The American Horror film, conceived in Gothic Romance, informed by German Expressionism, and nurtured by blood, capitalism, and Freud, attempts to incarnate and process the individual’s struggle with morality, religion, and society in an eternal need to define one’s self and one’s societal role. American horror films, always aggressively reflective of America’s buried subconscious, with its deep roots in Puritanism, were brought to a tumultuous head in the late sixties and seventies as the horror cinema began to process and explore the political, sexual, and social revolutions of the time. This course will primarily center on three components of the American psyche: family, hearth, and home, with a specific focus on the roles of women and children. In a comprehensive and comparative analysis, the course will explore from both a conservative and progressive perspective the complex themes of moral and societal upheaval found in the catharsis of bloody chaos. The course will screen films by such diverse masters of American cinematic horror as Wes Craven, Bob Clark, Brian DePalma, William Friedkin, John Carpenter, Stanley Kubrick, Roman Polanski, and George Romero.