Capitalism Hates You: Marxism and the New Horror Film

by Joshua Gooch

What contemporary horror films teach us about the cruelties of capitalist societyCapitalism Hates You uses the horror film genre as a tool to diagnose and expose the hostile conditions of life under capitalism. Through incisive critical analyses of popular films such as Get Out, Drag Me to Hell, Hereditary, The Babadook, and many others, Joshua Gooch draws connections between Marxist theory and contemporary narratives of psychological unease. Gooch highlights the work of women, trans, and nonwhite filmmakers to show how the remarkable diversity of twenty-first-century horror cinema can provide an expansive catalog of capitalism’s varying forms of oppression. Studying films that interrogate such urgent topics as gentrification, climate change, and reproductive labor, he demonstrates how contemporary horror films give affective shape to the negative undercurrents of our present socioeconomic system. Capitalism Hates You argues that these films and their material conditions can deepen our understanding of essential concepts in contemporary Marxism, from the theory of value and changing forms of commodification to the labor of social reproduction, the abolition of the family, and the necessity of ecosocialism. Synthesizing various strands of Marxist thought, Gooch sheds light on the growing field of socially conscious horror films, examining how they pinpoint and exaggerate latent feelings of dread and discomfort to reflect the ills of society. Retail e-book files for this title are screen-reader friendly with images accompanied by short alt text and/or extended descriptions.

Genres: Horror, Nonfiction

268 pages, Kindle Edition

Published March 11, 2025

Reviews

[Matty · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a highly academic read, which a basic understanding of Marxist thought will help understand the authors arguments. At the very least you will come away with a new approach to view horror and understand its meaning and why you may be watching it. Horror is a great vehicle to deliver social commentary.

Various horror genres and films are analyzed in detail and explained using current Marxist thought. I came away with a long list of horror films I want to watch and for films I had I was able to see a deeper meaning behind them. This book will forever change the way I watch and read horror.

In this book, the author approaches horror not as therapy, but as diagnosis. He argues that by harnessing the negative thoughts and feelings that imbue our political and economic moment, it lets us grapple with the intuition that capitalism hates us.

He argues contemporary horror understands itself as a critique of contemporary life: work climate change, anti-black racism, mass culture and consumerism, patriarchy or women’s representation in film. He argues Marxism can help us to analyze the shared judgments about what is terrifying in modern life and to unearth from these critiques, some of the forms of common sense that keep capitalism going.

The main argument in the book is that horror needs Marxism. We can’t make sense of it otherwise. And also that Marxism needs to horror. Capitalism isn’t just an economic system, but a social one. Horror helps us to see how capitalism functions as a system.

[Chris · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm not well versed in theory but this does a great job of explaining Marxist concepts through the films discussed. There's a few things I had trouble with but that's due to my inexperience with Marx and left wing theory. I am now officially annoying and will be reading more and more Marxist literature as the world is on fire and fascism gets more and more powerful every day.

[Eric · Rating 5 out of 5]

A sharp and nicely written analysis of 21st-century horror films, with good chapters on elevated horror (aka post-horror), therapeutic horror, new Black horror, and more. I thought the reading of Hereditary through a Marxist critique of the family under capitalism was great, and I come away from this book convinced that Marxism is exactly what Gooch says it is: a flexible and useful lens for reading both horror's diversity and its weird pleasures. Bonus points for keeping the "Hates You" going in the chapter titles: Work Hates You, Love Hates You, Nature Hates You, etc.