Thursday, we’re talking about the monsters of the silver screen. They’ve been an integral part of films since their earliest days, but as our anxieties have changed throughout the decades, so have our monsters. Historian W. Scott Poole observes that we were once satisfied to watch a group of co-eds try to escape a slathering, predatory beast or slasher fiend. But in the post-9/11 world, “monsters have to burn the world to the ground.” Poole will join us to dissect our fascination with cinema’s monstrosities.
W. Scott Poole is an associate professor of history at the College of Charleston. He's the author of six books, most recently Monsters in America: Our Historical Obsession with the Hideous and the Haunting [Amazon|Indiebound]. For more information about the book, visit MonstersInAmerica.com. He has a new book coming out in September, Vampira: Dark Goddess of Horror.
