Shocking Representation: Historical Trauma, National Cinema, and the Modern Horror Film

By Stefan Isaksson

Shocking Representation: Historical Trauma, National Cinema, and the Modern Horror Film
Adam Lowenstein
Columbia University Press
255 pages
ISBN: 0231132476

Adam Lowenstein, associate professor of English and film studies at the University of Pittsburgh, has written a book where he analyses different horror movies by different directors from different countries, for example Wes Craven’s Last House on the Left. However, Shocking Representation isn’t a book made for the everyday horror fan (which obviously doesn’t mean a horror fan will be unable to appreciate the book). No, this is a book that first and foremost other devotees of film studies will enjoy.

Because what Lowenstein does is that he analyses different movies from different eras and countries, and bases his analysis on how the construction of the movies, their themes, advertisement, script, and so on are characterized by and reflects upon such immense social conflicts and traumas as the end of World War II, the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima, and the Vietnam War. Using movies from countries such as France, England, Japan, and the U.S. Lowenstein shows how the directors design their movies in ways based on the traumatic experiences the movie crowd in one way or another has experienced.

Complicated? Yeah, pretty much so. Especially when Lowenstein uses old black and white movies I’ve never even heard of, much less seen myself. Fact is that I’ve not seen or heard of the majority of the movies analyzed in the book – except Deliverance and Last House on the Left – and due to this it was really very little of the book I could truly understand and appreciate.

Because, after all, movies (including the horror genre, even though some movie critics refuse to see the horror genre as anything but brainless entertainment of the worst quality imaginable) often deliver sharp social critique and/or reflections of the particular society where the movie is made; but this is often missed by the general viewer.

Which both sucks and is too bad, because it’s often very clever critique. But this also means that it can be great fun learning from someone highly skilled in film studies. And this I did from time to time. For instance, I’ve seen Deliverance before, but I’ll have to do it again, soon, and this time think about all the references to the Vietnam War I’ll see on the screen.

Shocking Representation isn’t an easy book to read, and you really do have to know your film history in order to fully appreciate what Lowenstein says, but at the same time, even in case you only know a few titles – like I did – you can still find some interesting facts.