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Harry M. Benshoff. Monsters in the Closet: Homosexuality and the Horror Film (Manchester and New York: Manchester University Press, 1997), viii+ 328pp., $18.95 (paper).
They lurk in the shadows, lying in wait to prey upon the innocent. Are they classic horror film villains or homosexuals? Harry Benshoff addresses the similarities between these two "creatures" in his book, Monsters in the Closet. In this work, Benshoff argues that "the homosexual was socially constructed as a distinct type of person during the late nineteenth century" (22). This construction was based on historical and social ideas of homosexuality as...