Shock Rock Horror! The Representation and Reception of Heavy Metal Horror Films in the 1980s

Abstract

Although existing academic work has examined moral panics surrounding heavy metal music in the USA during the mid-to-late 1980s, previous studies have not assessed the impact these had on popular film. Hassan’s chapter focuses upon horror films released in this period that directly engage with and satirise debates about metal music’s alleged corrupting influence. Drawing upon genre analysis and assessing the audience reception of Trick or Treat (Directed by Charles Martin Smith, De Laurentiis Entertainment Group, 1986) in particular, the chapter contends that these films articulated anxieties about the social control of youth during this crucial period. Hassan argues that the films addressed youth audiences in ways that fostered potential opportunities to reflect upon their experiences of metal music culture and to counteract wider media discourses that constructed such culture as deviant.