The Watergate scandal was a horror show. What better way to satirize it than with a horror movie? Tobe Hooper's The Texas Chain Saw Massacre premiered in October 1974, mere weeks after the resignation and pardon of Richard Nixon brought an uncertain end to the most corrupt and criminal presidency in American history. The film had been conceived, written, shot, edited, and produced precisely as Watergate was playing out, and those responsible for Chain Saw unhesitatingly spoke of the horrors of contemporary politics as having directly inspired the ones they created for the film. Leatherface vs. Tricky Dick presents a fascinating minute-by-minute exploration of the many uncanny connections between The Texas Chain Saw Massacre and Watergate, as well as other ways the film comments on contemporary politics via satire and (very) dark humor. Read and discover Chain Saw’s response to the White House horrors, the Saturday Night Massacre, and more, as well as how Leatherface’s masks relate to all those Nixon masks worn throughout “our long national nightmare.”

Examining how horror and science fiction films from the 1950s to the present invent and explore fictional “us-versus-them” scenarios, this book analyzes the different ways such films employ allegory and/or satire to interrogate the causes and consequences of increasing polarization in American politics and society. Starting with the killer ants film with an anti-communist subtext Them! (1954) and concluding with Jordan Peele’s social horror film with revenge-seeking homicidal doppelgängers Us (2019), Martin Harris highlights social and political contexts, contemporary reviews and responses, and retrospective evaluations to show how American horror and science fiction films reflect and respond to contemporary conflicts marking various periods in U.S. history from post-WWII to the present, including those concerning race, gender, class, faith, political ideology, national identity, and other elements of American society. Horror and Science Fiction Cinema and Society draws upon cinematic sociology to provide a resourceful approach to American horror and science fiction films that integrates discussion of plot construction and character development with analyses of the thematic uses of conflict, guiding readers’ understanding of how filmmakers create otherworldly confrontations to deliver real-world social and political commentary.

For author Johannes Schonherr, no place is too distant or strange that he cannot screen or hunt down obscure underground trash movies. From the bowels of New York's Lower East Side and punk clubs in San Francisco, to Moscow on a fake visa and Pyongyan, North Korea, Schonherr is a cineaste on a mission. Plus extra features such as Nick Zedd being attacked by German feminists, advice on how to run a no-budget rathouse of a cinema, GG Allin's final gig and discovering wild cinematic treats at New York's cheapest film-to-video store.

Despite high and low brow pop culture references in their lyrics, sleeve art, and in interviews, no concise in-depth study exists of the Manic Street Preachers. This book is in some ways a response to that fact, a study of the band through one particular record. "This book brims with passion and insight and care... every five pages or so Naish had me scrambling to hear various Manics songs from across the years." — Paolo Hewitt "The Manic Street Preachers have long been a blind spot for me. In Riffs and Meaning, Stephen Lee Naish does a great service by creating a solid context for the band — how it developed and how it intersected with its rivals and critics (both in the press and on the stage). Centering his attention on one of their thorniest, most sprawling albums, Know Your Enemy, about which even the band has seemed ambivalent, Naish explores how the 'untameable child of Manic Street Preachers’ records' was a fundamental work, finally letting them escape the shadow of their lost guitarist/songwriter Richey Edwards and 'to forge a different version of the Manic Street Preachers that was almost completely set apart from their previous incarnations.'" — Chris O’Leary, Rebel Rebel: The Songs of David Bowie, 1964-1976 and Ashes to Ashes Like many bands worth obsessing over, the Manic Street Preachers are virtually unknown here in the States. [But this is a] passionate discourse about a divisive album that you should absolutely listen to again immediately. — John Sellers, author of Perfect From Now On: How Indie Rock Saved My Life

Introduced shortly after the United States declared its independence, poker’s growth and development has paralleled that of America itself. As a gambling game with mass appeal, poker has been played by presidents and peasants, at kitchen tables and final tables, for matchsticks and millions. First came the hands, then came the stories – some true, some pure bluffs, and many in between. In Poker & Pop Culture: Telling the Story of America’s Favorite Card Game, Martin Harris shares these stories while chronicling poker’s progress from 19th-century steamboats and saloons to 21st-century virtual tables online, including: Poker on the Mississippi Poker in the Movies Poker in the Old West Poker on the Newsstand Poker in the Civil War Poker in Literature Poker on the Bookshelf Poker in Music Poker in the White House Poker on Television Poker During Wartime Poker on the Computer From Mark Twain to “Dogs Playing Poker” to W.C. Fields to John Wayne to A Streetcar Named Desire to the Cold War to Kenny Rogers to ESPN to Star Trek: The Next Generation and beyond, Poker & Pop Culture provides a comprehensive survey of cultural productions in which poker is of thematic importance, showing how the game’s portrayal in the mainstream has increased poker’s relevance to American history and shaped the way we think about the game and its significance.

New York City, 1976. Newspaper ads dare the denizens of Times Square to see a morbid little movie called The Incredible Torture Show. The film is yanked from theaters before it finds its audience. Years later it is retitled Blood Sucking Freaks and hits pay dirt, playing to shocked crowds and becoming a perverse cult classic. Its writer and director is Joel M. Reed. Like his films, the life of Joel M. Reed is a crazy cocktail of New York satire and sleaze, from swanky supper clubs in the 1950s through to the decrepit grindhouses of the 1970s. Using Reed and his films as its cornerstone, this book — twenty years in the making — is a dirty snapshot of the last gasp of Times Square before AIDS, crack cocaine, and anti-pornography laws strike their final blow. Strap yourself in for an unforgettable journey.

A loving look at “disposable” horror culture from the 1960s and 1970s. Over two glorious decades the horror film waged war on good taste, exploiting every taboo and bursting every envelope along the way. TRASHFIEND is the definitive guide to the chaotic, creative and endlessly entertaining golden age of horror cinema. Scott Stine (author of The Gorehound’s Guide to Splatter Films series) shines a fond but satiric light on everything from low budget horror films to grisly comic art, lurid movie magazines to late-night creature features, campy monster toys to exploitive poster art. Packed with reviews, trivia, interviews, anecdotes and rare illustrations, and written with witty and insightful flair, TRASHFIEND will fascinate aficianados, nostalgists and cinema lovers of every stripe for a fun, energetic and critical look at this beloved genre.