House of Psychotic Women

An Autobiographical Topography of Female Neurosis in Horror and Exploitation Films

De: Kier-La Janisse

Narrado por: Kier-La Janisse

House of Psychotic Women is an autobiographical exploration of female neurosis in horror and exploitation films.

Cinema is full of neurotic personalities, but few things are more transfixing than a woman losing her mind onscreen. Horror as a genre provides the most welcoming platform for these histrionics: crippling paranoia, desperate loneliness, masochistic death-wishes, dangerous obsessiveness, apocalyptic hysteria. Unlike her male counterpart—the eccentric'—the female neurotic lives a shamed existence, making these films those rare places where her destructive emotions get to play.

Named after the US-retitling of Carlos Aured's The Blue Eyes of the Broken Doll, House of Psychotic Women is an examination of these characters through a daringly personal autobiographical lens. Anecdotes and memories interweave with film history, criticism, and trivia to create a reflective personal history and an examination of female madness, both onscreen and off.

Contains mature themes.

©2012 Kier-La Janisse (P)2023 Tantor

I am broken and thank goodness for that

Her story is so like mine, like the kids I work with. And the way it touched me isn’t going away

perfect

this may not be helpful to anyone but I just finished and immediately restarting it

Essential Reading or Listening

So glad to have an audio version of Kier-La Janisse’s now classic memoir, film analysis read by the author.

Perhaps THE best book ever written about film

One of the most erudite – and personal – books ever published about art and the ways it can help us better understand ourselves, House of Psychotic Women is finally available as an audiobook, and what a treat it is. The author's narration is a joy to listen to, and makes this very personal story feel even more personal still.

It should be noted that:

1) This covers the original 2012 release (as the cover suggests) and not the 2022 expanded edition. This makes little difference as:

2) The A-Z appendix of film reviews is absent from the audio edition. Though these are missed, that absence should encourage listeners to get their hands on the print or ebook version of this publication. (The print version, at least, features beautiful film stills and poster art throughout.)

Thank you FAB Press, for this book and now this audiobook!

Great to have an audio version

An absolute masterpiece of film criticism and memoir. I’d recommend both the audio version and the physical book