Demon Possession and Sexual Violence in Post-Recession American Horror Cinema

Examines how cultural and economic anxieties in 2008 influenced the popularity of demon possession and gendered violence in American horror. This book examines American horror films as key sites for exploring contemporary anxieties around gender, power, and trauma. In this groundbreaking study, Máiréad Casey traces the resurgence of demon-possession narratives in US cinema following the 2008 financial crisis, a period marked by intensified misogyny, the rise of fourth-wave feminism, and shifting representations of sexual violence. Through incisive analysis of films such as Deliver Us from Evil (2014), The Neon Demon (2016), and The Scary of Sixty-First (2021), this study explores how the possessed body, particularly the possessed female body, emerges as a battleground for cultural fears about sexuality, violence, and agency. Demon Possession and Sexual Violence in Post-Recession American Horror Cinema demonstrates how demon-possession films reflect, reproduce, and sometimes challenge dominant narratives about sexual violence and victimhood. Reframing possession as more than merely a horror trope, this book offers a vital lens for understanding gender and sexual politics in an age of economic precarity and social reckoning.