Capitalism Hates You

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What contemporary horror films teach us about the cruelties of capitalist societyCapitalism 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. Analyzing 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.

Contenu

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