Horror movies at home: Supernatural horror, delivery systems and 1980s Satanic Panic

This article examines the relationship between 1970s-era supernatural horror films, the emergence of new delivery systems in cable television and home video and the ‘Satanic Panic’ of the 1980s. It demonstrates the role of the 1970s supernatural horror film in the historically situated cultural feedback loop that produced the Satanic Panic, with Hollywood films such as The Exorcist by Friedkin (1973) and The Amityville Horror by Rosenberg (1979) being consumed within new social and technological contexts in the early 1980s. It also investigates how cable television and home video forever altered moviegoing practices during the period, bringing horror into the home and arousing fears surrounding young people and contact with sinister and supernaturally associated forces beyond control.