What contemporary horror films teach us about the cruelties of capitalist society
Capitalism Hates You uses the horror film genre as a tool to diagnose and expose the hostile conditions of life under capitalism. Through incisive critical analyses of popular films such as Get Out, Drag Me to Hell, Hereditary, The Babadook, and many others, Joshua Gooch draws connections between Marxist theory and contemporary narratives of psychological unease.
Gooch highlights the work of women, trans, and nonwhite filmmakers to show how the remarkable diversity of twenty-first-century horror cinema can provide an expansive catalog of capitalism’s varying forms of oppression. Studying films that interrogate such urgent topics as gentrification, climate change, and reproductive labor, he demonstrates how contemporary horror films give affective shape to the negative undercurrents of our present socioeconomic system.
Capitalism Hates You argues that these films and their material conditions can deepen our understanding of essential concepts in contemporary Marxism, from the theory of value and changing forms of commodification to the labor of social reproduction, the abolition of the family, and the necessity of ecosocialism. Synthesizing various strands of Marxist thought, Gooch sheds light on the growing field of socially conscious horror films, examining how they pinpoint and exaggerate latent feelings of dread and discomfort to reflect the ills of society.
What People Are Saying
"We may hate capitalism but not nearly as much as capitalism hates us. Linking the affect of hatred to the aesthetics of horror film, Joshua Gooch persuasively contends that twenty-first-century horror offers vital diagnostic tools. This fiercely smart book compiles a remarkably diverse archive of contemporary horror films and provides illuminating readings of those films alongside an equally diverse archive of radical political and economic thought, from Marxist-feminism to Afropessimism."—Annie McClanahan, author of Dead Pledges: Debt, Crisis, and Twenty-First-Century Culture
"Joshua Gooch’s Capitalism Hates You offers crystal-clear explications of Marxist theory and then, in seven carefully sequenced chapters, applies them in lucid and convincing ways to demonstrate how a range of contemporary horror films expresses capitalism’s hostility to life. This is a book not just for fans of horror but for everyone interested in the ways films embed and communicate values, judgments, and affects."—Jeffrey Andrew Weinstock, author of Gothic Things: Dark Enchantment and Anthropocene Anxiety
"Capitalism Hates You is a must-read for horror fans who are looking to dig deeper into horror movies and what they have to tell us about this historical, material juncture we’re living in, and ways narrative can help us imagine ways out of this mess."—Rest in Pages
"Capitalism Hates You stands as a convincing piece of evidence for the dialectical intertwining of cultural and political horrors, a unity that must be understood if it is to be overcome."—Ancillary Review of Books
"Joshua Gooch’s Capitalism Hates You: Marxism and the New Horror Film appeals to a Venn diagram of Marxist scholars, film and media scholars, and enthusiastic fans of the horror genre."—Supernatural Studies
"Capitalism Hates You is cultural criticism and political analysis at their sharpest."—Journeys, Enchantments, Discoveries, Insights
"Demonstrating deep, genuine investments in multiple fields, this book will find many pedagogical applications... A welcome addition to existing literature."—Horror Studies
About the Author
Joshua Gooch is professor of English at D’Youville University in Buffalo, New York. He is author of Dickensian Affects: Charles Dickens and Feelings of Precarity and The Victorian Novel, Service Work, and the Nineteenth-Century Economy.
Table of Contents
Introduction
1. Work Hates You: Antiwork Horror and Value Theory
2. Love Hates You: Feminist Anticapitalist Horror and Social Reproduction Theory
3. Nature Hates You: Psychedelic Eco-horror and Ecological Marxism
4. The Neighborhood Hates You: New Black Horror and Uneven Development
5. Commodities Hate You: Mass-Culture Horror and Commodity Forms
6. The Family Hates You: Elevated Horror and Family Abolition
7. Feelings Hate You: Therapeutic Horror and Emotion Work
Conclusion
Acknowledgments
Filmography
Notes
Index