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Horror for Weenies

Everything You Need to Know About the Films You're Too Scared to Watch

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Paperback
$17.99 US
5.56"W x 7.5"H x 0.67"D   | 14 oz | 36 per carton
On sale Sep 03, 2024 | 272 Pages | 9781683694250
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A smart, funny crash course in 25 iconic horror movies, from Psycho to Hereditary, for people who love getting the reference but hate being scared.

You don't have to miss out just because you don't like to be frightened! Stop trying to read nonsensical Wikipedia plot summaries (we know you’re doing it), and let an expert tell you everything you need to know about the most influential horror films of the past 60 years—without a single jump scare or a drop of gore.

With a rundown of the history and significance of horror cinema, explanations of common tropes, and detailed entries on 25 important movies ranging from Night of the Living Dead to The Blair Witch Project to Get Out, Horror for Weenies will turn even the scarediest of cats into a confident connoisseur.

Each entry includes:

  • A detailed plot summary, with enough jokes that it won’t freak you out
  • Smart, illuminating analysis of the film’s themes and cultural significance 
  • Descriptions of iconic scenes you definitely do not want to look at 
  • Talking points for impressing even the biggest scary-movie buffs

Horror for Weenies is the first installment in the Outsider’s Guide series, which offers highly readable crash courses in major cultural phenomena, so you can catch the references and understand the big deal. Never get left out of a conversation again!
A Lit Hub Most-Anticipated Sci-Fi, Fantasy, and Horror Book for the Rest of 2024
A September LibraryReads Notable Nonfiction Pick


“Hughes presents a book best described as a conversation with a horror-fan bestie. With horror’s popularity, this accessible, entertaining, and informative book will be in high demand.”—Library Journal, starred review

“Reading this book is like hanging out at the movies sharing a bucket of popcorn with the smartest, coolest, funniest person you know. Incredibly insightful, laugh-out-loud funny, expertly curated, and executed with finesse. An immensely enjoyable journey through horror cinema. You’ll never feel better about being a weenie.”—Rachel Harrison, national best-selling author of Black Sheep

“A book for true horror noobs as well as for us more seasoned monsters, Horror for Weenies is eager to share the mad, terrifying joy of horror films with everyone. It’s fast, it’s funny, it’s illuminating, it bleeds delight. Easily serves as both a horror movie primer and a paean to the genre.”—Chuck Wendig, New York Times best-selling author of Wanderers and The Book of Accidents

“Emily Hughes is a savage anthropologist, an ethnographer of shocks, bravely chronicling over sixty years of cinematic nightmares so you don’t have to. Horror for Weenies is a perfect blend of Blumhouse meets Margaret Mead, chock-full of fresh and frightening trivia for both horror novices and seasoned vets (like myself). You’ll pee in your pants . . . but it’ll be from laughing so hard.”—Clay McLeod Chapman, author of What Kind of Mother and Ghost Eaters

“A welcoming, joyous guide to the terror, allure, and healing power of my favorite genre.”—Hailey Piper, Bram Stoker Award–winning author of Queen of Teeth and All the Hearts You Eat

“[Horror for Weenies] feels like a much-needed fireside chat with your new horror-obsessed mentor. An exceptional and thoughtful resource.”—Eric LaRocca, author of Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke and Other Misfortunes

“Clever, incisive, and laugh-out-loud hilarious, Emily Hughes’s Horror for Weenies is at once a brilliant primer on the scary cinematic essentials of the last sixty-something years and an irresistibly charming love letter to the entire genre. Movie nerds, horror fiends, and weenies everywhere, rejoice!”—Matthew Lyons, author of A Mask of Flies and A Black and Endless Sky

“[Horror for Weenies] is like talking about scary movies with a best friend.”—Sadie Hartmann, Bram Stoker Award–nominated author of 101 Horror Books to Read Before You’re Murdered

“[Horror for Weenies is] engaging, informative, thrilling, hilarious, full of useful trivia and talking points, and, above all, smart. . . . I’m buying this for everyone I know and making it required reading.”—C. J. Leede, Bram Stoker Award–nominated author of Maeve Fly and American Rapture

Horror for Weenies is hilarious, informative, and guaranteed to make sure you never miss a reference again.”—Mallory O’Meara, nationally best-selling author of The Lady from the Black Lagoon

“If you’re horror-curious, this could be a place to safely check out what you like and what you’d rather avoid—and it’ll give you some Halloween-party-ready thoughts on classic films to boot.”—LitHub

“A great addition to any pop culture lover’s collection.”—Alex Faccibene, Geek Girl Authority

“A true delight.”—FanFiAddict
Emily Hughes is the former editor of Unbound Worlds and TorNightfire.com, and writes the horror newsletter Jump Scares. She has written about horror, books, and culture for the New York Times, Vulture, Tor.com, Electric Literature, Thrillist, and more. She lives in crunchy western Massachusetts with her husband and four idiot cats.
INTRODUCTION

Why Horror Matters

     I didn’t start habitually watching horror movies until adulthood (a fateful viewing of Poltergeist at my tenth birthday party scarred me, and it took me a while to get past it). For many years, I would say “Oh, I’m just not a horror person” and excuse myself from dorm room movie marathons or multiplex outings to see anything scary. But I still wanted to know what happened. I didn’t want to feel more left out than I had to—plus, the invitations kept coming, so clearly my friends and peers were getting something out of scaring themselves half to death. I’d read reviews or Wikipedia synopses or spoilery blog posts, hoping to replicate the experience—but as any good weenie knows, something is always lost when you translate a movie to text. When I read those dry descriptions, I was left wondering what I was missing. Obviously, what I was missing (quite deliberately) was the fear—but why was that an important factor? Why did people want to be scared on purpose?
     Horror fiction was ultimately the thing that brought me back around to horror cinema. The difference in medium provided me with just enough distance from the subject matter that books functioned as a sort of ad hoc form of exposure therapy. (That’s why each movie entry in this book comes with a few suggested reads—if you’re curious but can’t quite bring yourself to watch, fiction might be as useful for you as it was for me.) I found myself reaching for more intense and disturbing reads, and then eventually I realized it was time to give the moving image another try. And this time, I fucking loved it.
     It’s not that I don’t get scared or disturbed by what I’m watching—I’m still a weenie at heart, if a reformed one, and if I sense a jump scare coming I’ll look anywhere other than at the screen. But coming to the genre with new eyes, I found myself fascinated by the craft of horror, the storytelling methods and cinematography tricks employed by filmmakers to evoke fear, dread, and anxiety. And this also meant I got interested in the value of these intense emotions—the way they can provide catharsis or clarity about our day-to-day anxieties. Thinking about horror, to me, is as rewarding as watching it, if not more so, and I spend a lot of time thinking about it.
     So I feel I can now attempt to answer those big questions: What’s the big deal about horror? And why do people want to be scared on purpose?
     For starters, these aren’t exactly the same thing. Some people will tell you that if it isn’t scary, it isn’t horror, but I think that displays a paucity of imagination. What scares us is highly personal—some people run out of the room at the mere sight of a spider, for instance, while others keep tarantulas as pets. That’s why there’s no fear rating scale in this book; the things that scare me are almost certainly different from the things that scare you. And “scary” is a maddeningly imprecise word—does it mean goose bumps? A full-body flinch? A lingering sense of dread? Again, there are so many options, and the outcome is different for just about everyone. In 2018, critic Angelica Jade Bastién wrote a cri de coeur for Vulture that argued against reducing a horror film’s merits to whether or not it scared you. Bastién posits a more expansive definition of horror, one I’ve fully embraced: it’s a genre that explores fear, how it motivates and shapes our lives and those of the
characters we’re watching.
     As individual as fear is, it still inextricably links us to each other. Every human who’s ever lived has been afraid of something, whether it’s something mundane like needles or car accidents or something fantastical like aliens or zombies. Fear is primeval, linked to our species’ ability to survive: we’re very good at identifying threats and doing our best to avoid them. In fact, we’ve done such a good job of removing ourselves from the position of prey that we now seek out fear for recreational purposes, which is pretty wild when you think about it.
     There are any number of hypotheses about why people seek out the feeling of fear—a common one suggests that feeling frightened in an objectively safe setting can be exhilarating or cathartic, and while I’m sure that’s true for some people, I’m equally sure it’s not true for others. I think at the end of the day, we’re just a species of sensation seekers. Experiencing any strong emotional response is a kind of release, whether it’s a laugh, a good cry, an orgasm, or a scream. Presumably, if you’re reading this book, you’re at least a little curious about the scream.

     A quick note about this book: sheerly in the interest of keeping things to a reasonable page count, I had to omit more than a few stone-cold classics (and stick to English-language films). I did my best to focus on influence over popularity; the vast majority of the movies in this book are those that founded, defined, or irrevocably changed a subgenre, the entire genre, or even the artistic landscape of cinema overall. They’re movies that subsequent works found themselves in conversation with, willingly or not. They’re also, yes, generally scary, disturbing, disgusting, unnerving, or some combination of the above.
     One of the uniting features of the films covered in this book is that many of them were critically dismissed or derided when they were released. Plenty also failed financially. But a movie’s influence isn’t pegged to its box office gross or its Rotten Tomatoes score; it’s not even really related to whether or not the movie in question is any good. Cultural staying power is more nebulous than that. The films we still talk about fifty years later have an ineffable psychological stickiness, catching on the jagged edges of our consciousness at the place where logic gives way to visceral fear. Michael Myers has lasted in our cultural memory for forty-five years because he frightens and fascinates us, not because Halloween hit a certain box office benchmark. If a horror movie has stuck with us for years or decades, there’s something there worth examining, critics be damned. Let’s go for a ride.

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About

A smart, funny crash course in 25 iconic horror movies, from Psycho to Hereditary, for people who love getting the reference but hate being scared.

You don't have to miss out just because you don't like to be frightened! Stop trying to read nonsensical Wikipedia plot summaries (we know you’re doing it), and let an expert tell you everything you need to know about the most influential horror films of the past 60 years—without a single jump scare or a drop of gore.

With a rundown of the history and significance of horror cinema, explanations of common tropes, and detailed entries on 25 important movies ranging from Night of the Living Dead to The Blair Witch Project to Get Out, Horror for Weenies will turn even the scarediest of cats into a confident connoisseur.

Each entry includes:

  • A detailed plot summary, with enough jokes that it won’t freak you out
  • Smart, illuminating analysis of the film’s themes and cultural significance 
  • Descriptions of iconic scenes you definitely do not want to look at 
  • Talking points for impressing even the biggest scary-movie buffs

Horror for Weenies is the first installment in the Outsider’s Guide series, which offers highly readable crash courses in major cultural phenomena, so you can catch the references and understand the big deal. Never get left out of a conversation again!

Praise

A Lit Hub Most-Anticipated Sci-Fi, Fantasy, and Horror Book for the Rest of 2024
A September LibraryReads Notable Nonfiction Pick


“Hughes presents a book best described as a conversation with a horror-fan bestie. With horror’s popularity, this accessible, entertaining, and informative book will be in high demand.”—Library Journal, starred review

“Reading this book is like hanging out at the movies sharing a bucket of popcorn with the smartest, coolest, funniest person you know. Incredibly insightful, laugh-out-loud funny, expertly curated, and executed with finesse. An immensely enjoyable journey through horror cinema. You’ll never feel better about being a weenie.”—Rachel Harrison, national best-selling author of Black Sheep

“A book for true horror noobs as well as for us more seasoned monsters, Horror for Weenies is eager to share the mad, terrifying joy of horror films with everyone. It’s fast, it’s funny, it’s illuminating, it bleeds delight. Easily serves as both a horror movie primer and a paean to the genre.”—Chuck Wendig, New York Times best-selling author of Wanderers and The Book of Accidents

“Emily Hughes is a savage anthropologist, an ethnographer of shocks, bravely chronicling over sixty years of cinematic nightmares so you don’t have to. Horror for Weenies is a perfect blend of Blumhouse meets Margaret Mead, chock-full of fresh and frightening trivia for both horror novices and seasoned vets (like myself). You’ll pee in your pants . . . but it’ll be from laughing so hard.”—Clay McLeod Chapman, author of What Kind of Mother and Ghost Eaters

“A welcoming, joyous guide to the terror, allure, and healing power of my favorite genre.”—Hailey Piper, Bram Stoker Award–winning author of Queen of Teeth and All the Hearts You Eat

“[Horror for Weenies] feels like a much-needed fireside chat with your new horror-obsessed mentor. An exceptional and thoughtful resource.”—Eric LaRocca, author of Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke and Other Misfortunes

“Clever, incisive, and laugh-out-loud hilarious, Emily Hughes’s Horror for Weenies is at once a brilliant primer on the scary cinematic essentials of the last sixty-something years and an irresistibly charming love letter to the entire genre. Movie nerds, horror fiends, and weenies everywhere, rejoice!”—Matthew Lyons, author of A Mask of Flies and A Black and Endless Sky

“[Horror for Weenies] is like talking about scary movies with a best friend.”—Sadie Hartmann, Bram Stoker Award–nominated author of 101 Horror Books to Read Before You’re Murdered

“[Horror for Weenies is] engaging, informative, thrilling, hilarious, full of useful trivia and talking points, and, above all, smart. . . . I’m buying this for everyone I know and making it required reading.”—C. J. Leede, Bram Stoker Award–nominated author of Maeve Fly and American Rapture

Horror for Weenies is hilarious, informative, and guaranteed to make sure you never miss a reference again.”—Mallory O’Meara, nationally best-selling author of The Lady from the Black Lagoon

“If you’re horror-curious, this could be a place to safely check out what you like and what you’d rather avoid—and it’ll give you some Halloween-party-ready thoughts on classic films to boot.”—LitHub

“A great addition to any pop culture lover’s collection.”—Alex Faccibene, Geek Girl Authority

“A true delight.”—FanFiAddict

Author

Emily Hughes is the former editor of Unbound Worlds and TorNightfire.com, and writes the horror newsletter Jump Scares. She has written about horror, books, and culture for the New York Times, Vulture, Tor.com, Electric Literature, Thrillist, and more. She lives in crunchy western Massachusetts with her husband and four idiot cats.

Excerpt

INTRODUCTION

Why Horror Matters

     I didn’t start habitually watching horror movies until adulthood (a fateful viewing of Poltergeist at my tenth birthday party scarred me, and it took me a while to get past it). For many years, I would say “Oh, I’m just not a horror person” and excuse myself from dorm room movie marathons or multiplex outings to see anything scary. But I still wanted to know what happened. I didn’t want to feel more left out than I had to—plus, the invitations kept coming, so clearly my friends and peers were getting something out of scaring themselves half to death. I’d read reviews or Wikipedia synopses or spoilery blog posts, hoping to replicate the experience—but as any good weenie knows, something is always lost when you translate a movie to text. When I read those dry descriptions, I was left wondering what I was missing. Obviously, what I was missing (quite deliberately) was the fear—but why was that an important factor? Why did people want to be scared on purpose?
     Horror fiction was ultimately the thing that brought me back around to horror cinema. The difference in medium provided me with just enough distance from the subject matter that books functioned as a sort of ad hoc form of exposure therapy. (That’s why each movie entry in this book comes with a few suggested reads—if you’re curious but can’t quite bring yourself to watch, fiction might be as useful for you as it was for me.) I found myself reaching for more intense and disturbing reads, and then eventually I realized it was time to give the moving image another try. And this time, I fucking loved it.
     It’s not that I don’t get scared or disturbed by what I’m watching—I’m still a weenie at heart, if a reformed one, and if I sense a jump scare coming I’ll look anywhere other than at the screen. But coming to the genre with new eyes, I found myself fascinated by the craft of horror, the storytelling methods and cinematography tricks employed by filmmakers to evoke fear, dread, and anxiety. And this also meant I got interested in the value of these intense emotions—the way they can provide catharsis or clarity about our day-to-day anxieties. Thinking about horror, to me, is as rewarding as watching it, if not more so, and I spend a lot of time thinking about it.
     So I feel I can now attempt to answer those big questions: What’s the big deal about horror? And why do people want to be scared on purpose?
     For starters, these aren’t exactly the same thing. Some people will tell you that if it isn’t scary, it isn’t horror, but I think that displays a paucity of imagination. What scares us is highly personal—some people run out of the room at the mere sight of a spider, for instance, while others keep tarantulas as pets. That’s why there’s no fear rating scale in this book; the things that scare me are almost certainly different from the things that scare you. And “scary” is a maddeningly imprecise word—does it mean goose bumps? A full-body flinch? A lingering sense of dread? Again, there are so many options, and the outcome is different for just about everyone. In 2018, critic Angelica Jade Bastién wrote a cri de coeur for Vulture that argued against reducing a horror film’s merits to whether or not it scared you. Bastién posits a more expansive definition of horror, one I’ve fully embraced: it’s a genre that explores fear, how it motivates and shapes our lives and those of the
characters we’re watching.
     As individual as fear is, it still inextricably links us to each other. Every human who’s ever lived has been afraid of something, whether it’s something mundane like needles or car accidents or something fantastical like aliens or zombies. Fear is primeval, linked to our species’ ability to survive: we’re very good at identifying threats and doing our best to avoid them. In fact, we’ve done such a good job of removing ourselves from the position of prey that we now seek out fear for recreational purposes, which is pretty wild when you think about it.
     There are any number of hypotheses about why people seek out the feeling of fear—a common one suggests that feeling frightened in an objectively safe setting can be exhilarating or cathartic, and while I’m sure that’s true for some people, I’m equally sure it’s not true for others. I think at the end of the day, we’re just a species of sensation seekers. Experiencing any strong emotional response is a kind of release, whether it’s a laugh, a good cry, an orgasm, or a scream. Presumably, if you’re reading this book, you’re at least a little curious about the scream.

     A quick note about this book: sheerly in the interest of keeping things to a reasonable page count, I had to omit more than a few stone-cold classics (and stick to English-language films). I did my best to focus on influence over popularity; the vast majority of the movies in this book are those that founded, defined, or irrevocably changed a subgenre, the entire genre, or even the artistic landscape of cinema overall. They’re movies that subsequent works found themselves in conversation with, willingly or not. They’re also, yes, generally scary, disturbing, disgusting, unnerving, or some combination of the above.
     One of the uniting features of the films covered in this book is that many of them were critically dismissed or derided when they were released. Plenty also failed financially. But a movie’s influence isn’t pegged to its box office gross or its Rotten Tomatoes score; it’s not even really related to whether or not the movie in question is any good. Cultural staying power is more nebulous than that. The films we still talk about fifty years later have an ineffable psychological stickiness, catching on the jagged edges of our consciousness at the place where logic gives way to visceral fear. Michael Myers has lasted in our cultural memory for forty-five years because he frightens and fascinates us, not because Halloween hit a certain box office benchmark. If a horror movie has stuck with us for years or decades, there’s something there worth examining, critics be damned. Let’s go for a ride.

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