The last word on this niche genre, with a dense amount of information….
No genre of film is more subdivided and diverse than the horror genre. Over the years, this form of cinema has radically morphed into myriad subgenres that reflect the most primal fears facing our society, and no fear is more primal than the invasion of one’s living space. Home Invasion Horrors (McFarland), a fantastic study by Ryan Izay, joins the ranks as an indispensable part of the canon of horror texts, which should be essential reading for horror academics and fans alike.
Izay utilizes Matthew Sorrento’s definition of the home invasion film wherein: “a middle-class home, as an example of complacent modern family values, is violated by a break-in/takeover.” As the author progresses in this text, he identifies early manifestations of this genre in films as early as the Griffith films in 1900s and traces them through noir titles such as Sorry, Wrong Number (1948) or Hitchcock’s Dial M for Murder (1954). Furthermore, Izay brings the study up to date, tracing the current uptick in home invasion horror films through the Covid-19 pandemic and horror cinema in the various forms as it exists today. Films like The Purge franchise, or The Strangers continue to try to push viewers comfort zones.
Read the full review at Film International.
William Blick is a literary/crime fiction and film critic, a librarian, and an academic scholar. He is contributing editor to Retreats from Oblivion: The Journal of Noircon and has published work in Senses of Cinema, Film Threat, Cinema Retro, Cineaction, and Film International Online, where he frequently contributes. He is also an Associate Professor/Librarian for Queensborough Community College of CUNY.
Retreats from Oblivion: The Journal of NoirCon 