Book Review

Nightmare Fuel by Nina Nesseth

A-

Genre: Horror, Nonfiction

Nightmare Fuel: The Science of Horror Films was balm to my nerdy little heart. I got into horror much the same way I got into romance, which is to say I thought I didn’t like it, then realized I had been liking it all along somehow without noticing, and then I couldn’t get enough of it. There are some interesting intersections between romance and horror as genres, and I know we have some fans here who like both. For the horror aficionados among us, this book is a great read!

Nightmare Fuel talks about horror movies in general and uses a great many specific examples. It explores, for instance, the historical trends in horror and how they reflect the foremost anxieties of the time. It also talks about why people may love some kinds of horror and hate other kinds, and why people are attracted to horror at all. Just as fans of romance novels might love some tropes or settings or subgenres and hate other ones, horror fans are often quite specific about what kinds of horror they love or hate.

I was especially interested in the first chapter, which discusses the parts of the brain, chemical processes and the most common ways that people respond to a frightening situation:

  • Freeze. As an example, the book describes a scene from You’re Next in which the protagonist, Erin, hides in a stairwell.
  • Fight. The example here is the scene in which Laurie stabs the bad guy, Michael, with a coat hanger in Halloween.
  • Flight. Sally Hardesty’s response to her plight in Texas Chainsaw Massacre.
  • Fright. This is similar to Freeze, but involves complete and involuntary immobility, as seen in Martyrs.
  • Friending or Fawning: While the previous responses are mostly instinctual, Friending regards deliberately cultivating the affection of the attacker, as in 10 Cloverfield Lane and Split. Fawning, a subset of this, involves making oneself look appealing to the attacker, and Stockholm Syndrome involves a mutual, and presumably involuntary, attachment between captor and prisoner.

I list these not only because I find them interesting but also to illustrate that the book is comprehensive with its approach to science and to a broad range of horror films from multiple subgenres. The above list includes examples of slasher films, science fiction thriller/horror crossovers, and French Extremity. Other types of horror are discussed elsewhere in the book.

The book also addresses why jump scares are so effective and overused, why some people faint at the sight of blood, whether exposure to violent scenes makes people violent, the different personality types who seems to enjoy horror and which types of horror appeal to which personalities, why certain types of monsters are especially effective from a biological standpoint, how music makes movies scary, and more.

I appreciated that the book addresses bias in scientific studies. This bias is often expressed by recruiting solely or predominantly White, cis-gender, heterosexual participants in studies and making universal inferences based on this very non-universal sample of participants. Additionally, a lot of studies show participants a single scene from a single movie and use the subjects’ reactions to this scene to make claims about all kinds of scary movies and violent programming, which is absurd because different kinds of horror affect people in very different and individual ways. The question of whether or not viewing pretend violence makes people more violent in real life comes up in the media often, so it’s important for everyone, not just horror fans, to understand the importance of checking how any study cited in a book or article was conducted, and on whom. This also applies to studies that have nothing to do with horror – being able to determine what study is cited in an article or book, how it was conducted, and on whom is a crucial aspect of understanding science.

All of the writing is accessible and conversational and often funny, as when the author discusses how absolutely terrified her wife is of E.T. thanks to a traumatic viewing of the movie E.T. The Extra Terrestrial at a young age. This, incidentally, illustrates the phenomenon of long-term fear: something the author’s wife experienced in childhood continues to scare her, just as the author of the book confesses to having a nightmare about Gremlins at least once a year despite being an adult who knows that the gremlins of the movie aren’t real. That particular chapter goes on to explain why and how we develop long-term fears and how to diminish or reduce them.

E.T. In dress, wig, and hat
It’s creepy! Loveable and creepy!

Even the supplementary material is fun. An afterword includes extensive lists of movies the author viewed for each chapter as well as recommended reading (and yes, it lists any studies it refers to so you can check them out). Plus each chapter involves interviews with people from various parts of the industry including screenwriters, directors, sound editors, cinematographers, and actors.

I loved this book, and I don’t think you have to be a horror fan to enjoy it, although if you are a horror fan you’ll love it. You just need to have a deep sense of curiosity and an interest in human biology and behavior. It was fun when a film I had seen was cited in the book, but the fact that I haven’t seen a large number of the films mentioned didn’t reduce my interest when they came up – I still learned about human biology, behavior, and history. Nightmare Fuel is comprehensive, it’s entertaining, and it raises many more questions than one might expect.

This book is available from:
  • Available at Amazon
  • Order this book from apple books

  • Order this book from Barnes & Noble
  • Order this book from Kobo

As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.
We also may use affiliate links in our posts, as well. Thanks!

Nightmare Fuel by Nina Nesseth

View Book Info Page

Add Your Comment →

  1. JenT says:

    I’ve been a horror nerd since I was twelve when I saw A Nightmare on Elm Street for the first time. This book sounds like so much fun. Definitely have to read it. Thanks for the tip!

  2. Mikey says:

    Ooooh, the gremlins. I remember that movie. Scared the heck out of me as a kid.

    What scared me especially was the part where the gremlins show up to the mean old lady and sing carols. She sees them, and assumes they’re devils who’ve come to take her to Hell, and pleads that she’s not ready yet.

    As a Christian kid, that was way too real for me, because that precise thing happening to me was one of my biggest fears. (Funny thing is, my parents never even mentioned Hell, not being That Kind Of Christians, but it’s not something you can avoid hearing about.)

  3. Lena Brassard/Ren Benton says:

    There are some interesting intersections between romance and horror as genres

    The “vast subgenres with something for everyone” thing and the “hit ’em in the feels” thing for sure, and also in the way February and October are prime seasons for “I have nothing but contempt for this genre I know nothing about but pay me to write a thinkpiece about it anyway.” We need to link other genres to holidays and spread that love around.

  4. FashionablyEvil says:

    This book intrigues me because I love a book about craft and why storytelling works the way it does, but I’m wondering if it will be kind of over my head because while I can read horror, I can’t watch it (and have never seen any of the movies mentioned in the review.)

    @Mikey—right there with you on Gremlins! The gremlins plus the dad who tried to play Santa and got stuck/died in the chimney? Stuff of nightmares. Still haven’t quite forgiven the babysitter who thought it would be a fun movie for us to watch…

  5. CarrieS says:

    @FashionablyEvil, I don’t think it will be over your head, although personally I find that reading horror and watching horror are very different experiences. I haven’t seen most of the movies mentioned in the book and that didn’t pose a problem for me.

  6. Emily C says:

    @CarrieS and FashionablyEvil- this is exactly what I was wondering too! I can’t or won’t watch most horror movies, but have found that I love a good gothic or supernatural horror story. Putting this on hold at the library now, thanks for the review.

  7. Lisa F says:

    Ohh I love horror movies; this is going right on my TBR pile!

Add Your Comment

Required fields are marked *

You may use these HTML tags and attributes:
<a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>

*


This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

↑ Back to Top