We Are the Mutants

Documenting the period between the arrival of US combat troops in Vietnam and the end of President Ronald Reagan’s second term, the book forgoes the usual and restrictive exemplars of “auteur cinema,” and instead focuses on an eclectic selection of films and genres — horror, documentary, disaster, vigilante action, neo-noir, post-apocalyptic sci-fi — to track this period's tumultuous transformation in American life, culture, and politics. By exploring cult classics like The Texas Chain Saw Massacre and Escape from New York, as well as studio blockbusters like The Exorcist and Fatal Attraction, We Are the Mutants rewrites the history of modern American cinema and, in doing so, the history of America itself.