Adam Dawtrey, European editor of Variety, attempts to put this in context. “In 1999 fantasy was still considered a relatively small earner. With Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter, it has become vast. It’s not that there are more spotty teenage boys around, it’s simply that we’ve all become more like spotty teenage boys. There’s been a trend in popular culture towards legitimising child-like or adolescent pursuits. Previously, we were supposed to grow out of stuff like that. Now that notion has broken down.”
This cultural blurring is reflected in a new lexicon of marketing spiel, spotlighting such emergent consumer groups as the “kidult” or “adultescent” (whose age ranges from 25-35), the “middle youther” (35-45) and the “silver surfer” (internet users in their dotage).
In the past decade, this once-derided minority has mutated and metastasised. The unloved school swots of the 20th century have blossomed into the alpha group of the 21st. They have gold cards and chat rooms and a whole rash of “pre-marital” (and sometimes post-marital) interests that demand satisfaction. They have dictated the mainstream and spirited us all along for the ride. I am reminded of the circus performers’ chant at the end of Tod Browning’s 1932 classic Freaks: “One of us. One of us.”
Back in Forbidden Planet, I run across Debra, a trainee barrister who is scrutinising the Living Dead Dolls in the Gothic section (