The Politics of Monstrous Figures in Contemporary Cinema: Witches, Zombies, and Cyborgs Re‐Enchanting the Ends of the World. By Sticchi, Francesco, New York: Routledge, 2025. 166 pp. £123.98 (hardcover). ISBN: 978‐9‐04‐856338‐8

Francesco Sticchi's The Politics of Monstrous Figures in Contemporary Cinema offers a timely and engaging examination of how monstrosity helps us make sense of the present. Rather than treating monsters as simple symbols of fear, the book positions cyborgs, witches, and zombies as figures that invite new ways of imagining political resistance and collective life in an era of late capitalist crisis. By connecting cinematic monsters to debates about neoliberalism, reproductive justice, and ecological collapse, Sticchi creates a work that is essential reading for scholars of film, political theory, and cultural studies. At the same time, the book's clear engagement with popular cinema makes it accessible and relevant beyond academic audiences. The book is organized into four chapters, each centered on a specific monstrous figure and its associated themes. Chapter 1, “Cyborgs: Ownership and the Self,” challenges transhumanist narratives that frame cyborgs as simple extensions of the individual. Drawing on films such as Possessor and Westworld, Sticchi argues that identity and the body are far more fluid and unstable, connecting these questions to exploitation and extraction in digital capitalism. Chapter 2, “Apocalypse: Reproductive Crises and Capitalist Suicidal Machines,” examines apocalyptic worlds in Children of Men, Snowpiercer, and The Road. Sticchi identifies a form of “cruel optimism” in their depictions of destruction and links these narratives to class inequality, reproductive politics, and ecological collapse, ultimately revealing the limits of capitalist imaginaries and the need for new social arrangements. Chapter 3, “Witches: The Transformative Struggle of Re-Commoning,” turns to the figure of the witch as a symbol of resistance and transformation. Tracing witchcraft's historical ties to women's bodies, sexuality, and care work, Sticchi analyzes films like The Witch, Midsommar, and I Am Not a Witch to show how they offer alternative visions of motherhood, community, and collective care. This chapter engages directly with debates on reproductive rights, the feminization of labor, and communal action. Chapter 4, “Zombies: Undead Retaking the Earth,” interprets zombies as reflections of both capitalism's failures and its revolutionary possibilities. Sticchi contrasts Hobbesian stories that emphasize authoritarian control with films such as Night of the Living Dead and World War Z, which highlight cooperation and collective transformation. He also connects zombie narratives to issues of race, colonialism, and environmental crisis, framing the undead as figures that gesture toward posthuman futures. Sticchi's most compelling strength is his ability to weave an interdisciplinary conversation with existing scholarship while also charting new critical directions. He positions his work alongside foundational texts such as Jeffrey J. Cohen's Monster Theory and David McNally's Monsters of the Market, but extends these debates by bringing together film-philosophy, feminist theory, and Marxist critique. This allows him to treat monsters not simply as metaphors but as “affective and conceptual environments” (p. 21) that shape how we understand the world. His discussion of cyborgs illustrates this well. Building on Donna Haraway's “Cyborg Manifesto,” Sticchi analyzes films like Possessor (2020) and Blade Runner 2049 (2017) to challenge dualistic ideas of selfhood. He frames technological entanglement as a space where alienation and political resistance intersect. Drawing on Mark Fisher's concept of “capitalist realism,” he shows how monstrous bodies expose the tensions within possessive individualism—for example, in his sharp reading of Tony Stark/Iron Man as a neoliberal fantasy of technological ownership, contrasted with the queered, ecological cyborg of Titane (2021). The chapters on witches and reproductive politics further demonstrate Sticchi's innovative approach. While Silvia Federici's Caliban and the Witch links witch-hunts to early capitalist accumulation, Sticchi extends this analysis to contemporary cinema, arguing that films such as Midsommar (2019) and The Witch (2015) recast witches as figures of “re-commoning” (79). He also critiques liberal feminist narratives like The Handmaid's Tale (2017) for centering individual rights over collective care, aligning his argument with Verónica Gago's Feminist International. His reading of “dark motherhood,” ranging from the abortion narrative in Happening (2021) to Ellen Ripley's unsettling maternal role in Alien (1979), avoids simplistic celebration or condemnation of maternal figures and contributes meaningfully to debates on reproductive labor. Sticchi's treatment of zombies as a “modern myth” (115) is equally engaging. Building on George A. Romero's influence, he distinguishes authoritarian, Hobbesian interpretations (e.g., The Walking Dead) from more collective, Spinozist visions (e.g., Land of the Dead) that imagine the undead as a revolutionary “multitude” (p. 139). This argument challenges claims of zombie fatigue, such as Lars Bang Larsen's, by showing how recent films like Zombi Child (2019) and Atlantics (2019) use the figure to explore colonial trauma and racial capitalism. The book concludes with a playful yet pointed coda—“five steps to becoming a zombie” (147)—which urges readers to embrace relationality, resist individualism, and “walk slowly” (149) in opposition to capitalist extraction. The book is not without limitations. Its focus on Western cinema leaves out non-Western monstrous traditions, such as Chinese jiangshi or South Asian witch figures, which could deepen its analysis of coloniality and resistance. While Sticchi's engagement with Deleuzian and Spinozist theory is productive, it may challenge readers less familiar with that philosophical vocabulary; a brief glossary would have improved accessibility. These critiques, however, are minor and offer useful directions for future scholarship without detracting from the force of Sticchi's arguments. Overall, The Politics of Monstrous Figures in Contemporary Cinema succeeds in its goal to “re-enchant” the apocalypse. Sticchi shows that horror and science fiction are not simply mirrors of collective anxiety but tools for imagining different futures. By placing cinematic monsters in dialogue with thinkers such as Federici, Fisher, Haraway, and Gago, he offers a model of interdisciplinary scholarship that effectively bridges critical theory and popular culture. For scholars, the book provides a compelling new framework for understanding political resistance in visual media. For general readers, it opens up a way of seeing monsters not as threats but as companions in confronting systemic injustice. In a moment defined by ecological crisis and political paralysis, Sticchi's work reminds us that the most frightening figures on screen may also be the ones that help us envision a more just and interconnected world. The authors have nothing to report. The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.