--- product_id: 49029697 title: "American Gothic: Six Decades of Classic Horror Cinema" price: "¥14067" currency: JPY in_stock: true reviews_count: 13 url: https://www.desertcart.jp/products/49029697-american-gothic-six-decades-of-classic-horror-cinema store_origin: JP region: Japan --- # American Gothic: Six Decades of Classic Horror Cinema **Price:** ¥14067 **Availability:** ✅ In Stock ## Quick Answers - **What is this?** American Gothic: Six Decades of Classic Horror Cinema - **How much does it cost?** ¥14067 with free shipping - **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship - **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.jp](https://www.desertcart.jp/products/49029697-american-gothic-six-decades-of-classic-horror-cinema) ## Best For - Customers looking for quality international products ## Why This Product - Free international shipping included - Worldwide delivery with tracking - 15-day hassle-free returns ## Description In the long-awaited American Gothic Jonathan Rigby tells the story of the Hollywood horror film from its 19th-century beginnings through to the arrival of Vincent Price as a genre star in films like House of Wax and The Fly. This 60-year period encompasses the shadowy nightmares of the silent era, the breakthrough hits produced by Universal, Warner Bros and M-G-M in the early days of talkies, the thoughtful RKO chillers of the 1940s and the post-war boom in lurid science-fiction shockers. Out of print for more than ten years, American Gothic has been extensively revised and expanded, and is now available in hardback for the first time. Review: If you, like me, burn with the irresistible desire to penetrate the unknown, carry on... - Following the 2015 re-issue of the now-legendary English Gothic, and then 2016’s excellent Continental study Euro Gothic, Jonathan Rigby’s long-out-of-print American Gothic (first published in 2007) is now also available in a complimentary hardback edition, handsomely mounted like its companion volumes. Revised to include a small but valuable amount of new material, the vast majority of the content here is nevertheless retained wholesale from the decade-old first edition, though unlike the other two volumes, and despite broadening out its period of study slightly (the initial edition ended with a look at the Basil Rathbone / Lon Chaney / Bela Lugosi monster mash The Black Sleep from 1956, whilst the new one takes in Vincent Price chillers like 1958’s The Fly and 1959’s House on Haunted Hill) this study of classic US-made horror cinema does not attempt even a cursory overview of the genre’s development past the pre-Psycho (1960) period. This is of course because, unlike the UK and European fright film booms of the 1950s – 1970s that have been subjected to Rigby’s close focus, a ‘golden age’ of US horror flicks is much more difficult to identify, and thus in order to really address his key subject of ‘classic gothic’ the writer has had to essentially disregard American cinema’s ‘modern’ contributions to the genre out-of-hand, which is totally understandable. The sheer scale of US horror film production from 1960 onwards is so unconscionably vast that to cover it in anything like a level of detail comparable to that of Rigby’s past tomes would probably necessitate two more huge volumes at least, surely an unworkable task regardless of how passionately fans might feel that Romero, Friedkin, Carpenter and Craven are American cinema’s most important horror directors and the founding fathers of late 20th Century / early 21st Century scary movies. But enough about what American Gothic isn’t, this review is about what it is: the best book I have ever read on the subject of the classic American horror film. From the German Expressionism-influenced silent era through the Universal classics of the 1930s, the good and the bad to come from the other major Hollywood studios, the 'Poverty Row' howlers of the 1940s, and the Val Lewton-produced chillers from RKO, everything you’d expect is touched on; even Dwain Esper’s grotty proto-roughies get a suitable amount of coverage. As always, Rigby’s critiques remain well-reasoned and highly detailed, with the genre’s hero figures (Boris Karloff, Lionel Atwill, Jacques Tourneur) rightly lionised and celebrated whilst the somewhat more controversial contributions of other individuals are given the probing they deserve (I especially enjoyed Rigby’s identification of what is wrong with the hugely overrated horror-comedy films of James Whale, whilst his opinion of John Carradine’s sub-par Count Dracula very much echoes my own). In summary, this is an excellent book for real horror buffs and all thoughtful film fans, so please don’t miss it. Review: American Gothic: Six Decades of Classic Horror Cinema. - An impressively well-presented and substantial hardback volume, this is an entertaining and quite scholarly survey of American horror movies; the illustrations are mostly in black and white with a few pages of colour reproductions of posters; individual panels are laid out providing information on films of particular note within the more general narrative of each chapter; as others have noted, it rather disappointingly ends in 1959 so it is – to some readers perhaps - an incomplete reference. Otherwise, it's a good book for what it is; it is a companion volume to a couple of others by the author Jonathan Rigby and is certainly worth adding to one's library of cinema studies. ## Technical Specifications | Specification | Value | |---------------|-------| | Best Sellers Rank | 733,603 in Books ( See Top 100 in Books ) 214 in United States Cinema 359 in Horror Films 659 in Film Guides & Reviews | | Customer Reviews | 4.7 out of 5 stars 92 Reviews | ## Images ![American Gothic: Six Decades of Classic Horror Cinema - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/71a73GJCctL.jpg) ## Customer Reviews ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ If you, like me, burn with the irresistible desire to penetrate the unknown, carry on... *by M***Y on 31 October 2017* Following the 2015 re-issue of the now-legendary English Gothic, and then 2016’s excellent Continental study Euro Gothic, Jonathan Rigby’s long-out-of-print American Gothic (first published in 2007) is now also available in a complimentary hardback edition, handsomely mounted like its companion volumes. Revised to include a small but valuable amount of new material, the vast majority of the content here is nevertheless retained wholesale from the decade-old first edition, though unlike the other two volumes, and despite broadening out its period of study slightly (the initial edition ended with a look at the Basil Rathbone / Lon Chaney / Bela Lugosi monster mash The Black Sleep from 1956, whilst the new one takes in Vincent Price chillers like 1958’s The Fly and 1959’s House on Haunted Hill) this study of classic US-made horror cinema does not attempt even a cursory overview of the genre’s development past the pre-Psycho (1960) period. This is of course because, unlike the UK and European fright film booms of the 1950s – 1970s that have been subjected to Rigby’s close focus, a ‘golden age’ of US horror flicks is much more difficult to identify, and thus in order to really address his key subject of ‘classic gothic’ the writer has had to essentially disregard American cinema’s ‘modern’ contributions to the genre out-of-hand, which is totally understandable. The sheer scale of US horror film production from 1960 onwards is so unconscionably vast that to cover it in anything like a level of detail comparable to that of Rigby’s past tomes would probably necessitate two more huge volumes at least, surely an unworkable task regardless of how passionately fans might feel that Romero, Friedkin, Carpenter and Craven are American cinema’s most important horror directors and the founding fathers of late 20th Century / early 21st Century scary movies. But enough about what American Gothic isn’t, this review is about what it is: the best book I have ever read on the subject of the classic American horror film. From the German Expressionism-influenced silent era through the Universal classics of the 1930s, the good and the bad to come from the other major Hollywood studios, the 'Poverty Row' howlers of the 1940s, and the Val Lewton-produced chillers from RKO, everything you’d expect is touched on; even Dwain Esper’s grotty proto-roughies get a suitable amount of coverage. As always, Rigby’s critiques remain well-reasoned and highly detailed, with the genre’s hero figures (Boris Karloff, Lionel Atwill, Jacques Tourneur) rightly lionised and celebrated whilst the somewhat more controversial contributions of other individuals are given the probing they deserve (I especially enjoyed Rigby’s identification of what is wrong with the hugely overrated horror-comedy films of James Whale, whilst his opinion of John Carradine’s sub-par Count Dracula very much echoes my own). In summary, this is an excellent book for real horror buffs and all thoughtful film fans, so please don’t miss it. ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ American Gothic: Six Decades of Classic Horror Cinema. *by J***� on 12 December 2021* An impressively well-presented and substantial hardback volume, this is an entertaining and quite scholarly survey of American horror movies; the illustrations are mostly in black and white with a few pages of colour reproductions of posters; individual panels are laid out providing information on films of particular note within the more general narrative of each chapter; as others have noted, it rather disappointingly ends in 1959 so it is – to some readers perhaps - an incomplete reference. Otherwise, it's a good book for what it is; it is a companion volume to a couple of others by the author Jonathan Rigby and is certainly worth adding to one's library of cinema studies. ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Scary read *by N***R on 15 September 2025* Fantastic book --- ## Why Shop on Desertcart? - 🛒 **Trusted by 1.3+ Million Shoppers** — Serving international shoppers since 2016 - 🌍 **Shop Globally** — Access 737+ million products across 21 categories - 💰 **No Hidden Fees** — All customs, duties, and taxes included in the price - 🔄 **15-Day Free Returns** — Hassle-free returns (30 days for PRO members) - 🔒 **Secure Payments** — Trusted payment options with buyer protection - ⭐ **TrustPilot Rated 4.5/5** — Based on 8,000+ happy customer reviews **Shop now:** [https://www.desertcart.jp/products/49029697-american-gothic-six-decades-of-classic-horror-cinema](https://www.desertcart.jp/products/49029697-american-gothic-six-decades-of-classic-horror-cinema) --- *Product available on Desertcart Japan* *Store origin: JP* *Last updated: 2026-09-26*