White Terror: The Horror Film from Obama to Trump

by Russell Meeuf

What kinds of terror lurk beneath the surface of White respectability? Many of the top-grossing US horror films between 2008 and 2016 relied heavily on themes of White, patriarchal fear and outsiders disrupting the sanctity of the almost always White family, evil forces or transgressive ideas transforming loved ones, and children dying when White women eschew traditional maternal roles.

Horror film has a long history of radical, political commentary, and Russell Meeuf reveals how racial resentments represented specifically in horror films produced during the Obama era gave rise to the Trump presidency and the Make America Great Again movement. Featuring films such as The Conjuring and Don't Breathe , White Terror explores how motifs of home invasion, exorcism, possession, and hauntings mirror cultural debates around White masculinity, class, religion, socioeconomics, and more.

In the vein of Jordan Peele, White Terror exposes how White mainstream fear affects the horror film industry, which in turn cashes in on that fear and draws voters to candidates like Trump.

Genres: Horror, Film

226 pages, Hardcover

Published April 5, 2022

About the author

Russell Meeuf is an assistant professor in the School of Journalism and Mass Media at the University of Idaho. He is the author of Rebellious Bodies: Stardom, Citizenship, and the New Body Politics and John Wayne’s World: Transnational Masculinity in the Fifties. He is also the co-editor of Transnational Stardom: International Celebrity in Film and Popular Culture.

Reviews

[Mimi Mizicko · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very thorough and entertaining dissection of the use of race in horror and the reflection of directors', writers' and viewers' fears specifically those of white audiences in America, specifically. For those who love horror, it's a very good read.

[Gina Mastrogiovanni · Rating 3 out of 5]

I couldn’t buy everything this author was selling. Yes, horror tropes may reflect white fears of losing unearned privileges, but the author did not adequately portray the trope vs the movies themselves. As a horror fan, I just refuse to believe someone the movies themselves author focused on have that much depth. He also cherry picked horror films and tv shows he wanted to highlight. He stated he was only covering horror theatrical releases, but highlighted AHS: Cult in a few different chapters. How do you reference just this season of AHS, but also the biggest horror series of the era - Walking Dead. In fact, he neglected zombie & zombie adjacent horror all together.

While I understand too wide a spectrum makes it difficult to truly cover, I think he neglected to recognize movies and tv shows that were direct to streaming. Especially in this time period where Netflix really took over and drew audiences away from standard television shows (like AHS) and from movie theaters.

[Abby Shillingburg · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well written and fascinating for this horror fan.

[Matt Sautman · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent exploration of how whiteness manifests in horror films, specifically those from the mid-2000s into the end of the second decade of the 21st-century.