Fear Before the Fall
by Alexander Herbert

Having initially been considered bourgeois, horror films emerged only under late socialism as the country underwent widespread social, cultural, and economic changes. In this book, Alexander Herbert examines those changes through the various fears and anx

Alienation, generational tensions, rampant nationalism and the pervasiveness of atomic danger are all topics that haunted late Soviet citizens, and those fears are reflected in the films meant to represent their horror genre.

In the late 1970s and throughout the 1980s, production of horror movies from independent filmmakers and Hollywood skyrocketed. It was a time of intense Cold War conflict and a resurgence of conservative ideals. It’s not difficult to imagine that the ascent of horror occurred in conjunction with an increasingly scary and alienated world, and horror reflected those freights in the form of nuclear holocausts, toxic waste pollution, alien clown invaders and undead houseguests. Everyone was at risk - teenagers especially - because their present and future remained most uncertain.

If we can agree that such feelings underpinned American viewers in the age of Reagan and neo-liberalism, then what about late socialism? How did film makers depict Soviet society’s fears?

Reviews:
Us in the ‘west’ have heard all kinds of stories about what life was like within the Soviet Union; usually stories that paint it as an awful place thanks to residual anti-Soviet propaganda and hate, so we’ve probably either never thought about their film industry, or assumed that it was all government-made pro-communist propaganda. To actually see a well researched and well presented breakdown of what it was like was not only incredibly interesting, but hugely informative.

Fear Before The Fall might be something of a niche read, but it’s one that will appeal to a lot of readers if given the chance. ~ Amy Walker, Set the Tape
Herbert’s book makes a decisive contribution to the history of horror cinema. His exploration of Soviet cinema offers us a new window into the dynamism of filmmaking in the Soviet Union. Horror is at its most alive when it responds to, and grows in, the social and material anxieties of a given historical moment. Herbert’s work proves this was just as real for the struggles and fears of building an alternative to capitalism. This book won’t just be for those drawn to the dark side of cinema, but for anyone who wants to know more about how horror blossoms wherever cultural and material conditions are tested….

~ Ashley Darrow and Jon Greenway, Horror Vanguard
If horror movies reflect the fears of society, what can be learned from the way the ghostly and the ghastly were represented in Soviet cinema, and is there room for a Marxist critique of the macabre? In this innovative book, Alexander Herbert introduces films both famous and less well-known and explores their context and what they can say about the changing attitudes and anxieties of their times.

~ Mark Galeotti, University College London
From the author's first kiss to his reading of Pelevin, this book contextualises some of the weirdest Russian films for the Western viewer. If horrors look different depending on where you are, their variety does help to understand yourself and the world. ~ Alexander Etkind, European University Institute, Florence