Notes

Introduction: Welcome to Disturbia

1. Siddons, p.212.2. Clapson, p.2.3. Beuka, p.23.4. Clapson, p.14.5. Chafe, p.111.6. Ibid., p.120.7. Patterson, p.331.8. Rome, p.16.9. Patterson, pp.336–8.

10. Keats cited in Donaldson, p.7.11. Keats, p.7.12. Donaldson, p.122.13. Donaldson, The Suburban Myth (1969).14. Cited in Garreau, p.268.15. Kenneth Jackson, 1985, pp.244–5.16. Fiedler, p.144.17. Matheson, Stir of Echoes, p.106.18. Clapson; Beuka, p.1.

1 The House Down the Street: The Suburban Gothic inShirley Jackson and Richard Matheson

1. Joshi, p.63. Indeed, King’s 1979 novel Salem’s Lot – in which a Europeanvampire invades small town Maine – vigorously and effectively dramatisesthis notion, as do many of his subsequent narratives.

2. Garreau, p.267.3. Skal, p.201.4. Dziemianowicz.5. Cover notes, Richard Matheson, I Am Legend, (1954: 1999).6. Jancovich, p.131.7. Friedman, p.132.8. Hereafter referred to as Road.9. Friedman, p.132.

10. Hall, Joan Wylie, in Murphy, 2005, pp.23–34.11. Ibid., p.236.12. Oppenheimer, p.16.13. Mumford, p.451.14. Donaldson, p.24.15. Clapson, p.1.

201

202 Notes

16. Ibid., p.22.17. Shirley Jackson, The Road Through the Wall, p.5.18. Friedman, p.79.19. Shirley Jackson, Road, p.5.20. Anti-Semitism in a suburban setting also plays a part in Anne Rivers Siddon’s

The House Next Door and, possibly, in Richard Matheson’s I Am Legend (inwhich the notably Aryan hero fends off his vampiric next-door neighbourwith a copy of the Torah).

21. Shirley Jackson, Road, p.43.22. Friedman, p.84.23. As we shall see, the suburban community as lynch mob is a common trope

in the Suburban Gothic.24. Jackson, Road, p.206.25. Ibid., p.213.26. Oppenheimer, p.17.27. Ibid., p.16.28. Quoted in Oppenheimer, p.125.29. Oppenheimer, p.125.30. As is obvious in her later novels, physical boundaries such as walls and

gates frequently isolate the Jackson protagonist from the real world, andfind reflection in the psychological containment and self-obsession of hercharacters.

31. Oppenheimer, p.18.32. Joan Wylie Hall’s ‘Fallen Eden in Shirley Jackson’s The Road Through the Wall’

(in Murphy, 2005) furthers this contention by claiming that Road contributesto a prominent theme of much Californian literature: the loss of innocencein the Eden of the final American frontier.

33. Wharton, p.106.34. ‘Richard Matheson’ The Science Fiction Encyclopaedia, (London: Orbit, 1993)

p.585.35. Winter, p.40.36. Hereafter shortened to Legend.37. Interestingly, Jack Finney’s Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1955) was also set

in 1976, although, as in Matheson’s novel, the future still seems very like the1950s. As to the reasons why this year was chosen as the setting for two of thedecade’s seminal sci-fi/horror novels it seems likely that since 1976 markedthe 200th anniversary of the founding of the United States (the bicen-tennial) it represented a useful milestone for nightmarish narratives suchas these.

38. Oakes, p.105.39. Ibid., p.45.40. ‘Houses for the Atomic Age!’ The Golden Age of Advertising: The 50s (Taschen,

2004) p.55.41. Newman, p.66.42. Zicree, pp.90–2.43. Fox Television, Episode 2F11. Original US airdate 5 February 1995.44. The low-budget thriller Right at Your Door (2006), provided a interestingly

post 9/11 variation on this theme, as the detonation of several so-called

Notes 203

‘dirty bombs’ in downtown Los Angeles forces a slacker suburban husbandto seal up his home with duct tape and wood. He spends much of the filmdenying access to his pleading wife, who had been dangerously close to thebombs when they went off, and is therefore, according to official broadcasts,one of the ‘contaminated’. In an ironic twist, at the climax of the film it isrevealed that by remaining inside, he is the one who has become irradiated,not her, and in a scenario reminiscent of that seen at the climax of filmssuch as Romero’s The Crazies (1973), David Cronenberg’s Rabid (1977) andthe 2007 Spanish Zombie movie [REC] he is sealed in forever by the militaryand left to die.

45. Matheson, Legend, p.8.46. Jancovich, p.149.47. Matheson, Legend, p.44.48. Ibid., p.13.49. Ibid., p.110.50. Winter, p.40.51. Matheson, Legend, p.10.52. Avila, 2004.53. Ibid., p.35.54. Matheson, Legend, p.23.55. Ibid., pp.26–7.56. Ibid., p.30.57. Ibid., p.53.58. Ibid., p.153.59. Ibid., p.157.60. Ibid., p.160.61. Ibid., p.160.62. Matheson, The Shrinking Man. Hereafter shortened to Shrinking Man.63. Matheson, Shrinking Man, p.175.64. Ibid., p.186.65. Hereafter referred to as Stir for convenience sake.66. Though overshadowed by the release of the similarly themed The Sixth Sense

in the same year, the 1999 movie adaptation of Stir of Echoes (starring KevinBacon) is actually a surprisingly effective and engaging movie which intelli-gently updates Matheson’s original text. The middle-class, suburban settingof the original has been replaced however by a distinctly urban, blue-collarsetting, and Tom Wallace is now a working-class telephone repairman ratherthan a young executive type.

67. Matheson, Stir of Echoes, p.69.68. Ibid., p.106.69. Ibid., p.43.70. Ibid., p.43.71. Ibid., p.104.72. Ibid., p.44.73. Ibid., p.48.74. Ibid., p.49.75. Ibid., p.121.76. Ibid., p.180.

204 Notes

2 Conjure Wife: The Suburban Witch

1. Sharon Russell, p.115.2. Ibid., p.116.3. Karlsen, p.xii.4. Rosenthal, p.3.5. Hoffer, p.xv.6. Rosenthal, p.2.7. Creed, p.76. In an interesting discussion indebted to Russell’s earlier arti-

cle, Creed briefly traces the depiction of the witch in film as a prelude toher discussion of Brian De Palma’s 1976 horror movie Carrie. The ‘witch ashousewife’ trope is mentioned only in passing.

8. Sharon Russell, p.117.9. Ibid., p.121.

10. Ibid., p.121.11. Klaits, p.119.12. Filmed as Weird Woman (1944), Burn, Witch Burn! (1962: Also known as Night

of the Eagle) and Witches’ Brew (1980).13. Smug male academics also play an important role in Jack’s Wife.14. Leiber, p.9.15. Ibid., p.5.16. Ibid., p.12.17. Ibid., p.17.18. Ibid., p.23.19. Ibid., p.61.20. Ibid., p.63.21. Ibid., p.124.22. Herbie J. Pilato, Bewitched (Tapestry Press, 2004).23. Reprinted in The First Mayflower Book of Black Magic Stories, (ed.) Michael

Parry (Frogmore: Mayflower, 1974).24. Beaumont, p.132.25. Season 6, Episode 15. First shown on 7 March 1999.26. In an interesting contrast to her role in Bewitched, Montgomery would later

play the lead role in the made-for-television movie The Legend of Lizzie Borden(1975) based on the case of nineteenth-century New England’s most famousalleged murderess.

27. Gerard Jones, p.174.28. Marc, p.107.29. Ibid., p.109.30. Shirley Jackson also resided in Westport with her husband and young family

from 1949–59, before moving to the Vermont town of North Bennington,where she lived for the rest of her life.

31. See also the television show Mad Men (2007–) which is similarly about therelationship between a work-obsessed ad man and his frustrated wife.

32. Gerard Jones, pp.178–9.33. Ibid., p.77.34. Chafe, p.123.35. Clapson, p.125.36. Skolnick, p.57.

Notes 205

37. Patterson, p.361.38. Ibid., p.363.39. Chafe, p.123.40. Degler, p.418.41. Ibid., p.418.42. Chafe, p.125.43. Ibid., p.123.44. Patterson, p.368.45. Degler, p.423.46. Ibid., p.430.47. Ibid., p.430.48. Skolnick, p.102.49. Gerard Jones, p.177.50. Marc, p.113.51. Gerard Jones, p.179.52. Skolnick, p.51.53. Ibid., p.52.54. Indeed, I have come across just two critical discussions of the film, the better

of which is that by Tony Williams in his excellent book The Cinema of GeorgeA. Romero; the other by John Muir in his encyclopaedic Horror Movies of the1970s, pp.123–4.

55. These scenes feature the unmistakable stereotype of the 1970s suburbancocktail party – cheesy music, kaftans, stiff drinks, big hair, and innuendo-laden chit chat – also seen in contemporary texts such as The House NextDoor, The Stepford Wives, and The Exorcist, but also in nostalgic 1990s novelssuch as Rick Moody’s The Ice Storm.

56. Rather more recently, the ‘witchcraft as drug’ metaphor also became the basisfor an episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer (‘Wrecked’, Season 6, Episode 10),in which Willow becomes hopelessly addicted to the energies generated byforbidden magical practices.

57. John Muir, Horror Movies of the 1970s, p.124.58. In an interesting paper on Jack’s Wife delivered at the 2007 International

Gothic Association Conference in Aix-en-Provence, France, ChristopheChambost provided a rather more optimistic reading of the film in whichhe noted that the final scenes featured no men at all, and suggested thatJoan has actually attained freedom and independence after all, and thather actions would inspire other women to subvert social norms. However,I would argue that the terrible blankness seen in Joan’s eyes in the final shotcontradicts this interpretation.

59. Clapson, p.26.60. Ibid., p.26.61. Cited in Clapson, p.27.62. Skolnick, p.115.63. Purkiss, p.8.64. Bartel, p.xiv.65. Purkiss, p.39.66. Ibid., p.39.67. As it happens, the heroine (a young witch played by Nicole Kidman) ends up

in LA, and accidentally lands the role of the Samantha character in a new TV

206 Notes

version of the actual Bewitched show, only to find herself falling hopelessly inlove with her arrogant, pampered on-screen husband (Will Ferrell). As in thesimilarly dire Kidman-starring remake of The Stepford Wives, it is clear thatthe writers, having failed to find a satisfactory way to update a premise thatwas very much a product of its original time, settled for irony and clunky self-consciousness. Needless to say, it was not a box-office success. Kidman hasalso starred in a poorly received update of The Invasion of the Body Snatchersentitled The Invasion (2007).

68. For more on the cultural and commercial ramifications of the ‘teenagewitch’ phenomenon of the late 1990s, see Denise Cush’s article ‘ConsumerWitchcraft: Are Teenage Witches the Creation of Commercial Interests?’ inJournal of Beliefs and Values, Vol. 28, No.1, April 2007, pp.45–53.

69. In addition, in a move which aroused some controversy amongst local res-idents, a bronze statue of Elizabeth Montgomery as Samantha Stevens waserected in Salem by a television company in 2005.

70. ‘The Craft’, Stephen Holden, The New York Times, 3 May 1996.71. Sue Short, p.93.72. Ibid., p.38.

3 Aliens, Androids and Zombies: Dehumanisation and theSuburban Gothic

1. Donaldson, p.viii.2. Mumford, p.353.3. Shirley Jackson, ‘The Beautiful Stranger’ in Come Along With Me, p.59.4. Ibid., p.60.5. Ibid., p.64.6. Ibid., p.50.7. Ibid., p.65.8. Dominic Bourget and Laurie Whitehurst (2004) ‘Capgras Syndrome:

A Review of the Neuropsychological Correlates and Presenting PhysicalFeatures in Cases Involving Physical Violence’, The Canadian Journal ofPsychiatry, Vol. 49, No.11. pp.719–25.

9. Blakeslee and Ramachandran, p.159.10. Ibid., p.159.11. Streatfield, p.253.12. Marling, p.253.13. Ibid., p.253.14. Ibid., p.253.15. Quoted in Donaldson, p.10.16. Kenneth Jackson, p.239.17. Kenneth Jackson, pp.239–40.18. Gans, p.49.19. Shentin and Sobin, p.38.20. Sobchack, p.121.21. Ibid., p.20.22. For an amusing discussion of the suggestive similarities between Body

Snatchers and The Puppet Masters, see Robert Rodriguez’s tongue-in-cheek

Notes 207

1998 horror/science fiction film The Faculty. More recently, the 2005 com-edy/horror film Slither relies on much the same premise, this time set in yetanother small town.

23. In 1978, Philip Kaufman’s excellent updated remake/sequel to Invasion of theBody Snatchers, starring Donald Sutherland as Bennell (this time a city healthinspector rather than a doctor), was released. Set in San Francisco, the film’sconsiderable effectiveness is derived from the air of burgeoning unease andurban alienation that Kaufman establishes from the very outset. Whereas theoriginal film pivoted upon the manner in which familiar and everyday peo-ple and places suddenly seem to have changed, the remake instead focusesupon the isolation of urban living. The movie deserves to be considered asone of the best of the paranoid thrillers which were so popular during thistime. Leonard Nimoy, who here plays untrustworthy pop psychiatrist MannyKaufmann, also played an alien spokesman in 1958’s The Brain Eaters. BodySnatchers was also remade in the 1990s by Abel Ferrara, who set the film on anarmy base. Though inferior to both previous versions, the choice of settingand Ferrara’s highlighting of the regimented, repetitive and orderly natureof both military housing and of army life in general, is interesting, and doesfit in well with the ethos of the source novel. The most recent remake, TheInvasion (2007) situated the takeover in Washington DC and made frequentreference to the ongoing ‘war on terror’.

24. Finney, p.5.25. Whyte, p.269.26. Finney, p.10.27. Ibid., p.13.28. Ibid., p.16.29. Ibid., p.31.30. Jancovich, p.64.31. Richard Gid Powers, quoted in Stephen King, Danse Macabre, 1981, p.360.32. Finney, pp.38–9.33. Whyte, p.272.34. Finney, p.54.35. Ibid., p.70.36. Ibid., p.80.37. Ibid., p.97.38. Sobchack, p.125.39. King, p.362.40. The 1956 film version famously had two endings, neither of which followed

events as laid out in the original novel. The first ended with a bleak, morethematically fitting scene in which a desperate, hysterical Miles (here playedby Kevin McCarthy) escapes Santa Mira and runs towards the highway,screaming about what has taken place in his little town, (which, naturallyenough, makes him look like a madman). At the studio’s insistence, a slightlymore optimistic frame narrative was added to the beginning and the end ofthe film, concluding with the news that the FBI are on their way, and thatMiles’s unlikely story has finally been believed: once the feds are involved,the script seems to suggest, the alien invaders don’t have a chance. The1978 version once again reinstates a suitably bleak ending, whereas the 2007version sees the status quo restored by the end of the narrative.

208 Notes

41. Finney, p.170.42. Jancovich, p.73.43. Ibid., p.72.44. James, ‘New York Revisited’ in The American Scene, p.85.45. Finney, p.10.46. Jamie Russell, p.69.47. Whitfield, p.71.48. Gans, p.vii.49. Chafe, p.114.50. Patterson, p.334.51. Ibid., p.334.52. Avila, p.31.53. Williams, p.91.54. Beuka, p.174.55. Knight, p.118.56. Ibid., p.118.57. Friedan, p.264.58. Ibid., p.265.59. The de Beauvoir quotation is as follows: ‘Today the combat takes a differ-

ent shape; instead of wishing to put man in a prison, woman endeavoursto escape from one; she no longer seeks to drag him into the realms ofimmanence but to emerge, herself, into the light of transcendence. Now theattitude of males creates a new conflict: it is with bad grace that the male letsher go’. The Second Sex, p.675.

60. Ira Levin, The Stepford Wives, p.6.61. Paula Prentiss also came to a sticky end in another classic paranoid thriller

of the 1970s: Alan Pakula’s The Parallax View (1974).62. Levin, p.1.63. Ibid., p.16.64. Ibid., p.40.65. Texts which make overt the idea that suburbia is a stage or an artificial con-

struct include Philip K. Dick’s 1959 novel Time Out of Joint, in which a 1950ssuburban everyman who has the uncanny ability to win his local newspa-per’s ‘spot the ball’ competition every time he enters begins to realise thatall is not as it seems; and more recently, The Truman Show, which depicts theidyllic suburban town of ‘Seaview’ as a giant film set built around anotherunwitting everyman, the revealingly named ‘Truman Burbank’ (played byJim Carrey). Dick’s novel was also discussed at some length by Fredric Jame-son in the essay ‘Nostalgia for the Present’ in Postmodernism, or, the CulturalLogic of Late Capitalism, pp.279–96.

66. Levin, p.41.67. See also Larry Cohen’s It’s Alive trilogy (about a generation of infants mutated

by environmental pollutants) and 1970s creature features such as Grizzly,Prophecy and Piranha.

68. Levin, p.53.69. Ibid., p.54.70. Ibid., p.63.71. The link between Stepford and the advertising industry was ironically rein-

forced by the fact that director Brian Forbes’ wife, Nanette Newman, who

Notes 209

played Carol Van Sant, was from 1981–91 the public face of Fairy Liquiddetergent in a series of television advertisements which informed womenthat ‘hands that do dishes can be soft as your face’.

72. Knight, p.122.73. Friedan, p.202.74. Avila, p.113.75. Baudrillard, p.14.76. Beuka, p.177.77. Profound suburban alienation in a European setting has perhaps best been

captured in recent times by Austrian director Michael Haneke in films such asFunny Games (1997) (later remade as an American film), Benny’s Video (1992),Hidden (2005) and perhaps most strikingly in The Seventh Continent (1989), inwhich a middle-class family becomes so disenchanted by their meaningless,materialistic lives that they decide to commit suicide.

78. Since Safe, Moore has become the first lady of cinematic suburban alien-ation. She later returned to the soulless San Fernando valley for Paul ThomasAnderson’s sprawling 1999 epic Magnolia (in which she featured as a deeplyunhappy, pill-popping trophy wife), and reunited with Haynes to make FarFrom Heaven (2002), a sumptuous, knowing homage to the work of 1950smelodramatists like Douglas Sirk, in which she played a much-envied 1950shousewife whose apparently perfect life is shattered by the revelation thather husband is gay. In the same year, Moore also played a (by now unsur-prisingly) suicidal 1950s suburbanite in the Academy Award-winning filmThe Hours.

79. Beuka, p.183.

4 ‘You Son of a Bitch! You Only Moved the Headstones!’Haunted Suburbia

1. Matheson, Stir of Echoes, p.106.2. Bergland, p.60.3. Goddu, p.4.4. Anderson, p.9.5. Davenport-Hines, p.267.6. Franks, p.7.7. Faulkner, p.8.8. O’Connor, p.17.9. Ibid., p.7.

10. Malin, p.79.11. Bailey, p.71.12. King’s alter ego Richard Bachman has set a novel in a suburban setting: The

Regulators (1996), in which the peaceful, family-centred neighbourhood ofPoplar Street, Ohio suddenly erupts into chaos when the violent imaginingsof a demon-possessed autistic child come to life. The premise owes much toJerome Bixby’s classic SF/horror story ‘It’s a Good Life’ (1953).

13. A statement which ignores the fact that The Exorcist was based upon a real-life case as well.

14. Thomas, p.596.

210 Notes

15. For more on these allegations, see Rick Moran, ‘Amityville Revisited’, inFortean Times (190: 32–7, December 2004).

16. King, p.163.17. Anson, p.14.18. Ibid., p.17.19. See Amityville 1992: It’s About Time.20. Bailey, p.66.21. Michaels, ‘Romance and Real Estate’, p.89.22. Ibid., p.89.23. Skolnick, p.136.24. Cited in Skolnick, p.138.25. Skolnick, p.138.26. King, p.168.27. Skolnick, p.35.28. Chafe, p.465.29. Anson, p.30.30. Ibid., p.68.31. Ibid., p.36.32. Ibid., p.105.33. Ibid., p.80.34. Ibid., p.80.35. Or the overgrown garden of an antiquarian book dealer, in Joseph Payne

Brennan’s famous story “Canavan’s Back Yard” (1958). For more on suburbanentrances to hell, see Chapter 6.

36. Anson, p.128.37. Bergland, p.66.38. Ibid., p.9.39. Anson, p.139.40. Ibid., p.184.41. Siddons, 1978.42. Siddons, cited in Danse Macabre, p.306.43. Siddons, p.9.44. Holland-Toll, p.166.45. Bourdieu, p.77.46. Ibid., p.77.47. Siddons, p.18.48. Ibid., p.21.49. Ibid., p.21.50. Ibid., p.42.51. Ibid., p.42.52. Ibid., p.52.53. Ibid., p.90.54. Ibid., p.94.55. Ibid., p.96.56. Ibid., p.132.57. Ibid., p.140.58. Ibid., p.162.59. Bailey, p.80.60. Siddons, p.170.

Notes 211

61. Ibid., p.212.62. Bailey, p.81.63. Holland-Toll, p.33.64. Siddons, p.333.65. Ibid., p.340.66. Holland-Toll, p.170.67. King, p.30868. Bailey, p.83.69. Skolnick, p.130.70. The suburb’s Spanish name is a reminder of the fact that white history in

Southern California was preceded by an earlier, Hispanic phase of develop-ment (as was Sunnydale in Buffy the Vampire Slayer), and therefore foreshad-ows revelation of the fact that the new housing development is built on landwith a prior history of its own.

71. Nixon, pp.217–26.72. Newman, p.329.73. Stephen Spielberg was executive producer of Poltergeist, and also contributed

to the story: as a result, some critics long suggested that the film’s moresaccharine, child-related elements may have more to do with him than withthe actual director, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre’s Tobe Hooper. As Newmanhas noted, ‘Spielberg’s amused tolerance of suburban triviality jostles withHooper’s grouchy view of city slickers treading on the countryside’ (p.170).

74. Bailey, p.81.75. Clover, p.196.76. Burseh, ‘The Electronic Cyclops: Fifties Television’ in The Making of American

Audiences, From Stage to Television, 1750–1990, p.248.77. Coontz, p.28.78. Burseh, p.255.79. Ibid., pp.262, 263.80. Clover, p.73.81. Poltergeist 3, set this time in a shiny new city apartment block, and directed

by the once-promising Gary Sherman (who helmed classic London under-ground shocker Deathline and the interesting small-town horror movie Deadand Buried) is notable mainly for the tragic fact that 12-year-old HeatherO’Rourke (Carole Anne) died during the production. This, along with thefact that Dominique Dunne (Dana) was murdered shortly after the release ofthe original film, led some to speculate that a curse hung over the Poltergeistfilms. This didn’t prevent a largely unconnected and uninspiring televisionspin-off series (Poltergeist: The Legacy) from appearing in the 1990s with noapparent harm coming to either the cast or the crew.

82. Michaels, p.90.83. See Rome, 2001.84. Botting and Townsend, p.338.85. The scene is virtually identical to one found in A Nightmare on Elm Street

(1984).86. Barber, p.143.87. Indeed, many of the people to whom I have mentioned the film are under

the impression that the Freeling house was built on an Indian burial ground,rather than a much more recent rural cemetery (a fact attested to by the fact

212 Notes

that the corpses wear wristwatches and pearls and recognisably twentieth-century dress). A recent episode of Family Guy furthered this misconceptionin the episode ‘Petergeist’, a witty spoof of the movie in which idiotic sub-urbanite Peter Griffith deeply disrespects the skull of an Indian chief andbrings Poltergeist-style retribution into his home: his large-headed and freak-ishly intelligent infant son Stewie serves as surprisingly credible Carole Annestand-in.

88. Rogin, p.134 cited in Clover, 1973.

5 Don’t Go Down to the Basement! Serial Murder, FamilyValues and the Suburban Horror Film

1. I would like to thank Dr Elizabeth McCarthy for her helpful suggestions inrelation to this chapter.

2. Winter, p.27.3. Ibid., p.202.4. Phillips, p.65.5. Ibid., p.72.6. Ibid., p.4.7. Skal, p.378.8. Newman, 1989, p.90.9. Muir, 2002, p.538.

10. Stephen Jones, ‘E is for Escape’ in Clive Barker’s A–Z of Horror, pp.64–5.11. Newman, p.143.12. Quoted in Jones, p.65.13. Muir, The Films of John Carpenter, p.78.14. Worland, p.238.15. The name ‘Loomis’ is of course another wry nod to Psycho, and the fact that

Marion’s boyfriend is named Sam Loomis.16. Philips, p.141.17. Sue Short, 2006, p.53.18. Newman, p.55.19. The premise also owes much to Anthony Boucher’s 1943 story ‘They Bite’.20. Muir, 2002, p.65.21. Ibid., p.66.22. Wheatley, p.1.23. See Chapter 4 for more on television in the Suburban Gothic.24. Peach, p.113.25. School janitors are often depicted as alcoholics or potential child abusers in

American popular culture: see also Lucas Cross (Arthur Kennedy) in PeytonPlace or even Groundskeeper Willie in The Simpsons. The implication is thata working-class male who spends his days in a school must be up to no good.

26. Williams, p.228.27. See the 2008 film Mum and Dad for a notably English variation upon many

of the themes and scenarios depicted in The People Under the Stairs.28. Bachelard, p.18.29. Briefel and Nagai, pp.70–91.30. Ibid., p.71.

Notes 213

31. The name ‘Loomis’ of course evokes Sam Loomis in Psycho and Dr Loomis inHalloween.

32. The film has inspired some interesting knock-offs, such as a second-seasonepisode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer (‘Ted’), and bizarrely, the famous story arcin Coronation Street in which single mother Gail Platt married a briefcase-carrying psychopath named Richard Hillman whose obsessive, controllingand ultimately murderous behaviour bore more than a slight resemblance tothat of O’Quinn’s character.

33. Patricia Brett Erens, ‘The Stepfather: Father as Monster in the ContemporaryHorror Film’, in Grant 1996, pp.352–63.

34. Ibid., p.353.35. Jerry’s hobby brings to mind one of the running gags in the big screen ver-

sion of The Brady Bunch (1995): the fact that every building architect MikeBrady designs looks just like his own family home.

36. And indeed, the similarities didn’t go unnoticed by the rights holders ofCornell Woolrich’s 1942 story ‘It Had To Be Murder’ (basis for Rear Window),who decided to sue the producers of Disturbia (including Stephen Spielberg)in mid 2008.

37. This element of the film evokes the real-life case of prolific serial killer JohnWayne Gacy, who used the crawlspace of his suburban home to conceal thebodies of 27 boys and young men.

38. The film, which features many lurid shots of various meats, purposely evokesthe garish and, to modern eyes, often nauseatingly vivid aesthetic of 1950scookbooks and advertisements.

39. It’s the most disturbing dinner-table scene since that in The Texas Chain SawMassacre.

40. The ill-fated juror is played by Patricia Hearst, no stranger herself to mediaattention and high profile court cases.

41. Ballard, p.1.

6 ‘Ah, But Underneath . . .’ Buffy the Vampire Slayer andDesperate Housewives

1. I would like to thank my colleague, Dr Jenny McDonnell, for providing manyuseful insights during our discussions regarding the Desperate Housewivessection of this chapter.

2. It is also a sequence which has much in common with similar scenes inearlier Suburban Gothic texts such as Jack’s Wife and The Stepford Wives, inwhich the numbing routine of the middle-class housewife and mother iscommunicated through the depiction of everyday tasks.

3. Halper and Mezzio, p.543.4. Hereafter abbreviated to BTVS.5. Billson, p.44.6. Wheatley, p.8.7. Arson is a frequent occurrence in Desperate Housewives as well: in the pilot

episode, Susan Mayer accidentally burns down the home of her love rivalEdie Britt, a favour which is returned in episode 2: 21 ‘I Know Things Now’.Lynette Scavo’s sons burn down a restaurant (in a bid to save their parents’

214 Notes

marriage) during the fourth season episode ‘Hello, Little Girl’ (4: 13). A majorcharacter also commits arson in the fifth season episode ‘City on Fire’. Simi-larly, The House Next Door ends just as Colquitt and Walter Kennedy prepareto burn the malign home next to theirs to the ground, and in the third sea-son finale of Weeds, Nancy Botwin, as previously noted, sets fire to her ownhouse.

8. Famously, an episode of animated rival South Park accounted for theshow’s unique narrative style by suggesting that Family Guy was in factmasterminded by trained manatees who chose storylines and joke topics atrandom.

9. Havens, p.21.10. Boyd Tonkin, ‘Entropy as Demon: Buffy in Southern California’ in Kaveney,

2002, p.42.11. Billson, p.69.12. Ibid., p.66.13. http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/08/12/what-is-the-future-of-

suburbia-a-freakonomics-quorum/ Accessed 12 August 2008.14. Bernard Wieinraub, 2004.15. Henry D. Thoreau, Walden. The quotation is directly referenced in the pilot,

in the scene in which Susan recalls her philandering husband Karl saying‘You know Susan, most men lead lives of quiet desperation’ when justifyingan extramarital affair, to which she responds ‘Really? And what do mostwomen lead? Lives of noisy fulfilment?’

16. Rosalind Coward, ‘Still Desperate: Popular Television and the FemaleZeitgeist’, in McCabe and Arkass, 2006, p.31.

17. Indeed, Rex Van De Kamp says all of the following to his wife Bree duringthe pilot: ‘You’re the one who’s always acting like she’s running for Mayorof Stepford!’; ‘I just can’t live in this detergent commercial anymore’; and‘You’re this plastic suburban housewife.’

18. Season 1, episode 8, first broadcast 28 November 2004.19. Wheatley, p.3.20. http://www.thestudiotour.com/ush/backlot/street_colonial.shtml, Accessed

20 June 2008.21. ‘A Walk Down Wisteria Lane’ DVD Extra, Desperate Housewives: The First

Season (Buena Visa Home Entertainment, 2005).22. See, for example, Thomas, Evany, ‘The Good of the Group’ in Watson,

2006.23. ‘Suburban Gothic’, The New York Times, Arts: Television, 28 November

2004.24. Putnam, p.210.25. Donaldson, p.10.26. Becky Nicolaides, ‘How Hell moved from the City to the Suburbs: Urban

Scholars and Changing Perceptions of Authentic Community’ in Kruse andSugrue, 2006, pp.80–99.

27. Ibid., p.97.28. In a widely reported speech made at a White House Correspondents’ dinner

in May 2005.

Notes 215

Conclusion: The End of Suburbia?

1. Deffeyes, p.1.2. Puentes and Warren, p.1.3. Short, Hanlon and Vicino, pp.1–16.4. Short, Hanlon and Vicino, p.6. For more on the decline of the first suburbs,

see also Puentes and Warren.5. See Puentes and Warren for more on the decline of the ‘first’ suburbs.6. Kunstler, 2005, p.1.7. Ibid., p.291.8. Heiman, pp.213–26.9. The peaking of oil production does not mean that oil is running out, per se;

rather, it refers to the maximum oil production rate, which typically occursafter roughly half of the recoverable oil in an oil field has been produced.After this point, the remaining oil becomes increasingly difficult to recoverand to process, and thus becomes all the more difficult to obtain, andcorrespondingly more expensive (Hirsch, 2005, p.2).

10. Hirsch, p.2.11. On 11 July 2008.12. ‘Stiff Petrol Prices Drain Wealth in US Suburbia’ Rich Miller and Matthew

Benjamin, Business Report, 12 June 2008.13. Gretchen Morgenson, ‘FAIR GAME; Home Loans: A Nightmare Grows

Darker’. The New York Times, 8 April 2007. Accessed 15 August 2008.14. ‘Dropping A Brick’, The Economist, 29 May 2008.15. Rupert Cornwell, ‘The Ominous Sound of Jingle Mail: The Death of the

American Suburbs’, The Independent, Monday, 4 August 2008. As Cornwellexplains, homeowners in the United States are able to walk away due toa Depression-era law which makes it difficult for banks to chase borrowersfor an unpaid mortgage loan. ‘The result is a temporary hit to their creditrating . . . but in the end the slate is wiped clean’.

16. Lewicki, p.5.17. Martin and Savoy, p.175.

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Filmography

American Beauty (Sam Mendes, 1999)The Amityville Horror (Stuart Rosenberg, 1979)The Amityville Horror (Andrew Douglas, 2005)Bell, Book and Candle (Richard Quine, 1958)Benny’s Video (Michael Haneke, 1992)Bewitched (Nora Ephron, 2005)The Blair Witch Project (Daniel Myerick and Eduardo Sanchez, 1999)Blue Velvet (David Lynch, 1986)Body Snatchers (Abel Ferrara, 1994)The Brain Eaters (Bruno VeSota, 1958)The Brain from the Planet Arous (Nathan Juran, 1957)The ’Burbs (Joe Dante, 1989)Buffy the Vampire Slayer (Fran Rubel Kuzui, 1992)Burn Witch Burn (Sidney Hayers, 1962)Carrie (Brian De Palma, 1976)Chiller (Wes Craven, 1985)City of the Dead (John Llewellyn Moxey, 1960)The Craft (Andrew Fleming, 1996)The Crazies (George Romero, 1973)Dawn of the Dead (George Romero, 1978)Dawn of the Dead (Zac Snyder, 2004)Day of the Dead (George Romero, 1985)Deadly Friend (Wes Craven, 1986)Disturbia (D.J. Caruso, 2007)Edward Scissorhands (Tim Burton, 1990)The Exorcist (William Friedkin, 1973)The Faculty (Robert Rodriguez, 1998)Fido (Andrew Currie, 2006)Funny Games (Michael Haneke, 1997)Ginger Snaps (John Fawcett, 2000)Halloween (John Carpenter, 1978)Halloween (Rob Zombie, 2007)The Hamiltons (Michael Altieri and Phil Flores, 2006)Head Case (Anthony Spadaccini, 2007)Hidden (Michael Haneke, 2005)The Hills Have Eyes (Wes Craven, 1977)I Am Legend (Francis Lawrence, 2007)I Married a Monster From Outer Space (Gene Fowler, 1958)I Married a Witch (Rene Clair, 1942)The Innocents (Jack Clayton, 1963)Invaders From Mars (William Cameron Menzies, 1953)The Invasion (Oliver Hirschbiegel, 2007)Invasion of the Bodysnatchers (Don Siegel, 1956)

222

Filmography 223

Invasion of the Bodysnatchers (Philip Kaufman, 1978)Invitation to Hell (Wes Craven, 1984)It Came from Outer Space (Jack Arnold, 1953)Jack’s Wife (George Romero, 1972)Land of the Dead (George Romero, 2005)The Last House on the Left (Wes Craven, 1972)The Last Man on Earth (Sidney Salkow and Ubaldo Ragona, 1964)Monster House (Gil Kenan, 2006)Night of the Living Dead (George Romero, 1968)A Nightmare on Elm Street (Wes Craven, 1984)The Omega Man (Boris Sagal, 1971)Parents (Bob Balaban, 1989)The People Under the Stairs (Wes Craven, 1991)Poltergeist (Tobe Hooper, 1982)Practical Magic (Griffin Dunne, 1998)Psycho (Alfred Hitchcock, 1960)Rabid (David Cronenberg, 1977)Rear Window (Alfred Hitchcock, 1954)[REC] (Jaume Balaguero and Paco Plaza, 2007)Red Eye (Wes Craven, 2005)Revenge of the Stepford Wives (Robert Fuest, 1980)Right at Your Door (Chris Gorak, 2006)Rosemary’s Baby (Roman Polanski, 1968)Safe (Todd Haynes, 1995)Scream (Wes Craven, 1996)Serial Mom (John Waters, 1994)The Seventh Continent (Michael Haneke, 1989)The Shining (Stanley Kubrick, 1980)Shocker (Wes Craven, 1989)The Silence of the Lambs (Jonathan Demme, 1991)Slither (John Axelrad, 2005)The Stepfather (Joseph Rubin, 1987)The Stepford Children (Alan J. Levi, 1987)The Stepford Husbands (Fred Walton, 1996)The Stepford Wives (Brian Forbes, 1975)The Stepford Wives (Frank Oz, 2004)Stir of Echoes (David Koepp, 1999)Targets (Peter Bogdanovich, 1968)Terror Tract (Lawrence W. Dreesen and Clint Hutchison, 2000)The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (Tobe Hooper, 1974)Weird Woman (Reginald Le Borg, 1944)Westworld (Michael Crichton, 1973)Witches’ Brew (Richard Shorr and Herbert L. Strock, 1980)

Index

Absalom, Absalom! 107, 162Abuse

of children, 35, 126, 131, 151of spouse, 189

Academics, smug, 44, 59Addams, Charles, 50Addam’s Family, The, 50Adultery, 123, 171, 188Advertising, significance of in

Desperate Housewives, 184The House Next Door, 158Mad Men, 171The Stepford Wives, 95–7, 99, 208n71

Agrestic, CA, 169AIDS

Safe as allegory for, 101Alcoholism, 30, 153Alienation, 209n77All That Heaven Allows, 90American Beauty, 13, 134, 167American Dreamscape, 12American Gothic: New Interventions in a

National Narrative, 12American gothic, the

adaptations from European gothictradition, 105–6

association with specificgeographical regions, 10–11, 38

early establishment anddevelopment, 9–10

focus upon the family as locus ofhorror, 136

new American gothic, 107–8American Scene, The, 84Amityville Horror, The (book) 109–16

as economic horror story, 110verifiable facts of the case, 110

Amityville Horror, The (film versions),105, 110

Angel (TV show), 175, 177, 177–8Anson, Jay, 13, 105, 116–32,

210n17–18, 210n29–37

penchant for excessive use ofexclamation marks, 114

Anti-Semitism, 22, 123–4, 202n20Aorta, Mr, 104, 111Apocalypse

apocalyptic strain in Americanliterary culture, 198

in BTVS 174, 184, 191, 213n7in I Am Legend, 27

Apt Pupil, 167‘Arcadia’, 48Architects

haunted, 120, 122, 125, 182Arson, 170, 174, 184, 191, 213n7Arthur Mervyn, 10Association, The, 48Atlanta, 117Austin, Steve, 91Avila, Eric, 32, 203n52, 208n52,

209n74

Baby boom, 6, 116, 142Bachelard, Gaston, 155–6, 212n28Bachman, Richard, 209n12Bacon, Kevin, 203n60Bad Place (King), 109Bailey, Dale, 111, 209n11, 210n59,

211n62, n74Bailey, Sarah, 66Baker, Dylan, 90Balaban, Bob, 160–1Ballard, J.G. 165, 215n41Bankruptcy, spectre of in Suburban

Gothic, 112–13Barber, Paul, 152, 211n84Bartel, Pauline, 205n64‘Bart’s Comet’, 29Basements, 155, 157, 163

as bomb shelter, 29burial ground, 38prison, 154

Bates house, motel, 137–9Bates, Norman, 137–9, 164

224

Index 225

Battlestar Galactica, (original series), 91Baudrillard, Jean, 98, 209n75Baumgartner, M.P., 188Baxendall, Elizabeth, 12Beane, Sawney, 148Beards

growth of as sign of depression, 31of looming madness, 113–14

Beaumont, Charles‘Free Dirt’, 104‘The New People’, 47–8as writer for The Twilight Zone, 130

‘Beautiful Stranger, The’ 69, 71–2,206n3–7

Bell, Book and Candle, 40, 43Bennell, Miles, 77–85Bergland, Renee, 115, 209n2, 210n37Berne, Suzanne, 152Beuka, Robert, 3, 11–12, 15, 103,

201n3, 208n45Bewitched, 11–12, 40, 43–57, 65,

67, 190conformity in, 50, 51, 55Cousin Serena, 56film adaptation, 205n67‘I Darrin take this Witch’, 49as ‘magic’ sitcom, 50original title, 50‘phoniness’ of, 54–5as racial allegory, 49

Big Love, 169Billson, Anne, 168, 213n5, 214n11–12Bionic Woman, The, 91Bixby, Jerome, 209n12Blackwood, Merrricat, 22Blair, Linda, 150Blair Witch Project, The, 42, 66Blake, Jerry, 106, 157–8, 163Blakeslee, Sandra, 206n9–10Blatty, William Peter, 108Blind Ballots, The, 9Bloch, Robert, 137Bloodstains, suspicious, 47Blue Velvet, 42, 66Bodily functions and 1970s horror,

114, 124, 131Body-replacement narratives, 76Bogdanovich Peter, 13, 137, 139Bogeymen, suburban, 146

Bomb shelters and suburbia, 28–30Book of the Dead, 85Boomburbs, 195Borden, Lizzie, 204n26Boreanaz, David, 177‘Born of Man and Woman’, 17Botting, Fred, 211n84Boucher, Anthony, 212n19Boundaries, significance in Jackson,

202n30Bourdieu, Pierre, 118Bowling Alone, 118Boy-next-door-turned-madman trope,

136, 139–41, 143, 146, 164Brackett, Sheriff, 145Bradbury, Ray, 17, 28Brady Bunch, The (film), 213n35Brady Bunch, The (TV Show), 157Brain Eaters, The, 76Brain From the Planet Arous, The

(1953), 76Brainwashing, 55, 73Brecht, Kyle, 160Brennan, Joseph Payne, 210n35Briefel, Aviva, 156, 212n29–30Brown, Charles Brockden, 10, 38,

106–7, 165Buffy the Vampire Slayer, 173–81

academic interest in, 173‘Buffy vs Dracula’, 179climax of series, 166–7economic realism, 180European origins of supernatural

entities in show, 177–8film version, 174Hellmouth, 175, 178hybrid nature, 168–9Mayor Wilkins, 176–7‘Pangs’, 177‘The Prom’, 179Summers house as microcosm of

Sunnydale 179–80teenage friendship in, 189witchcraft in, 64, 66

Buffybot, 180Bulldozer in the Countryside, The, 4, 131Bulldozers, 128, 131Bullying, in The Road Through the

Wall, 22

226 Index

Burbs, The, 132–3, 135, 187Burial grounds

in The Amityville Horror, 115in BTVS, 177Indian, 104, 114, 125, 138lack of in Desperate Housewives, 182Poltergeist, 127, 131, 132

Burlingame, CA, 19–21Burnham, Lester, 134Burnt Offerings, 108–9, 120Burton, Tim, 164Bush, George and Laura, 191Bush, George Senior, 154

Cabrillo, San Francisco, 19California, 19, 35, 100, 137, 167, 169Cambridge Companion to Gothic

Literature, The, 12‘Canavan’s Back Yard’, 210n35Candyman, 156, 86Cannibalism

in Parents, 160–1The People Under the Stairs, 154–5

Capgras syndrome, 72–3, 206n8Carpenter, John, 11, 13, 137, 142–6Carrie, 203n7Carter, Jimmy, 111–12Catholicism

in Jack’s Wife, 60Chafe, William S. 53, 201n5, 204n34,

205n39, n42–3, 208n49Chambost, Christophe, 205n58Charmed, 41, 63, 65–6, 127Cheever, John, 22, 172, 188Cherry, Marc, 166, 182–3, 187–8Chihuahua’s head, no bigger than, 29Children

under threat, 2, 22–3, 112–13,133–14

Chiller, 150–1City in History, The, 7, 20City of the Dead, 42Civil defence, 28Clapson, Mark, 5, 61, 201n2, n4, n15,

n18, 204n35, 205n59, 61Class in the Suburban Gothic, 22,

118–19, 123, 125, 152, 155Clayton, Jack, 145Clergy, 113–14, 130

Close, Glen, 100Clover, Carol J, 128–9, 174,

211n75, n80Cohen, Larry, 208n67Cold War anxieties and the Suburban

Gothic, 69, 73, 149Collier’s Magazine, 199Collingwood, John and Estelle, 147–8Colonial-era rhetoric

applied to suburbia in Eisenhowerera, 10

Colonial Street (Universal Studiosback lot), 187

‘Comfortable concentration camp,the’, 9

Commentary, critical, on suburbia,see 2, 7–9, 15, 18, 25, 69, 190–1

Community relationspost-apocalyptic, 155

Commuting patterns, 139, 141Compton, 32Coneheads, 164Conformity, 2, 7, 15, 50–1, 69, 83Conjure Wife, 12, 43–7, 49, 68

film adaptations, 204n12Connecticut, 50, 109Connolly, Billy, 90Conspicuous consumption, 86–7, 161Consumerism, mindless, 74Containment culture, 25Coronation Street, 213n32Cortman, Ben, 30, 35Couch – mistaken delivery of as

trigger for existential crisis,101, 166

Country clubs:as entrance to hell, 20, 151

Couples, 9Coven

as female self-help group, 63Crack in the Picture Window, The, 7,

70, 74Craft, The, 41, 56, 66Crane, Marion, 138–9Craven, Wes, 2, 13, 51, 113, 146–57,

150–1, 160Crawlspaces

as repository for bodies, 133–4, 155,213n37

Index 227

Crazies, The, 57, 203n44Creature-Features, 76Creed, Barbara, 204n7Crichton, Michael, 91Cronenberg, David, 202n44Cross, Marcia, 183Cuesta Verde, 126, 131, 211n70Currie, Andrew, 2, 89, 91Curtis, Jamie Lee, 144Cyborgs, in 1970s pop culture, 91

Danse Macabre, 12, 82, 109Dante, Joe, 175Davenport, Richard Hines, 209n5Dawn of the Dead, 86, 87

similarity to ending of The StepfordWives, 88

2004 remake, 88–9Day of the Dead, 52Day, Doris, 52Dead and Buried, 211n81Deathline, 211n81De Beauvoir, Simone, 92, 208n59DeFeo, Ronnie, 106, 110Deffeyes, Kenneth, 193, 215n1Degler, Carl, 53–4, 205n45–7Dehumanisation and the Suburban

Gothic, 69–104in Conjure Wife, 46,

Demographic changes caused bysuburban expansion, 61

Demonic rituals, 60Desmond, Caroline, 21, 24, 35Desperate Housewives, 181–91

academic interest in, 171, 173arson, extraordinarily common

occurrence of in the show, 184,186–7, 213n7

insularity in, 188narration, 134pilot episode, 166Psycho connection, 137‘real life’ inspiration, 182relative avoidance of real-world

issues, 191setting, 11, 13soap opera tropes in, 168–9Stepford references, 214n17Twin Peaks, influence of, 184–5

Dick, Philip K., 91, 208n65Dinner scenes, disturbing

in Last House in the Left, 148Parents, 213n39The Texas Chain Saw Massacre

213n39Dirt, graveyard, 44, 104Disney, Walt, 98Disneyland

as simulation (Baudrillard), 98Distinction, 118Disturbia

phrase coined by Gunther andGans, 1, 8

2007 film, 160, 165, 213n39Disturbing Behaviour, 99DIY and the Suburban Gothic

Amityville, 111in I Am Legend, 30

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? 91Dogs

deaths of in The House Next Door,120, Halloween, 145

vomiting canines, 114Domestic ideology

media ‘collusion’ in creationof, 53–4

on verge of collapse, 52–3Donaldson, Scott, 9, 15, 20, 73, 75,

201n10, n12, n18, 206n14, 15, 25Donaldson, Todd, 23, 24Doppelgangers, 72, 185Doubles, dark, and witches, 56–7, 79Dougherty, Kim, 120, 122, 125Dracula, 11, 42Draper, Don, 171Driscoll, Becky, 78Drone, John and Mary, 7, 74, 76, 190Drug dealing, 58, 169Dunne, Dominique, 211n81Dystopian visions of suburbia, 199Dziemianowicz, Stefan, 201n4

Eagle State, 11Earthquakes

in Buffy The Vampire Slayer, 175Eberhart, Joanna, Walter, 93, 94,

99–102

228 Index

Economic anxieties and the SuburbanGothic, 109, 112, 115, 118, 128,141, 180, 197

Eden, fallen in Road, 26Edgar Huntly, 10Edge City: Life on the New Frontier, 12,

92, 194Edward Scissorhands, 164Eisenhower, Dwight D., 10, 28–9Ellis Island, 84Ellison, Harlan, 145Emge, David, 87End of Suburbia, The, 195Entrapment, financial, 33, 139,

154, 171Environmental concerns and the

Suburban Gothic, 4, 96, 131, 163,194, 198

Ephron, Nora, 64Erens, Patricia Brett, 159–60,

213n33–4Etiquette, breaches of, 121, 162Eugenidies, Jeffrey, 13European gothic, 10, 105Ewen, Elizabeth, 12Exorcist, The, 67, 108, 113–14, 150,

168, 209n12Expanding Suburbia, 12Exurbs, 193

Faculty, The, 206n22Faculty wives

as witches in Conjure Wife, 45–7Fakery (fake bakery), 170Fairview

in Desperate Housewives andPsycho, 137

Fairy Liquid detergent, 208n71‘Fall of the House of Usher, The’, 106‘Fallen Eden in Shirley Jackson’s The

Road Through the Wall’, 202n32Family, claustrophobic focus on in

Suburban Gothic, 105–6, 112–13,136, 147

Family Guy; Poltergeist spoof, 214n8Family values, conservative, 150,

158–9, 165Fantasy sitcoms of the 1960s, 50Far From Heaven, 89, 209n78

Faulkner, William, 10, 38, 107, 117,136, 162, 165, 209n7

Fembots, 55, 91Feminine Mystique, The, 9, 52,

on advertising industry, 97as conspiracy theory, 97references to in Desperate

Housewives, 182use of metaphor, 93

Fences, white picket, 166FHA (Federal Housing

Administration), 32Fido, 2, 13, 70, 89–91, 160,Fiedler, Leslie, 9, 201n16Final girls, 144–5, 153, 173–4Finney, Jack, 13, 46, 69, 76, 77, 85,

207n24–9, n32, n34–7,208n41, n45

Flanders, Ned, 29Fleming, Andrew, 66Floating Dragon, 109Forbes, Brian, 50, 208n71Ford, Richard, 15Foree, Ken, 87Forests, 148, 199Fortress, suburban home as, 28,

29, 155–6Frankenstein, 18, 42, 164Franks, Fred S., 209n6‘Free Dirt’, 104Freeling, Carole Anne, Dana, Diane,

Robbie, Steve, 127–33Friedan, Betty, 9, 52, 62, 92–3, 99, 182,

208n57–8, 209n73Friedman, Lenemaja, 18, 201n7, n9,

202n22, n18

Gacy, John Wayne, 213n37Gali, Eva, 109Gans, Herbert, 9, 12, 61, 75, 86,

206n18, 208n48Garreau, Joel, 12, 194, 201n14,

201n1Gated suburbs, 91, 100Gein, Ed, 137, 142Gellar, Sarah Michelle, 174Generation of Vipers, A, 52Genovese, Kitty, 145Geography of Nowhere, The, 194

Index 229

Geography and the Suburban Gothic,10–11, 172–3

Ghosts, suburban, 35–7, 134, 116–35G.I. Bill, 5–6Ginger Snaps, 164Goddu, Theresa, 209n3Gordon, Richard and Katharine, 8–9,

191, 198Gossip, 124Gothic, American, see ‘American

gothic’Gothic, European, see ‘European

gothic’Gothic, Southern, see ‘Southern

gothic’Gothic, Suburban, definitions, see

‘Suburban Gothic’Green zone in Fido, Baghdad, 91Greene, Gregory, 195Guidance counsellors, doomed

in Parents, 162in The Stepfather, 159,

Gulf War, 1991, 154Gunther, Max, 8–9

Haddonfield, Illinois, 145, 176Hall, Joan Wylie, 18–19, 202n32Halliburton, 90Halliwell sisters (Charmed), 67Halloween (1978), 11, 13, 135, 137,

142, 150, 174, 190absence of adults in, 145setting, 143, 155

Halloween (2007), 142Hamiltons, The, 164Hamm, John, 171Haneke, Michael, 209n77Hanks, Tom, 133Happiness, 167Hatcher, Teri, 184Hattenhauer, Darryl, 18Hauer, Rutger, 174Haunting of Hill House, The, 17, 108,

120, 130Hauntings, dubious (see also The

Amityville Horror)Hauntings, suburban, 17, 26,

104–35, 190

contrasted with ‘traditional’haunted houses, 116

economic factors contributingto, 109

material consequences of,115–16, 118

media attention, 116–17and stolen land, 111, 1151970s haunted houses, 116–27

Hawthorne, Nathaniel, 38, 42,106

Haynes, Todd, 13, 61, 100, 166,209n78

Head Case, 163, 165Hearst, Patricia, 213n40Hell House, 39, 116Hell mouths, suburban, 132, 151,

167–8, 174–8Hepburn, Katherine, 53Hess, David, 147Hidden (aka Cache), 209n77Hills Have Eyes, The, 148–9, 165Hispanic origins of Californian

suburbs, 176, 211n70Hitchcock, Alfred, 135–7, 187

Alfred Hitchcock Presents, 150Hoffman, Alice, 56, 63Hogle, Jerome, 12Holland-Toll, Linda, 123–4, 126Holmes, A.M., 13Homeland Security, 157Homosexuality, 121, 126Hooper, Tobe, 211n73Horror and the everyday, 27–31Horror films, American, 136–65Horror, post-war, 15–16, 27, 38–9, 47,

109, 137, 141Hours, The, 209n78House Next Door, The, 1, 4, 11, 12, 13,

35, 105, 114, 116–27, 144, 158,176, 204n55

alternate interpretations ofnarrative, 126

cause of haunting, 125, 134class and privilege in, 118–19as fictional analogue to Amityville,

118narcissism in, 119social ostracism in, 124–5

230 Index

House Next Door, The – continuedsocial taboos in, 126–7violation of etiquette, 121

House of the Seven Gables, The, 106Houses

disputed ownership of, 111in the new American gothic, 107rundown, 144standardised housing, 74

Housewives, trapped, 62, 133, 171Housework, 166

and perfectionism, 95–6Hubbert, M. King, 196Hurt, Mary Beth, 160Hypnosis, 35–6Hysteria, mass, 79

I Am Legend, (2007 film), 28, 33I Am Legend (1954 novel), 2, 12,

27–35, 149, 156beards in, 31celibacy in, 30DIY, 50importance of routine in, 31influence on Romero, 85misogyny in, 35racial subtexts, 32–3

I Dream of Jeannie, 56I Married A Monster From Outer

Space, 76I Married A Witch, 40, 43Ice Storm, The, 167Illinois, 11, 142Incest, 155, 148–9Indians, see also burial groundsInfantilism, 140Innocents, The, 145Insularity in the Suburban Gothic,

119, 123, 130, 188, 190Invaders From Mars, 76Invasion, The, 207n23Invasion of the Body Snatchers, 13, 46,

69, 77–85, 103, 202n37, 207n40Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978

film), 207n23Invitation to Hell, 151, 175IT, 109It Came From Outer Space, 76It’s Alive!, 208n67

Jack’s Wife, 40, 57–63, 171, 205n58alternate titles, 57, 211n67as horror film, 61, 210n16, n26opening scenes, 59Safe comparison, 101

Jackson, Kenneth, 9, 201n15,206n16–17

Jackson, Shirley, 10, 12, 42, 130, 136,152, 202n17, n19, n21, n24, n25,206n3–7

‘The Beautiful Stranger’, 69Californian origins, 20, 21The Haunting of Hill House, 17Houses in Jackson’s work, 18,

26, 108‘The Lottery’, 17residence in Westport, CT,

204n30The Road Through the Wall, 15–27The Sundial, 19We Have Always Lived in the Castle,

18, 42Jacobs, Jane, 191James, Henry, 108, 208n44Jameson, Fredric, 208n65Jancovich, Mark, 17, 79, 83, 201n6,

202n46, 208n42Janitors, school, 152, 212n25Jaws, 143‘Jingle mail’, 197, 215n15Jones, Gerard, 51, 56, 204n27, n29,

n32Jones, January, 171Joshi, S.T., 201n1Jurca, Catherine S., 15Just a Housewife, 52

Karp, David, 9Karras, Fr. Damian, 113Kaufman, Philip, 207n23Keats, John, 7, 12–13, 70, 74, 92, 190,

198, 201n10, n11Kelly, Tim, 139Kennedy, Colquitt, Walter, 1,

117–28Kennedy, John Fitzgerald,

assassination of, 141Khatchadourian, Kevin, 139

Index 231

Kidman, Nicolepropensity for appearing in dire

remakes, 206n67, see alsoBewitched, The Stepford Wivesand The Invasion

King, Stephen, 2, 10, 12–13, 15, 17,82, 109, 115, 207n31, n39

as Richard Bachman, 209n12on The Amityville Horror, 110, 112on The House Down the Street, 165

Kinkle, Harvey, 66Kiss Before Dying, A, 91Knight, Peter, 92, 97, 208n55–6,

209n72Knots Landing, 168Korean War, 171Krueger, Freddy, 152–3Kunstler, James Howard, 8, 181,

194–8, 215n6, n7Kuzui, Fran Rubel, 174

Laemle, Nick, Lily and Michael, 160–1Lake, Ricky, 162Lake, Veronica, 43Land of the Dead, 87Landlords, evil, 153–4Lassie, 89Last House on the Left, The (1972), 13,

147–8, 165Last Man on Earth, The, 28, 85Leave it to Beaver, 157–8Leave Me Alone, 9Legend of Lizzie Borden, The, 204n26Leiber, Fritz, 12, 40, 43–4, 204n14–21Levin, Ira, 13, 46, 55, 70, 91–2, 99,

108, 180, 208n60, n63, n64, n66,n68–70

Levitt, William, 6Levittown, 6, 73Levittowners, The, 61, 75, 86Little, Bentley, 48Little Children, 152Long Emergency, The, 8Long Island, 108–9

as locale for suspiciously cheaphouses, 111

Longoria, Eva, 183Loomis, Dr Sam, Billy,Los Angeles, 28, 66, 174

‘Lottery, The’ (1948)Love and Death in the American Novel, 9Lovecraft, H.P., 10, 15, 27, 38Lovely Bones, The, 13, 133–4, 152Lutz, George and Kathy, 110–16,

118, 127Lynch, David, 184–5Lynch mobs in the Suburban Gothic,

202n23, see also Vigilantes

Mad Men, 171–2Magazines

enforcing domestic ideology, 53, 98Magic

black, 48 as metaphor, 45, 58, 190,205n56

use of by suburban witches, 45,Magnolia, 209n78Mai-Lai massacre, 147‘Main Street USA’ (Disneyland), 9Malin, Irving, 107, 209n11Malls, establishment of in post-war

era, 87, 98Manhunter, 164Manifest Destiny, 10Mann, George, 9Mansfield, Jane, 52Manufactured obsolescence, 86Marasco, Robert, 108–9March, Fredric, 43Markowe, Bobbie, 93–9Martinson, Tom, 12Masculinity

in crisis, 4, 30, 34–5, 134Mass murder, 139–41Mass production and prefabrication

techniques, 6, 74Massachusetts, 65, 124Massacres, family, 106, 110, 140, 158Materialism and the Suburban Gothic,

111, 115–16, 138, 170–1, 183Matheson, Richard, 2, 10, 12, 15, 17,

27, 33, 39, 108, 130, 136–7, 156,188, 201n17, 202n45, 49, 51–64,n67–76

Matthews, Glenna, 40, 52Mayer, Susan, 183Mazzard, Ike, 98McCarthy, Elizabeth, 212n1

232 Index

McCullers, Carson, 10, 38McDonnell, Jenny, 213n1McLachlan, Kyle, 185Meat Loaf Mambo, 160Meet the Applegates, 164Menzies, William Cameron, 76Mezzio, Douglas, 167, 213n3Michasiw, Kim Ian, 12Misanthropy, 25Misogyny

in I Am Legend, 35in Stir of Echoes, 37in Matheson generally, 52

Mitchell, Joan, 57–63‘Momism’, 52Monroe, Marilyn, 52Monster House, 13, 133Montgomery, Elizabeth, 49, 56,

204n26, 206n69Moore, Julianne, 100

as first lady of cinematic suburbanalienation, 209n78

Moorhead, Agnes, 49Mormonism, 169Mortgages

easy availability of in post-war era, 6sub-prime mortgage crisis of

2008–9, 197Moss, Carrie Anne, 90, 160Motels, 132, 137–9Mothers, single, 158–60, 179Move to suburbia, 174, 94, 190Mr Ed, 50, 158Muir, John, 61, 143, 149–50, 205n57Mulder, Fox, 48, 178Mum and Dad, 212n27Mumford, Lewis, 7–8, 12–13, 20, 70,

92, 191, 198, 201n13, 206n2Munsters, The, 50, 187Mutants, mutation, 17My Mother the Car, 50Myers, Michael, 135, 142–3, 151, 176

Nagai, Sianna, 156Narcissism, 116, 119, 127Narration, from beyond the

grave, 134–5Neighbourhood rivalries

in I Am Legend, 30–1

Neighbours, indifferentin Halloween, 132,in Poltergeist, 146

Neighbours, nosy, 49Nelson, Craig T., 3Neville, Robert, 27–34, 56, 82, 148New England, 1, 28, 41, 65, 105Newman, Kim, 127, 141, 148, 202n41,

211n72, 212n8Newman, Nanette, 208n71Newness, and the Suburban Gothic, 1,

10, 36, 128Nicolaides, Becky, 191, 214n26Night of the Living Dead, 28, 58, 85, 89,

136, 142Nightmare on Elm Street, A, 13, 150–3,

155–6, 165, 176, 190Nimoy, Leonard, 207n23

Oakes, Guy, 28, 203n38Oates, Joyce Carol, 13O’Connor, Flannery, 10, 38, 107, 118,

139, 209n8, n9Oil

cheap oil as an aid to suburbangrowth, 87

crisis of the 1970s, 112, 138, 191,196–7, 215n9

crisis of 2008, 193peak oil, 193, 196–7

Omega Man, The, 28Oppenheimer, Judy, 25–6, 201n12,

202n28–9, n31O’Quinn, Terry, 157Organisation Man, The, 22, 28, 70, 78–9Orlock, Byron, 139–41O’Rourke, Heather, 211n81Overlook Hotel, 109Oz, Frank, 100

Paedophiles and the Suburban Gothic,131, 151–3, 187, 190

Palmer, Laura, 184Paranoia, 78, 97Parapsychology, 113, 125, 130Parent/child relationships, 136–66Parents, 13, 137, 157, 160–1, 163, 165Parker, Mary Louise, 169Party of Five, 164

Index 233

Patterson, James, 201n7, 204n34,205n37–8, n44, 208n50–1

Paxton, Bill, 169Peaceable Lane, 9Peach, Linden, 152, 212n24People Under the Stairs, The, 2, 13,

150, 165Pepper Street, 18, 21, 25–6Perrota, Tom, 152Peyton Place, 168Philadelphia, 38, 87, 89Philips, Kendall, R., 138, 212n4Picture Windows, 12Pigs, demonic, 110, 113Pilato, Herbie J., 204n22Pod People, 46, 76, 80–6Poe, Edgar Allan, 107Polanski, Roman, 49Police and the Suburban Gothic, 24,

147–8, 152, 155, 176Polley, Sarah, 88Poltergeist, 3, 11–13, 105, 127–33, 135,

144, 158, 166, 182, 211n87Poltergeist 3, 211n81Portland Cement Association, 28Possession, demonic, 108Post-war era, social and historical

contexts of, 6, 15Practical Magic 41, 56, 63Prentiss, Paula, 208n61Price, Vincent, 28Property prices, in the Suburban

Gothic, 156Psychic ability, 34–6, 113Psycho, 135–9, 141–5, 154, 156,

159, 187Puppet Masters, The, 77Purkiss, Diane, 62–3, 205n63, n65–6Puritans, 38, 43, 65, 105–6, 131, 198Putnam, Robert, 188, 214n24

Quaid, Randy, 160

Rabbit Redux, 9Rabbit Run, 9Racism and the Suburban Gothic, 22,

91, 32–3, 123–4, 148, 153–4,156, 170

Radiation, cosmic, 89

Ragona, Ubaldo, 85Railroad suburbs, 20–1Ray, K’Sun, 90Reagan, Ronald, 127–8Realtors and the Suburban Gothic,

110, 121, 128, 144Rear Window, 59, 160[REC], 203n44Red Dragon, 164Red Eye, 157Regulators, The, 209n12Revenge of the Stepford WivesRhode Island, 38, 63Right at Your Door, 202n44Road Through the Wall, The, 12, 15–27,

152, 202n17, n19, n21, n24–6bullying in, 23geographical location in, 19removal of wall, 20, 23, 119Rolfe, Marion, 108–9, 120

Rome, Adam, 4, 131, 201n8, 211n83Romero, George, A., 13, 28, 40, 57, 70,

85–6, 89Rosemary’s Baby, 42, 49, 91, 18Ross, Gaylen, 87Routine, 166, 213n2Russell, Jamie, 85–6, 208n46Russell, Rosalind, 53Russell, Sharon, 40, 42,

204n1–2, n8–10

Sabrina the Teenage Witch, 41, 56, 63,65–6, 168

Sacrifices, human, 48Safe, 4, 13, 61, 70, 100–3, 171, 209n78Salem Witch Trials, 40–3Salem’s Lot, 109, 166Salkow, Sidney, 85Salmon, Suzie, 134, 152‘Sameness’ and the Suburban Gothic,

28, 69–70, 74–5, 77San Fernando Valley, 100Santa Mira, 77, 79Savoy, Eric, 12, 199, 215n17Saylor, Norman, Tansy, 20–47, 67Scavo, Lynette, Tom, 184Scooby-Doo, 168Scream trilogy, 150, 156, 162, 165Scully, Dana, 49, 17

234 Index

September 11, 191, 194Serial killers, 136–65, 190Serial Mom, 13, 137, 157, 162–3Serling, Rod, 29Sex and the City, 183Sheridan, Nicolette, 168Shining, The, 106, 109 (novel),

113 (film)Shirley Jackson’s American Gothic, 18Shocker, 150Short, Sue, 66, 206n71–2Shrinking Man, The, 34–5, 149Shriver, Lionel, 55, 139Siddons, Anne Rivers, 1,11, 13, 35,

105, 116–17, 122, 128, 176,201n1, 210n41–3, n47–58, n60,211n64–5, n69

Siegel, Don, 79Silence of the Lambs, The, 137Simpsons, The, 11, 29, 172–3Simulations and simulacra, 98–9Sirk, Douglas, 89, 168, 183Sitcoms, fantasy, 157, 162, 172Skal, David J., 15, 139, 201n3, 212n70Skolnick, Arlene, 57, 62, 127, 204n36,

205n48, n52–3, n62, 210n37Slasher films, 143, 156Slither, 207n22‘Slumburbia’, 197Small towns, decline of, 77, 79, 80–2Snyder, Zack, 88–9Sobchack, Vivien, 82, 206n21–2,

207n38Social gatherings which end in

disaster, 24, 35, 47–8, 114,120–1, 124

Solis, Gabrielle, Carlos, 183‘Some Stations of Suburban

Gothic’, 12Sopranos, The, 171, 183South Park, 214n8Southern gothic, 10, 38, 107Spadaccini, Anthony, 163Spielberg, Steven, 127, 211n73Split-Level Trap, The, 8–9, 70, 191, 200Stepfather, The, 157–8, 163Stepfathers, 112–13Stepford Children, The, 99

Stepford Wives, The, novel, 4, 13, 46,61, 70–1, 91–100, 168, 180

1975 film, 99–100sequels and remake, 99–100

Stevens, Darren, Samantha, 11, 59–63Stewart, Jimmy, 43Stir of Echoes, 10, 108, 122, 132,

149, 188film, 203n68

Stranger in Our House, A, 150Straub, Peter, 109Strode, Laurie, 144–5, 150, 152Strong, Brenda, 184Sub-prime mortgages, 197Suburban Commando, 164Suburban Gothic

American popular culture, placein, 200

critical neglect of, 12, 14definitions of, 1–5environmental anxieties, relation

to, 4, 198literary Suburban Gothic, relation

to, 13, 152mass suburbanisation, 38, 203n55in other countries, 5persistence of key tropes, 191Post-war changes and anxieties,

relation to, 5universal nature of, 10–11, 34, 38

Suburban Myth, The, 74,Suburbia

as ‘borderland’ space, 3–7, 20in ‘crisis’, 192decline of the ‘first’ suburbs, 2,

94, 193‘end’ of suburbia, 145–6establishment and growth of, 18as form of colonisation, 106as a safe place for children and

teenagers, 127, 152–32008 financial crisis and

suburbia, 197SuburbiaNation, 11, 15Suicide, 166, 185Summers, Buffy, 167–8, 170–3Sundial, The 19, 108Sunnydale 11, 167, 174–81

Index 235

Supernatural and the SuburbanGothic, 104–35, 114

Sutpen, Beverley, 162Sutpen, Thomas, 107, 162Swanson, Kirsty, 174

Tabitha, 65Targets, 13, 137, 139–41, 143, 145, 165Tate, Larry, 56Technology, as threat to small town

life, 79Teenagers and the Suburban Gothic,

22, 58, 66, 128, 131, 145, 148–9,150–3, 158–60, 175–81

Televisionand suburbia, 25, 167–9as conduit to supernatural, 121, 128television and the gothic, 185–6television movies, 150–1, 158

Teller, Marshall, 175Terror Tract, 132, 135Texas Chain Saw Massacre, The, 136–7‘They Bite’, 212n19Thomas, Keith, 109, 209n14Thompson, Bobby, 139–41Thoreau, Henry David, 182Time Out of Joint, 208n65Tonkin, Boyd, 214n10‘Transient, The’, 77, 80, 131Trees, evil, 131Truman Show, The, 208n65Tucker’s Witch, 65Tulpa, 48Twilight Zone, The

‘Little Girl Lost’, 172‘The Monsters Are Due on Maple

Street’, 29‘The Shelter’, 29‘Terror at 30,000 Feet’, 172

Twin Peaks, 168, 184–5

Universal Studios, horror movies ofthe 1930s, 42

Updike, John, 9, 15, 63–4, 172Utopian visions of suburbia, 199

Vampires, 27–31, 40, 109, 164Vampires, Burial and Death, 132Vampirism, psychic, 109

Van De Kamp, Bree, 183Vance, Eleanor, 116Vietnam War, 121, 140–2, 147,

161, 171Vigilantes, suburban, 3, 26–7, 148,

151–3, 157, 164, 187Virgin Spring, The, 147Virgin Suicides, The, 167Visions of Suburbia, 12Voyeurism; as precursor to violence,

160

Wagner, Lindsay, 91Walden, 214n15Wallace, Tom, 10, 35, 122Wanamaker, Frank, 35–6War on terror, 157Waters, John, 164We Have Always Lived in the Castle, 18,

19, 22, 42, 108We Need to Talk About Kevin, 55, 139Weeds, 169–70, 176, 183, 191Weinraub, Bernard, 214n14Westport, CT, 50, 94, 204n30, 214n19Westworld, 91,Wheatley, Helen, 150, 169, 185–6Whedon, Joss, 174‘Whimper of Whipped Dogs,

The’, 145White, Carol, 101–3White Diaspora, 15Whitehurst, Laurie, 206n8Whitman, Charles, 139Whyte, William H., 22, 28, 68–9, 77,

80, 92, 307n25, n33Wieland, 10, 106, 136Wife-as-witch trope in the Suburban

Gothic, 12, 40–68, 64Wife swapping, 48Wilkins, Mayor Richard, 176Williams, Tony, 153, 208n53Winter, Douglas E., 202n35, 203n50,

212n2, n3Wisteria Lane, 124, 181Witchcraft, 40–68, 115Witches

New England origins, 44in popular culture, 42, 45Salem Witch Trials, 41–2

236 Index

Witches – continuedin suburbia, 40–68W.I.T.C.H, 62

Witches of Eastwick, The, 63Wizard of Oz, The, 42, 56Women and suburbia, 52–4, 61–2,

92, 102Wylie, Philip, 52

Xenophobia, 133X-Files, The, 48, 178

Yeats, Richard, 9, 15, 172‘Young Goodman Brown’, 42Young, Mary Alice, 134, 166,

171, 184

Zicree, Mark Scott, 202n42Zombie, Rob, 142Zombies, 4, 12, 85–91, 97Zombieville, 85, 97ZomCon, 90