Barry Forshaw

Horror Films of the 2010s by John Kenneth Muir, McFarland

The horror film genre – up to the beginning of the 2000s — has been thoroughly investigated and analysed by many writers (not least this one!), but as yet there has been no exhaustive coverage of the horror films of the 2010s . That situation has changed at a stroke with this extremely useful (and compendious) guide to the decade by John Kenneth Muir, published by McFarland.When a new breed of horror film was signalled by the phenomenal success of William Friedkin’s The Exorcist, a period of stasis for the Gothic genre followed. However,by the 2000s, a major revival of interest in the field (in both Britain and the United States) took place, a revival which proceeded with fresh vigour as the tropes of Gothic literature found new and inventive forms of expression. It is the latter trend which makes a study such as this ever more à propos, John Kenneth Muir’s pithy and informed analysis, beginning with And Soon the Darkness and ending with Us, is an invaluable resource, and its approach — often generous towards films which have been controversially received — is always welcome.