Chapters in this book

1. Frontmatter i
2. Contents v
3. Acknowledgements vi
4. Introduction: ‘Evil Lurks in California’ 1
5. Part I Foundational Horrors
6. 1 ‘What Happened a Hundred Years Ago is Happening Again’: The Ghosts of the California Past 19
7. 2 The Dark Side of ‘the Good Life’: California and the Birth of Modern Horror 69
8. Part II Hollywood Gothic
9. 3 ‘Sunshine isn’t Enough’: Hollywood Gothic Origins 115
10. 4 Fallen Stars in Sunset Boulevard (1950) and What Ever Happened to Baby Jane (1962) 137
11. 5 ‘It’s a Gateway Part!’ Twenty-First-Century Hollywood Gothic 161
12. Part III Cult California: New Gods and New Selves
13. 6 Cult Nightmares in Our Lady of Darkness (1977) and Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978) 185
14. 7 ‘The Usual Utopian Vision’: Contemporary Cult California in The Invitation (2015), 1BR (2019) and The Circle (2013) 224
15. Conclusion: ‘It’s Our Time Now’: Us (2019) and Desierto (2015) 253
16. Bibliography 284
17. Index 302