The Highway Horror Film argues that 'Highway Horror' is a hither-to
overlooked sub-genre of the American horror movie that articulates
profound unease about the increasingly transitory nature of modern
American life, as well as the wider impact of mass automobility. Along
with the establishment of the suburbs, the post-1956 construction of the
Interstate Highway System represents one of the most dramatic
innovations of post-war American society. The new network of
well-maintained and well-constructed roads provided Americans with a
freedom to move around the entire nation that had previously been denied
to them. In addition, the car assumed the vitally important practical
and symbolic function it holds to this day. Both of these innovations
are questioned in this landmark study. In Highway Horror films, the
American landscape is by its very accessibility rendered terrifyingly
hostile, and encounters with other travellers (and with those whose
roadside businesses depend on highway traffic) almost always have
sinister outcomes.