Price, Vincent, 136
pro-choice, 184
profiling, 149–51
“Project Blue Book,” 125
pro-slavery apologists, and monster rhetoric, 67–70
prosthetics, 224
prostitution, 101–2
Psycho, 139, 141–43, 147, 156, 158, 162
Puritans, 4, 11, 24, 157, 183 belief in monsters, 36, 196 see also witchcraft trials; witches
radiation, fear of, 115, 125 see also Cold War
radioactivity, and superheroes, 117–18
Reagan, Ronald, 149, 152, 155, 197
Reagan Counterrevolution, 149, 155, 160
Reagan era, 157–60, 171–72, 182, 190, 207, 217
Red Scare, 108, 111–16
Ressler, Robert, 150–51
Return of the Vampire, 108
Rice, Anne, 195–96, 207
Richmond Enquirer, 49, 68
Rip Van Winkle, 157
Ripley, Lieutenant, 174
Ripley, William Z., 93
Rise of American Democracy, 10
Roe v. Wade, 148–49, 174, 183 see also abortion
Roman Catholicism, 29, 90 in film, 167–68, 176 attitudes toward birth control, 176 in gothic literature, 56
romanticism, 55, 58
Romero, George, 32, 193–95, 198–99, 216
Rosemary’s Baby, 77, 175–77, 185
Roswell, New Mexico UFO sighting, 124
Roth, Eli, 23, 84
S&, 136, 186
Salem witch trials, 37–41 see also Puritans
Sanderson, Ivan, 133–35
“Sanguinaries,” 207–8
Santa Barbara Channel Islands, 132
Santa Mira, Calif., 119
Sarah Connor Chronicles, 226
Satan, 7–8, 30, 186 African Americans as accomplices of, 85 beliefs in allegiances with Native Americans, 39 communists in league with, 128 fear of in 1980s, 183 in film, 167–69, 175–76 and witches, 39–41, 75
Satan worshippers, fear of, 182–85
satanic panic, 182–86, 210
Satanic Panic: Creation of a Contemporary Legend, 183
Savini, Tom, 199, 220
Saw, 84
Sawyer, Tom, 157
Sawyer family, 156–58
Saxon race, as superior, 83, 96–97, 102 see also white supremacy
“Scaremare,” 185
Scarlet Letter, 75
Schmid, David, 74
Schreffler, Phillip, 96
Schwartz, Anne, 154
Schweiger, Jennifer, 182
science fiction, 113–14, 117–18, 189, 221–22 changes during Cold War, 121–22
science, fear of, 81–83 medical advances, 221 reaction to professionalization of, 134–35
scientific racism, 83–85, 92–96, 105–7
Scientific Revolution, prevalence of monster imagery, 8–9, 61, 82
Scopes Monkey Trial, 83, 92, 95–98
sea monsters, 60–65, 88
sea serpents, 14, 18–21, 42, 61–64, 88, 133–34, 151–52
“Sea Serpent Polka,” 64
Secret Garden, 171
Secret of Saucers, 130
Semonin, Paul, 12, 44, 46
Senate, 146
serial killers, as celebrities, 161–62, 164 as monsters, 16, 73–74, 138, 147, 149–51, 156–60 sexual deviance of, 151–53
Shelley, Mary, 49, 58–59, 68, 81–82, 85, 221
Sherwood, Grace, 41
Shining, 77
sightings of UFOs, 123–25
Silence of the Lambs, 147, 153–55
Simon & Schuster, 161
Simpson, O. J., 191
Simpsons, 220
sin, American conception of, 37, 42 in gothic literature, 75
“Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God,” 183
Skal, David, 58, 108, 116, 136, 173, 187
skin, 154–55
Skull Island, 100
skull size, 93
Skulls, as gothic imagery, 71–72, 74, 147
“Skynet,” 225
Skywalker, Anakin, 223
slasher films, 185, 219 social commentary in, 155–61, 180
Slotkin, Richard, 20
Smith, John, 35
snoligoster, 49–50
Snow White, 136
sociology, 183
“Soldier’s Homes,” 70
“Son of Sam,” 141
sterilization, 91, 106
“Stick in the Mud,” 145
Stiles, Ezra, 44–45, 63
Stoker, Bram, 59–60, 202, 212
Stone Age cave drawings, 5
Stone, Oliver, 162
Stonehenge, 130
Stono Rebellion, 48
“Strange Story of America’s Abominable Snowman,” 134
Stranger Beside Me, 150–51
Strode, Laurie, 158–60
Students for a Democratic Society, 143
suburbia, 158–60, 163–65, 177–79
succubi, 40
suffrage movement, 74
suicide, 185
summer camp, 179–81
Summers, Joyce, 210
Sumner, Charles, 68
television, 113, 126, 136–38, 162–64, 185, 216 classis horror on, 187 war coverage on, 198–99
Texas Chainsaw Massacre, 76, 147, 156–58, 160
Topsell, Edward, 30
torture porn, 84, 91
toys, 187–88
tranquilizers, popularity in post-war, 143
travel accounts, 28–31
Tribulation, 201
Trinity Dam, 132
Trois Freres, 5
True Blood, 214–15
true crime, 149–51, 162 see also serial killers
True Detective, 137, 150
True History, 31
True, 134–35
Truman, Harry, 108, 122
Tudor, Andrew, 104–5, 113
Tuskegee experiments, 106
Twilight, 211–13
UFOs, 123–25, 134 religious interpretations of sightings, 129–32 see also aliens
Uncle Forry, 189
undead, see zombies
Uninvited Visitors, 134
Universal Studios, 87, 92, 102, 105, 175, 186–88, 194
urban legends, in film, 53, 158–59
Vampira, 136–37, 146, 187
Vampire: The Masquerade, 208
Vampirella, 136
vampires, 7–8, 14–15, 58–60, 122, 145, 195–96, 198–99, 202, 204–7, 209–16
European folklore precedent, 58 resurgence in popularity, 195 sexuality and, 89, 102–3, 136–37, 195–96, 207, 212–14, 226 supernatural origin, 59 as uniquely American, 196–97, 214, 220–21 see also Dracula
Victor, Jeffrey S., 183–84
Victorian era, 72–77, 89, 179
Viet Cong, 198
Vietnam, 148, 156–58, 167, 184, 193, 197–200, 220 effects on American society, 197 in film, 199
Village Voice, 208, 217
Vintage Books, 161
Virginia, sterilization laws, 90
Voorhees, Jason, 165, 181
W. C. Coup’s United Monster Show, 89
Washington, George, 12 fossil hunting, 44
Washington, Harriet A., 106
“water test” in witch trials, 41
Watergate, 183 inspiration for Salem’s Lot, 203
weapons, as implements of horror, 66
werewolves, 108, 145, 209, 211 medieval context of, 8
Wertham, Frederick, 143, 146
West Africa, 47
Westmoreland, William, 197
whale shows, 65
Whale, James, 81, 87
whaling industry, 65–66
“What is it?” exhibit, 94
Whedon, Joss, 208–9
White, John, 34
white slavery, 101–2, 104
white supremacy, 49–50, 79, 83, 89–90, 93, 100 see also scientific racism
White Zombie, 194
Whitechapel killer, 73, 149 see also “Jack the Ripper”
Whitfield, Stephen, 122
Whoever Fights Monsters, 151
Wicca, 210
wilderness, in folklore, 36–37, 42–45 colonial fear of, 39, 157
Wilentz, Sean, 10
Willow, 209–10
witchcraft trials, in Europe, 8–9 Salem, 37–41 as entertainment in New England, 39–41
witches, 75, 209, 210 African belief in, 48 in colonial New England, 37–42 medieval context of, 8 European imagery of, 32 sexual imagery, 40
Woodhull, Victoria, 77–78
World Trade Center, 191
Wray, Fay, 36, 98–99
Wright, Richard, 81
X-Men, 118
Y2K, 201
“Yeti,” 133, 135, 151
Ymir, 7
yokai tradition, 115
Zacherle, John, 187
“Zacherley the Cool Ghoul,” 187
Zillman, Dolf, 17
Zip the Pinhead, 95
Zombie Survival Guide: Complete Protection from the Living Dead, 203
Zombies of Mass Destruction, 217
zombies, 193–96, 199, 200–206, 216–17 and body anxiety, 205–6 as uniquely American, 196–97, 220–21 harbingers of apocalypse, 201–2
zoology, and monsters, 61, 133–35
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