American Twilight

Kristopher Woofter and Will Dodson have achieved a minor miracle in scholarship, beginning the long-term definition of an artist who, in his turbulent lifetime, went from being one of the most despised filmmakers in the world (congressmen, especially, liked to blame him for the moral dissolution of America) to a visionary worthy of study. Tobe Hooper’s bleak and subversive vision angered critics who were holding on to the outdated idea of a triumphant western culture full of happy families and just leaders. Though Hooper made two of the most successful horror films in history—one for the grindhouses and drive-ins, one for the suburban multiplexes—he was always mistrusted, second-guessed, and undermined by the Hollywood establishment he longed to be part of. Hollywood couldn’t trust him with the third act: the redemptive one, the square-up that brings us back to middle-class normalcy. He couldn’t do it: every time he got there, he said, ‘I don’t see it that way.’ These essays tell that story from the inside out, from the metatext we all missed the first time around.

— Joe Bob Briggs, America's foremost drive-in movie critic

American Twilight strongly refutes, qualifies, and broadens all previous assessments, good or bad, of Hooper’s career and does it long-overdue justice. One comes away convinced that Hooper was indeed a major figure in the horror genre and that his themes were rich and consistent.

— Rick Worland, author of The Horror Film: An Introduction

Attesting to the paramount importance of Tobe Hooper’s enigmatic work, the scholarship in American Twilight is of a consistently high quality and is wonderfully evocative. Featuring fresh insights, this study is urgently needed in the field of horror studies.

— Gary Rhodes, author of The Birth of the American Horror Film

In American Twilight, Hooper is given the attention he deserves as a contributor to the canon of horror as a genre for his exploration of an 'America in crisis.'

— No Film School

[Tobe Hooper's] subversive and fascinating body of work…is given its due in editors Kristopher Woofter and Will Dodson's American Twilight…[Hooper is] an artist who—lacking unlimited Hollywood resources—still found ways to mine his obsessions late into his fraught career...Those who agree will find American Twilight indispensable.

— Film International

[A] well-edited collection of essays...[American Twilight] offers a nice mixture of close readings of individual or small groups of [Tobe Hooper's] films and discussions of the machinations of the film and television industry and its relationship to the auteur in the period from 1974 to 2006. If one of the editors' goals was to encourage readers to see Hooper’s less-known works, they certainly succeed...All of the contributors elevate the director from the realm of forgotten genius...Highly recommended.

— CHOICE