempt... But isn't that the case with any genre? I imagine that many of the folks on this list could offer examples to counter such a claim, but rather than turn this into a flurry of "My favorite horror movies" lists, I'd suggest than anyone interested in the subject check out Wood's work. (Also Linda Williams on "body genres" and Carol Clover's "Men, WOmen and Chain Saws"....)
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