The Revolting Child in Horror Cinema: Youth Rebellion and Queer Spectatorship

200 Pages·2015·4.295 MB·English

by  Andrew Scahill (auth.)

The Revolting Child in Horror Cinema

The Revolting Child in Horror Cinema
Youth Rebellion and Queer Spectatorship
By Andrew Scahill
the revolting child in horror cinema
Copyright © Andrew Scahill, 2015.
All rights reserved.
First published in 2015 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN® in the United
States—a division of St.Martin’s Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New
York, NY 10010.
Where this book is distributed in the UK, Europe and the rest of
the world, this is by Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan
Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number 785998, of
Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS.
Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above
companies and has companies and representatives throughout the world.
Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United
States, the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries.
ISBN 978-1-349-57792-7 ISBN 978-1-137-48132-0 (eBook)
DOI 10.1057/9781137481320
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Scahill, Andrew, 1977–
The revolting child in horror cinema : youth rebellion and queer
spectatorship / by Andrew Scahill.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Includes filmography.
1. Horror films—History and criticism. 2. Children in motion
pictures. I. Title.
PN1995.9.H6S25 2015
791.43'6164—dc23 2015013957
A catalogue record of the book is available from the British Library.
Design by Scribe Inc.
First edition: October 2015
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
To my mother, Kathy, and my many surrogate academic parents:
Heather Love, Kathryn Bond Stockton, Mary Celeste Kearney,
Harry Benshoff, and Janet Staiger

Contents
List of Tables ix
Introduction 1
1 Revolting Children: A Taxonomy of Child Monstrosity 13
2 Malice in Wonderland: The Terrible Performativity of Childhood 31
3 Demons Are a Girl’s Best Friend: Possession as Transgression 57
4 Raising Hell: Abuse, Rejection, and the Unwanted Queer Child 79
5 It Takes a Child to Raze a Village: Demonizing Youth Rebellion 113
6 Afterthoughts: Fear of a Queer Playground 143
Notes 149
Film Appendix 165
Works Cited 179
Index 189

Tables
Table 1.1 A Taxonomy of Child Monstrosity 15
Table 4.1 A Typology of the Changeling Child 85