New York Times theater critic Jason Zinoman would be the first person to admit that his new book, SHOCK VALUE: How a Few Eccentric Outsiders Gave Us Nightmares, Conquered Hollywood, and Invented Modern Horror (Penguin Press; Publication date July 11, 2011) originated in an anxiety that there was something a little embarrassing about loving horror movies as much as he did. Where did this guilty pleasure come from? And why did so many people share it?

These questions led him to take a closer look at horror, not only to investigate why we are so drawn to being scared, but how horror grew from a much disparaged genre, confined to drive-in theaters and shunned by critics, to an ambition art form that has conquered the multiplex. And he discovered something fascinating: he could pinpoint the exact decade when Old Horror turned to New Horror, when Bela Lugosi and adaptations of Edgar Allen Poe stories turned to an art form that was grittier, more confrontational, and wasn’t afraid to break taboos (or, for that matter, the box office).

Through a combination of Zinoman’s critic’s eye and dogged reporting, SHOCK VALUE is the first book to look in depth at the years roughly between 1968 and 1979 when a handful of outcasts and oddballs revolutionized the industry. With unprecedented access to directors, producers, actors, and most other major players, Zinoman vividly recreates the entertaining, behind-the-scenes stories of how Wes Craven, Roman Polanski, William Friedkin, and John Carpenter, among others, took one of the most potent and influential emotions in our culture—fear—and turned it on its head.

With never-before-told stories about the makings of such classic horror films like The Exorcist, Texas Chain Saw Massacre, Halloween, and Alien, SHOCK VALUE is an enthralling, personality driven account of one of the most influential periods of American film-making. I look forward to your reviews when we publish in July.

ABOUT THE BOOK:

“If you think you already know everything you need to know about the ’70s revolution in American film, think again, and take a trip to the (very) dark side with Jason Zinoman’s astute, informed and vivid exploration of how the horror movie came back from the dead and walked among us once again. The decade that stretched from Rosemary’s Baby to Alien saw the creation of just about every template for modern horror, and Zinoman brings a fan’s appreciation, a critic’s tough-mindedness and a reporter’s zeal to his group portrait of the movies that reshaped a generation’s sleepless nights. Aficionados should love it, and skeptics may find themselves giving this always disreputable genre the fair shake that, as this smart and savvy book makes clear, it deserves.”
—Mark Harris, author of Pictures at a Revolution

http://www.amazon.com/Shock-Value-Eccentric-Outsiders-Nightmares/dp/1594203024