Household Horror

<p>Take a tour of the house where a microwave killed a gremlin a typewriter made Jack a dull boy a sewing machine fashioned Carrie's prom dress and houseplants might kill you while you sleep. In <i>Household Horror: Cinematic Fear and the Secret Life of Everyday Objects </i> Marc Olivier highlights the wonder fear and terrifying dimension of objects in horror cinema. Inspired by object-oriented ontology and the nonhuman turn in philosophy Olivier places objects in film on par with humans arguing for example that a sleeper sofa is as much the star of <i>Sisters</i> as Margot Kidder that <i>The Exorcist </i>is about a possessed bed and that <i>Rosemary's Baby</i> is a conflict between herbal shakes and prenatal vitamins. <i>Household Horror</i> reinvigorates horror film criticism by investigating the unfathomable being of objects as seemingly benign as remotes radiators refrigerators and dining tables. Olivier questions what Hitchcock's <i>Psycho</i> tells us about shower curtains. What can we learn from Freddie Krueger's greatest accomplice the mattress? Room by room Olivier considers the dark side of fourteen household objects to demonstrate how the objects in these films manifest their own power and connect with specific cultural fears and concerns.</p>