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Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Horror films'
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Hauka, David Phillip. "Eschato-horror films." Thesis, University of British Columbia, 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/2429/50296.
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This thesis studies American studio feature films whose narratives are inspired by the Bible’s Book of Revelation. I identify these films as belonging to a subgenre of supernatural horror I have named ‘eschato-horror’. American eschato-horror films reflect Christian eschatology and its violent visions of cosmic war between divine and satanic forces. While supernatural horror films exploit our fear of death and evil, American Eschato-horror ups the cultural stakes through its representations of pseudo Catholic and other Christian ritual, scripture, and iconography in its mission to frighten the viewer. Other national cinemas produce their own eschatology inspired films, but the American rendering of the genre as produced and exported by major Hollywood studios and distribution companies dominates screens world-wide.
In order to better understand the cultural importance and usefulness of American Eschato-horror for film fans as well as self-identifying American Christian audiences, this thesis will study three examples of the genre, Constantine (Lawrence, 2005), Knowing (Proyas, 2009) and Legion (Stewart, 2010), all of which were produced by or for major American motion picture companies and distributors. Demonstrating that the version of eschatology found in their narratives reflects an identifiable American Protestant Christianity will be accomplished though an historical overview tracing Christianity from its roots as the marginalized, millennially-inspired “Jesus Cult,” to its evolution into one of the most powerful forces shaping American history and culture. The narrative elements associated with eschato-horror (monstrous women, self-sacrificing heroes, faithless priests, etc.), will be seen to be as much an expression of our collective fear of death and evil – forces James Carse associates with religion – as the Biblical illiteracy and confused understanding of Christianity identified by Stephen Prothero and Richard T. Hughes so central to contemporary America’s view of itself as being “a Christian Nation.” The reception of American Eschato-horror films as seen on film fan and Christian websites, especially in light of discourse similarities identified in film fan cults and religious cults, will be considered through the work of Matt Hills, Ernest Mathijs, Jamie Sexton and Jeff Hunter.Arts, Faculty of
Theatre and Film, Department of
Graduate
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Yau, Suk-ying Shirley. "Where has all the horror gone? : a study of horror in contemporary cinema /." Click to view the E-thesis via HKUTO, 2000. http://sunzi.lib.hku.hk/hkuto/record/B42575175.
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Yau, Suk-ying Shirley, and 邱淑瑩. "Where has all the horror gone?: a study of horror in contemporary cinema." Thesis, The University of Hong Kong (Pokfulam, Hong Kong), 2000. http://hub.hku.hk/bib/B42575175.
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Ryan, Mark David. "A dark new world : anatomy of Australian horror films." Thesis, Queensland University of Technology, 2008. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/18351/1/Thesis.pdf.
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After experimental beginnings in the 1970s, a commercial push in the 1980s, and an underground existence in the 1990s, from 2000 to 2007 contemporary Australian horror production has experienced a period of strong growth and relative commercial success unequalled throughout the past three decades of Australian film history. This study explores the rise of contemporary Australian horror production: emerging production and distribution models; the films produced; and the industrial, market and technological forces driving production. Australian horror production is a vibrant production sector comprising mainstream and underground spheres of production. Mainstream horror production is an independent, internationally oriented production sector on the margins of the Australian film industry producing titles such as Wolf Creek (2005) and Rogue (2007), while underground production is a fan-based, indie filmmaking subculture, producing credit-card films such as I know How Many Runs You Scored Last Summer (2006) and The Killbillies (2002). Overlap between these spheres of production, results in ‘high-end indie’ films such as Undead (2003) and Gabriel (2007) emerging from the underground but crossing over into the mainstream. Contemporary horror production has been driven by numerous forces, including a strong worldwide market demand for horror films and the increasing international integration of the Australian film industry; the lowering of production barriers with the rise of digital video; the growth of niche markets and online distribution models; an inflow of international finance; and the rise of international partnerships. In light of this study, a ‘national cinema’ as an approach to cinema studies needs reconsideration – real growth is occurring across national boundaries due to globalisation and at the level of genre production rather than within national boundaries through pure cultural production. Australian cinema studies – tending to marginalise genre films – needs to be more aware of genre production. Global forces and emerging distribution models, among others, are challenging the ‘narrowness’ of cultural policy in Australia – mandating a particular film culture, circumscribing certain notions of value and limiting the variety of films produced domestically.
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Ryan, Mark David. "A dark new world : anatomy of Australian horror films." Queensland University of Technology, 2008. http://eprints.qut.edu.au/18351/.
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After experimental beginnings in the 1970s, a commercial push in the 1980s, and an underground existence in the 1990s, from 2000 to 2007 contemporary Australian horror production has experienced a period of strong growth and relative commercial success unequalled throughout the past three decades of Australian film history. This study explores the rise of contemporary Australian horror production: emerging production and distribution models; the films produced; and the industrial, market and technological forces driving production. Australian horror production is a vibrant production sector comprising mainstream and underground spheres of production. Mainstream horror production is an independent, internationally oriented production sector on the margins of the Australian film industry producing titles such as Wolf Creek (2005) and Rogue (2007), while underground production is a fan-based, indie filmmaking subculture, producing credit-card films such as I know How Many Runs You Scored Last Summer (2006) and The Killbillies (2002). Overlap between these spheres of production, results in ‘high-end indie’ films such as Undead (2003) and Gabriel (2007) emerging from the underground but crossing over into the mainstream. Contemporary horror production has been driven by numerous forces, including a strong worldwide market demand for horror films and the increasing international integration of the Australian film industry; the lowering of production barriers with the rise of digital video; the growth of niche markets and online distribution models; an inflow of international finance; and the rise of international partnerships. In light of this study, a ‘national cinema’ as an approach to cinema studies needs reconsideration – real growth is occurring across national boundaries due to globalisation and at the level of genre production rather than within national boundaries through pure cultural production. Australian cinema studies – tending to marginalise genre films – needs to be more aware of genre production. Global forces and emerging distribution models, among others, are challenging the ‘narrowness’ of cultural policy in Australia – mandating a particular film culture, circumscribing certain notions of value and limiting the variety of films produced domestically.
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Bentley, Christina Mitchell. ""THAT'S JUST THE WAY WE LIKE IT": THE CHILDREN'S HORROR FILM IN THE 1980'S." Lexington, Ky. : [University of Kentucky Libraries], 2002. http://lib.uky.edu/ETD/ukyengl2002t00033/00cmbthe.pdf.
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Thesis (M.A.)--University of Kentucky, 2002.Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains vii, 63 p. : ill. Includes film clips utilizing MPG files. Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (p. 60-62).
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Zhang, Qian. "Women's Time and Reproductive Anxiety in Contemporary Horror Films." Ohio University / OhioLINK, 2018. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ohiou1532349287122159.
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Hutchings, Peter. "The British horror film : an investigation of British horror production in its national context." Thesis, University of East Anglia, 1989. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.329537.
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Wessinger, Alyssa L. "A Deconstruction of Horror, Fear and Terror: Using Horror Films as Didactic Tools in Art Education." Digital Archive @ GSU, 2011. http://digitalarchive.gsu.edu/art_design_theses/85.
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This arts-based study discusses using the horror film and monsters as a means of exploring the personification of fear in contemporary society. The paper incorporates the viewing and dissection of horror films into an artistic process to explore fears in order to further artistic expression. It additionally shows how this process can be used in an art classroom within the context of contemporary art to empower students and facilitate art criticism discussions.
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Williams, Colby D. "Reading 9/11 in 21st Century Apocalyptic Horror Films." Digital Archive @ GSU, 2011. http://digitalarchive.gsu.edu/english_theses/116.
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The tragedy and aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks are reflected in American apocalyptic horror films that have been produced since 2001. Because the attacks have occurred only within the past ten years, not much research has been conducted on the effects the attacks have had on the narrative and technological aspects of apocalyptic horror. A survey of American apocalyptic horror will include a brief synopsis of the films, commentary on dominant visual allusions to the 9/11 attacks, and discussion of how the attacks have thematically influenced the genre. The resulting study shows that the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, have shaped American apocalyptic horror cinema as shown through imagery, characters, and thematic focus of the genre.
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Egers, Wayne. "David Cronenberg's body-horror films and diverse embodied spectators." Thesis, McGill University, 2002. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=82863.
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This dissertation is an interdisciplinary study of David Cronenberg's body-horror films in relation to their embodied spectators. In these films, the horror is not only about the vulnerability of the mortal body, but also about the horrific consequences of organizing culture around the philosophical splitting of the mind from the body. To analyze this relationship, I utilize Merleau-Ponty's phenomenology of the body, object-relations psychoanalysis, especially D. W. Winnicott's theory of the intermeshed psyche-soma, various pro-feminist approaches to horror films, and a concept of ideology informed by nonverbal communication research. The historical arc of Cronenberg's body-horror films has produced a unique cultural record of the impact of technological change on physical bodies through dark fantasies of biological-medical technologies in Shivers, Rabid, The Brood, and Scanners; video communication technologies in Videodrome; and genetic-engineering technologies in The Fly .My primary thesis is that Cronenberg's body-horror films encourage spectators to "read" not only with their rational-cognitive skills but with their embodied experience as well, which includes emotional and sensory memories, and fantasies, both archaic and contemporary. Cronenberg's appeal to an integrated psyche-soma reading is crucial for understanding how the culturally induced splitting of the mind from the body impacts on working class resistance to exploitative ideology.
In chapter one I argue that the diverse and contradictory readings of Cronenberg's body-horror films are possible, because of the interdependence of the cinematic text, historical and cultural context, and the embodied experience of spectators-critics. Chapter two is a preliminary step towards developing an alternative theory of the horror film spectator, by exploring the productive tension between an active, creative and embodied real viewer, and an ideologically determined, ideal subject of the cinematic apparatus. Chapter three compares Cronenberg's fantasy of metamorphosis body-horror to the fantasy of "leaving the body behind" depicted in many contemporary cyborg films. Chapter four is a series of close readings, analyzing how Cronenberg embeds "imaginary spectators" into his body-horror films through interweaving the body language of his characters and the nonverbal communication of the mise en scene with narrative strategies formulated through the plot.
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Rech, Gisele Krodel. "Baseado em uma história real : o jornalismo como referência em Horror em Amityville /." Bauru, 2019. http://hdl.handle.net/11449/181331.
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Orientador: Marcelo Magalhães BulhõesBanca: Ana Sílvia Lopes Davi Médola
Banca: José Carlos Marques
Banca: Laura Loguercio Cânepa
Banca: Valquiria Michela John
Resumo: Apesar de recorrente como referência de filmes dos mais variados gêneros, os textos jornalísticos nem sempre ganham a devida atenção no âmbito da pesquisa cinematográfica. Nesta tese, busca-se lançar um olhar ao tema, direcionando o trabalho para as narrativas jornalísticas usadas como referencial para cineastas, que transformam em narrativa audiovisual a representação da realidade de uma história que ganhou as páginas dos jornais ou de um livro-reportagem. O foco da pesquisa é no cinema de horror, que costuma não apenas valer-se deste material, como também se utilizar do vínculo com a não ficção como estratégia para atrair o espectador com a promessa da reprodução de um "caso verídico". Parte- se, pois, da hipótese de que a frase "baseado em uma história real" no início da película funciona como estímulo da curiosidade do espectador. Para o presente estudo, optou-se pelo clássico Horror em Amityville (The Amityville Horror, 1979), adaptado do livro-reportagem homônimo de Jay Anson, de 1977, que ganhou uma nova edição no Brasil neste ano, pela Darkside. O remake de 2005, cujo título é o mesmo, também faz parte da pesquisa. Como corpus de análise, também serão utilizadas reportagens do jornal Newsday, de Long Island, do período em que a história da casa supostamente mal-assombrada foi destaque e do crime que teria dado início à história de assombração. O objetivo desta pesquisa é analisar como se dá o entrelaçamento de narrativas jornalísticas, jornalístico- literária e cinema... (Resumo completo, clicar acesso eletrônico abaixo)
Abstract: Although recurring as a reference of films of varied genres, journalistic texts do not always gain an attention in the space of film research. In this thesis, the aim is to take a look at the theme, to direct the work to narrate the news narratives as a reference for the filmmakers, who transform the audiovisual narrative into a presentation of the reality of a winning story as pages of a book or a book - reporting. The focus of the research is horror film, which is not only a didactic material, but also makes use of a link with a strategy to attract the viewer with the promise to replicate a true case. It is therefore hypothesized that the phrase "based on a true story" at the beginning of the film works as a stimulus for the spectator's curiosity. For the present study, we opted for the classic Amityville Horror (1979 and 2005), adapted from Jay Anson's eponymous book, which won a new edition in Brazil this year by Darkside. The remake of 2005, whose title is the same, is also part of the research. As a corpus of analysis, reports from the Newsday newspaper of Long Island will also be used for the period in which the story of the supposedly haunted house was highlighted and the crime that would have started the haunting story. The objective of this research is to analyze how the intertwining of journalistic, journalistic-literary and cinematographic narratives occurs, seeking in this work to point out how the process of translation from one medium to another was transformed... (Complete abstract click electronic access below)
Doutor
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Cherry, Brigid S. G. "The female horror film audience : viewing pleasures and fan practices." Thesis, University of Stirling, 1999. http://hdl.handle.net/1893/2268.
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What is at stake for female fans and followers of horror cinema? This study explores the pleasures in horror film viewing for female members of the audience. The findings presented here confirm that female viewers of horror do not refuse to look but actively enjoy horror films and read such films in feminine ways. Part 1 of this thesis suggests that questions about the female viewer and her consumption of the horror film cannot be answered solely by a consideration of the text-reader relationship or by theoretical models of spectatorship and identification. A profile of female horror film fans and followers can therefore be developed only through an audience study. Part 2 presents a profile of female horror fans and followers. The participants in the study were largely drawn from the memberships of horror fan groups and from the readerships of a cross-section of professional and fan horror magazines. Qualitative data were collected through focus groups, interviews, open-ended questions included in the questionnaire and through the communication of opinions and experiences in letters and other written material. Part 3 sheds light on the modes of interpretation and attempts to position the female viewers as active consumers of horror films. This study concludes with a model of the female horror film viewer which points towards areas of female horror film spectatorship which require further analysis. The value of investigating the invisible experiences of women with popular culture is demonstrated by the very large proportion of respondents who expressed their delight and thanks in having an opportunity to speak about their experiences. This study of female horror film viewers allows the voice of an otherwise marginalised and invisible audience to be heard, their experiences recorded, the possibilities for resistance explored, and the potentially feminine pleasures of the horror film identified.
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Sutandio, Anton. "Historical Trauma and the Discourse of Indonesian-ness in Contemporary Indonesian Horror Films." Ohio University / OhioLINK, 2014. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ohiou1395861044.
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Burn, Andrew Nicholas. "Pleasures of the spectatorium : young people, classrooms and horror films." Thesis, University College London (University of London), 1998. http://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/10020307/.
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This thesis is an ethnographic study of Year 9 school pupils' responses to horror films, and, in particular, The Company of Wolves (Jordan, 1984). It employs social semiotic theory to analyse both film texts and audience engagements with such texts, exploring how such engagements involve transformations of subjectivity, particular kinds of competence in reading visual codes, and certain types of affective response to horror texts. It explores, briefly, histories of elements of the horror genre, especially the figures of the werewolf and the folktale heroine, in the period from the Enlightenment to the present day. The thesis develops a theory of textual pleasure in relation to horror films, drawing on Bakhtin's theory of carnival, Freud's theories of pleasure, and Bourdieu's theory of taste. It argues that fear and pleasure are related in this context; that such pleasures are socially situated; and that they relate to forms of textual identification. A theory of the sublime is also developed in the context of the social semiotics of film, exploring the history of the sublime from Kant and Burke to postmodernist theory. It is argued that sublime images operate through a dialectic of revelation and concealment, and that audiences replicate this mechanism in their viewing, and in the social sites in which they spectate. These structures are associated, furthermore, with socially-determined structures of aesthetic taste, and ways in which these in turn determine texts as popular or elite (or a hybrid of the two). Finally, the thesis addresses the pedagogies of English and Media Studies, arguing that classrooms need to become spectatorial spaces, open to new literacies of the visual, and equipped with the texts, technologies, and practices adequate to these new competences.
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McDougald, Melanie. "Where I am, There (Sh)it will be: Queer Presence in Post Modern Horror Films." unrestricted, 2009. http://etd.gsu.edu/theses/available/etd-07162009-154006/.
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Thesis (M.A.)--Georgia State University, 2009.Title from file title page. Margaret Mills Harper, committee chair; Calvin Thomas, Mary Hocks, committee members. Description based on contents viewed Oct. 14, 2009. Includes bibliographical references (p. 47-48); filmography (p. 49-51).
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Tso, Wing-bo, and 曹穎寶. "Representation of female vampires in Bram Stoker's "Dracula" and horror films." Thesis, The University of Hong Kong (Pokfulam, Hong Kong), 2004. http://hub.hku.hk/bib/B29940412.
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Vermaak, Janelle Leigh. "Part one: "Horror versus terror in the body genre" : part two: "Silent planet"." Thesis, Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, 2007. http://hdl.handle.net/10948/636.
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This article seeks to investigate this balance and to interrogate the difference between horror and terror in an attempt to contribute to the development of a systematic genre typology. A brief history of the genre will be given, after which the focus will fall on contemporary Horror film, paying specific attention to the relationship between violence and horror, the theme of sacrificial violence, and the transgression of ‘natural’ laws. An eclectic approach is followed, drawing from literary theory, theology, psychology, and, of course, film theory.
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Collard, Jessica Michelle. "Can You Believe She Did THAT?!:Breaking the Codes of "Good" Mothering in 1970s Horror Films." Scholar Commons, 2012. http://scholarcommons.usf.edu/etd/4301.
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The threats found in horror films change with time, each decade consisting of threats that were most frightening for the time period. Horror film scholars, such as Andrew Tudor, determined that in 1970s horror films the threat has migrated from external forces into the home and the family. Invading aliens and monsters were thrown replaced by psychosis and evil children. This notion of making the familiar unfamiliar and threatening is paralleled in concerns addressed during the second-wave of feminism; women were making the normative and familiar idea of mother unfamiliar as they migrated from the private and into the public sphere.
This thesis looks at what happens when women from three separate horror films of the 1970s begin to trouble the normative ideas of what a good mother is by exaggerating the very conventions themselves. The films of analysis are Halloween (John Carpenter, 1978), The Brood, and Carrie (Brian De Palma, 1976). Rather than directly defying normative expectations of the good mother, the women of these films adhere to these codes in such exaggerated fashions that they become monstrous. Once the spectator deems these women as monstrous, their behavior is noted as performative and open to a possible reimaging of what constitutes a good mother.
It is in this possible reimagination of the good mother, due to negative illumination rather than positive prescription, where the revolutionary power of the carnivalesque perspective truly lies. As the main theoretical framework for this thesis, Mikhail Bakhtin's carnivalesque perspective grants spectators the chance to participate in the reimaginations of the normative construction of the good mother. It is here where the monstrosity of these mothers can be seen as not solely as monstrous but also as critical of the normative. As the monstrous interrogates the normative, the spectators begin to question the patriarchal ideals and expectations of the good mother, which allows for reimagining of what constitutes the good mother.
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Camargo, Sandy. "Once more with feeling : film genre and emotional experience /." free to MU campus, to others for purchase, 2000. http://wwwlib.umi.com/cr/mo/fullcit?p9988650.
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Trento, Paola <1995>. "Contemporary Black Horror Films: Reinventing Representations of Blackness to Question Post-Racial America." Master's Degree Thesis, Università Ca' Foscari Venezia, 2022. http://hdl.handle.net/10579/21646.
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The aim of this thesis is exploring four contemporary Black Horror films in which African American filmmakers reinvent 20th century horror stereotypes of Blackness, to address an active critique of the “Post - Racial” myth and affirm the inclusion of Black life within American society.
The first section draws on R. Means Coleman’s Horror Noire and historically outlines the problematic involvement that Blackness has endured in 20th century horror cinema. Indeed, monstrous depictions of Blackness originated in the 19th century Blackface minstrelsy, and became evident in 1930s Hollywood films Ingagi (1930) and King Kong (1933). This part also explains the distinction between “Blacks in Horror” and “Black Horror” genres, vital to identify the value of horror movies that are instead based on and supportive of Black perspectives. As a matter of fact, the 1970s era of “Blaxploitation Films” is a time of representational achievements for Black filmmakers, who produce their own horror visions in the wake of the Civil Rights political movement.
The second section focuses on four Black Horror movies of the contemporary era: Get Out (2017) and Us (2019) by J. Peele, The First Purge (2018) by Gerard McMurray, and Amazon Prime’s Them: Covenant (2021) by L. Marvin. It will be demonstrated that these films create innovative horror stories through an authentic Black vision and purpose, either subverting racist and grotesque images of Blackness of the 20th century or advancing and empowering previous Black Horror achievements. By making provocative counter narratives, these productions utilise the frightening effects of this genre to reflect on the ambiguity of the “Post Racial” ideology, and actively criticise the invisible discriminations still pervading the American political system.
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Green, Jr Alan Edward. "the post- 9/11 aesthetic: repositioning the zombie film in the horror genre." Scholar Commons, 2013. http://scholarcommons.usf.edu/etd/4798.
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This dissertation explores a body of films produced after the events of 9/11, and while examining this specific point of departure, the author presents the argument on the vast cultural relevancy of the omnipresent zombie. These films are interrogative and complex, offering the viewing audience a rich tapestry of interwoven meanings. Furthermore, the author suggests that the zombie trope has, in fact, left the genre altogether, reinserted into a style of films he labels as "non-zombie appropriation." Chapter 1 introduces the zombie genre as both part of the larger horror genre aesthetic and as its' own legitimate subgenre. The zombie has a rich cinematic history, going back more than seven decades; heretofore, the last decade continues to see an unabated release of the viewing world's favorite creature. Chapter 2 examines 28 Days Later and the sequel 28 Weeks Later as critical films functioning as works that refocus the zombie for the twenty-first century. As no serious discussion of filmic zombies can occur without the immeasurable significance of George A. Romero, chapter 3 concentrates on the auteur reclaiming a genre he helped to invent with his films Land of the Dead and Diary of the Dead. These two works show a director that refuses to rest on his laurels by encoding these films with rich post-9/11 concerns. In chapter 4, the examination of the disparate films Equilbruim and The Happening discuss the utilization of non-zombie appropriations, films with no discernible zombies, but for all intents and purpose, imitate that specific narrative. By way of conclusion, chapter 5 continues the non-zombie trope with the abstract (and indeed postmodern) They Came Back. The chapter ends with an augmentation of the framework and with other concerns for the argument. This dissertation should be of interest to both horror scholarship overall and zombie films in particular. It aims to provide a refined reading of a significant body of works and add to the current and critical legitimization to this important style of cinematic artistry.
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Cupp, Lauren. "The Final Girl Grown Up: Representations of Women in Horror Films from 1978-2016." Scholarship @ Claremont, 2017. http://scholarship.claremont.edu/scripps_theses/958.
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Carol Clover defined a Final Girl as a stereotype of the pure, virginal sole survivor in 1980’s slasher films such as Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Halloween. But does this representation hold up in 2016 films? Because the horror genre is so broad today, it’s almost impossible to nail down a certain stereotype of the genre, if there even is one. Films like the 1996 slasher parody Scream historically subverted the slasher genre, and since then there has been little to no iconic Final Girls. I argue that this trope is one very much set inside the confines of the 1980’s slasher genre, and instead is being replaced by an older, more responsible Dysfunctional Mother female character that arises from supernatural films of the late 2000’s-2010’s.
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Hubber, Duncan. "Diegetic wounds : the representation of individual and collective trauma in found footage horror films." Thesis, Federation University Australia, 2021. http://researchonline.federation.edu.au/vital/access/HandleResolver/1959.17/179533.
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The type of horror film known as “found footage” was prominent in the 2000s and early 2010s. The term refers to films that aim to scare their audience, and which are primarily shot diegetically, with handheld and surveillance cameras that exist within the world of the film. The thesis identifies conceptual, aesthetic, and thematic links between found footage horror films and psychological trauma theory. For example, in each film the premise of the characters and viewers finding footage of a frightening event evokes the victim’s belated recollection of a traumatic experience. Additionally, the often-frantic cinematography and ambiguous formulation of the monster evokes the shocked and disoriented cognition of the trauma victim in the wake of their experience. Finally, the experience and effect of trauma on society is a recurring theme of found footage horror films. By examining 14 films, this thesis aims to answer the question: how do found footage horror films represent the relationship between individual and collective trauma? It theorises that individual trauma is conveyed through the films’ point-of-view (POV) aesthetic, while collective trauma is conveyed through their narrative themes. The thesis groups the films into four categories, each of which addresses a different aspect of trauma theory. Firstly, Remote found footage horror films, such as The Blair Witch Project (Myrick and Sánchez 1999), are examined as depictions of national historical traumas. Secondly, Urban found footage horror films, such as Cloverfield (Reeves 2008), are read as depictions of contemporary global traumas. Thirdly, Domestic found footage horror films, such as Paranormal Activity (Peli 2009), are framed as depictions of systemic domestic trauma. Fourthly, Perpetrator found footage horror films, such as Man Bites Dog (Belvaux, Bonzel and Poelvoorde 1992), are examined as depictions of perpetrator trauma. The thesis disputes the claim made by numerous critics and theorists that found footage horror films do not constitute a subgenre, but merely a cinematographic style or marketing gimmick. By demonstrating their aesthetic and thematic consistency, and the manifold ways that found footage horror can be read as representing trauma, the thesis argues that the films constitute a specific subgenre of horror cinema. The thesis makes significant contributions to knowledge by identifying, testing and demonstrating links between horror film theory, genre theory, spectator theory, and psychological and collective trauma theory. It conducts a broad survey of a recent subgenre of horror films that has, thus far, only received sporadic and insubstantial academic attention. It also presents an original theory that explains the psychological and sociological subtext of the subgenre, and the cultural insights that the films provide.Doctor of Philosophy
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Alley, Timothy D. "Gamers and gorehounds the influence of video games on the contemporary horror film /." Ohio : Ohio University, 2007. http://www.ohiolink.edu/etd/view.cgi?ohiou1180049224.
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Wilson, Alison E. "Hannibal Lecter v. Immanuel Kant : an application of Kantianism to graphic horror film /." Connect to online version, 2007. http://ada.mtholyoke.edu/setr/websrc/pdfs/www/2007/221.pdf.
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Ng, Hei Tung. "The representation of the mothers in J-horror." HKBU Institutional Repository, 2007. http://repository.hkbu.edu.hk/etd_ra/836.
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Stull, Gretchen Brinson Susan L. "It's a man's world representations of gender and competing ideologies in ""Shaun of the Dead /." Auburn, Ala., 2008. http://hdl.handle.net/10415/1542.
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Gartside, William Stanley. "Young Love can be Torture: An Autoethnography Exploring the Making of "High School Sweethearts"." [Milwaukee, Wis.] : e-Publications@Marquette, 2009. http://epublications.marquette.edu/theses_open/3.
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Bound, Keith. "'Terror & tension' psychophysiological suspense : defining a framework to measure cinematic suspense in 21st century horror films." Thesis, University of Nottingham, 2016. http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/38100/.
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The construction of suspenseful sequences has been a crucial component for filmmakers to engage the viewer, especially within the thriller and horror genres. This thesis takes a new approach to understanding cinematic suspense by creating a psychophysiological model to measure cinematic suspense and subsequently viewer experience. To date, film scholars and media psychologists have defined the process of suspense in terms of specific story case studies, rather than first independently identifying the components of suspense. Such theories become selective and open to subjective interpretation and have provided misinterpretations of the phenomenon of suspense (Friedrichsen, 1996: 329). Suspense then by existing definitions is not measurable and makes it hard to quantify any discussion of cinematic suspense in relation to viewer experience. Although film scholars and media psychologists recognise that the experience of suspense involves cognition, emotion and physiology, only media psychologists have carried out empirical studies with viewers. Even taking this into consideration there have only been a few psychophysiological studies about the experience of suspense (Kreibig, 2010: 408). Furthermore there is a methodological dilemma, with film scholars preferring a qualitative approach, often via film textual analysis, and media psychologists primarily taking a quantitative approach, analysing data sets using statistical models, which film scholars see as offering little contribution to the complexities of film analysis (Smith, M. 2013). The differences between these methodological approaches raise the question of whether we can gain a greater insight into viewers’ experiences of suspense by drawing elements from both research methods and identifying the most appropriate methods, procedures and techniques to defining cinematic suspense. One strategy for achieving this is to turn to the field of Human Computer Interaction (HCI) which often uses mixed methods approaches to resolve such interdisciplinary differences, especially in gaining a deeper insight into user/viewer experience of narrative trajectories (Benford et al. 2009). This thesis takes an inter-disciplinary approach that combines film studies, media psychology, HCI and psychophysiology. By drawing from film studies and media psychology it will identify the components of cinematic suspense and create a framework to measure suspense. Taking an HCI experiment approach in designing and analysing the findings of the ‘Terror & Tension’ film experiment, 20 viewers watched 32 short film clips from 8 horror films, dispersed through 4 sub-genres and 4 suspense narrative structures, defined by film scholar Susan Smith: vicarious, direct, shared and composite (Smith, S. 2000). Triangulation was used as a mixed methods approach to capture and analyse three data sets which include: firstly, viewer physiological responses, which were measured in terms of anxiety durability and intensity level by recording viewers’ skin conductance responses (SCRs), a component of electrodermal activity (EDA). The findings were then tested to verify the physiological framework to measure viewer experience of suspense. This led to the development of an EDA model of suspense. Viewer feedback was captured through verbal self-reports, which were recorded after watching each film clip. These physiological responses and feedback were then analysed alongside textual analysis of the film clips in a series of case studies to provide a deeper insight into how cinematic suspense is constructed through narrative elements, cinematography, sound and mise-en-scène. The research findings demonstrate that the EDA model of suspense makes a valuable contribution to film analysis and understanding viewer experience of suspense and offers psychophysiology a new framework to measure suspense in terms of anxiety durability and intensity.
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Clayton, George Wickham. "Bearing witness to a whole bunch of murders : the aesthetics of perspective in the 'Friday the 13th' films." Thesis, University of Roehampton, 2013. https://pure.roehampton.ac.uk/portal/en/studentthesis/bearing-witness-to-a-whole-bunch-of-murders(3b4e4093-9711-49f6-808f-ba55852871bd).html.
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With twelve films released over the last thirty years, the Friday the 13th series has proved a popular mainstay of the slasher sub-genre of horror, in spite of negative critical reception and minimal academic engagement. The academic discourses that do address the series often frame their arguments based on socio-political function, socioeconomic platforms, psychoanalytic traditions, and cultural relevance. While there is some work that attempts to understand the generic positioning and function of the Friday the 13th films, little work has engaged with the film texts in order to understand and explain the form and structure of each instalment in the series. This thesis not only aims to explore and describe the aesthetic form of the slasher sub-genre of horror, but also to argue the central significance of perspective on the aesthetic effect of the slasher. Perspective, a term that builds upon theories of point of view and subjectivity, permeates the formal design of the slasher film. Therefore, this relationship will be the driving focus of the analysis undertaken with regards to the Friday the 13th films, which will include chapters focusing on specific uses of the camera, sound, editing, and sequences creating a narrative understanding of preceding films in the series. Following this analysis, the aesthetic development of the Friday the 13th series will be contextualised within contemporary generic trends, demonstrating to what extent this franchise is representative of the slasher, and where it proves anomalous or progressive. This will not only demonstrate the role the Friday the 13th films play within the slasher, but also how the slasher has aesthetically evolved over more than three decades. Ultimately, the relevance of this analysis and formal historicizing will be suggestive of the wider context of film studies and cinema as a whole.
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Boer, Raphael Albuquerque de. "Who is going to save the final girl? the politics of representation in the films halloween and the silence of the lambs." reponame:Repositório Institucional da UFSC, 2014. https://repositorio.ufsc.br/xmlui/handle/123456789/129422.
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Tese (doutorado) - Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Centro de Comunicação e Expressão, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Inglês: Estudos Linguísticos e Literários, Florianópolis, 2014Made available in DSpace on 2015-02-05T21:04:30Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 329053.pdf: 1341507 bytes, checksum: d00163e78ad924bf591e9c3fd8125b5d (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014
Abstract: This dissertation aims at analyzing female representations in two film productions of the North American horror cinema, specifically of its subgenre slasher films, namely Halloween, directed by John Carpenter (1978) and The Silence of the Lambs, directed by Jonathan Demme (1991). My main theoretical framework is film, representation, gender, feminist and queer theories (Butler, 1990, 1993; Clover, 1989; Dika, 1985, Halberstam, 1995; Hall 1973, 1997; Mulvey, 1975, 1981; 2006; Rockoff, 2006; Weedon, 1995). My hypothesis is that the figure of the final girl, in the two films selected for analysis, is not progressive as suggested by the author Carol Clover in her work Men, Women and Chainsaws (1989). On the contrary, the two female characters are represented, in the narrative, as subjugated by the patriarchal system that has been conventionalized in the slasher subgenre. In order to provide arguments for my hypothesis, I analyze general aspects of both form and content of the two films, as well as specific scenes, using the cinematic elements of mise-en-scène, props, characterization, editing and lighting in order to obtain relevant results for my research.
Esta tese de doutorado objetiva analisar as representações femininas em duas produções cinematográficas do cinema de horror Norte-americano, especificamente do seu subgênero slasher films, intituladas Halloween, dirigido por John Carpenter (1978) e The Silenceof the Lambs, dirigido por Jonathan Demme (1991). Para tal análise, eu utilizo como referencial teórico as teorias de estudos de cinema, representação, gênero, feministas e queer (Butler, 1990, 1993; Clover, 1989; Dika, 1985; Halberstam, 1995; Hall, 1973, 1997; Halberstam, 1995; Mulvey, 1975; 1981; 2006; Rockoff, 2006; Weedon, 1995) para compor os meus argumentos. A minha hipótese consiste no fato de que a figura da final girl não é inovadora como sugere a autora Carol Clover em sua obra Men, Women and Chainsaws (1989). Ao contrário, a personagem feminina é representada na narrativa como subjugada pelo sistema patriarcal que se convencionou em filmes do gênero. Para a investigação da minha hipótese, foram feitas análises gerais dos filmes propostos, tanto considerando suas formas quanto conteúdos, bem como a de cenas específicas, utilizando-se dos elementos de cinema tais como mise-èn-scene, elementos de cena, caracterização de personagens, edição e luz a fim de obter resultados relevantes para a minha pesquisa.
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Tyrrell, Kimberley English Media & Performing Arts Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences UNSW. "???The monsters next door???: representations of whiteness and monstrosity in contemporary culture." Awarded by:University of New South Wales, 2007. http://handle.unsw.edu.au/1959.4/35639.
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The focus of this thesis is the examination of whiteness as a dominant identity and subject position. Whiteness has conventionally assumed a normative, monolithic status as the template of humanity. Recent theorising has attempted to specify and denaturalise whiteness. In order to participate in this fracturing of whiteness, I analyse examples in which it functions as a site of contested and ambiguous contradiction. To this end, I use contemporary monstrosity to examine whiteness. Monstrosity is a malleable and culturally specific category of difference that measures alterity, and by displaying discursive functions in an extreme form offers insight into the ways in which deviance and normativity operate. I argue that the conjunction of whiteness and monstrosity, through displaying whiteness in a negative register, depicts some of the discursive operations that enable whiteness to attain such hegemonic dominance. I deploy theories of marginalisation and subjectivation drawn from a variety of feminist, critical race, and philosophical perspectives in order to further an understanding of the discursive operations of hegemonic and normative subject positions. I offer a brief history and overview of both the history and prior conceptualisations of monstrosity and whiteness, and then focus on two particular examples of contemporary white monstrosity. I closely examine the representation of monstrosity in serial killer films. The figure of the serial killer is typically a white, heterosexual, middle class male whose monstrosity is implicitly reliant upon these elements. In my discussion of the recent phenomenon of fatal shootings at high schools in North America, I investigate the way the massacre at Columbine High School functions as the public face of the phenomenon and for the unique interest it generated in the mass media. I focus on a Time magazine cover that featured a photograph of the adolescent perpetrators under the heading The Monsters Next Door, which condensed and emblematised the tension that they generated. It is through the perpetrators uneasy occupation of dual subject positions???namely the unassuming all American boy and the contemporary face of evil???that their simultaneous representation as average and alien undermines the notion of whiteness as neutral and invisible.
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Janes, Jen. "The Texas chainsaw massacre: our collective nightmare." [Denver, Colo.] : Regis University, 2008. http://165.236.235.140/lib/JJanes2008.pdf.
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Willis, Andrew. "Violent exchanges : genre, national cinemas and the politics of popular films : case studies in Spanish horror and American martial arts cinema." Thesis, University of Nottingham, 2007. http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/13908/.
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This thesis argues that in order to understand the way in which films work one has to place them into a variety of contexts. As well as those of production, these include the historical and culturally specific moments of their creation and consumption. In order to explore how these contexts impact upon the textual construction of individual and groups of films, and our potential understanding of them, this study offers two contrasting case studies of critically neglected areas: Spanish horror cinema since the late-1960s; and US martial arts films since the late 1980s. The first places a range of horror films into very particular historical moments: the Spain of the Franco regime; the transition to democracy in the late 1970s and early 1980s; and the contemporary, increasingly trans-national, Spanish film industry. Each chapter in this section looks in detail at how the shifts and changes in Spanish society, the critical reception of cinema, and production trends, has impacted upon the texts that have appeared on increasingly international screens. The second case study considers the shifts and changes in the production of US martial arts films. It discusses the problem of defining an area of filmmaking that is more commonly associated with a different filmmaking tradition, in a different national cinema. Each chapter here investigates the ways in which 'martial arts movies' operate in strikingly different production contexts. In particular, it contrasts films made within the US mainstream or Hollywood cinema, and the exploitation world that functions on its fringes. Finally, these case studies suggest that a fuller understanding of these works can only be achieved by utilising a number of approaches, both textual and contextual; creating an approach which Douglas Kellner has described as 'multiperspectival'.
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Ruben, Jennifer Lynn. "Illusionary Strength; An Analysis of Female Empowerment in Science Fiction and Horror Films in Fatal Attraction, Aliens, and The Stepford Wives." Wright State University / OhioLINK, 2012. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=wright1355753729.
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Walfridsson, Martina. "Now You See It, Now You Don’t. : The Interplay Between Cinematography and Creature-Subject in 1980’s American and British Horror Films." Thesis, Örebro universitet, Institutionen för humaniora, utbildnings- och samhällsvetenskap, 2016. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:oru:diva-49026.
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Ponte, Charles 1976. "Indústria cultural, repetição e totalização na trilogia Pânico." [s.n.], 2011. http://repositorio.unicamp.br/jspui/handle/REPOSIP/269972.
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Orientador: Fábio Akcelrud DurãoTese (doutorado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Estudos da Linguagem
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Resumo: Ao longo do último século, o modus operandi da indústria cultural foi responsável por um movimento de padronização dos artefatos culturais, constituindo um eixo tensional entre repetição e inovação que abarca em todas as artes, mas especialmente no cinema, tendo este uma maior necessidade de retorno dos investimentos feitos para sua realização. Dessa forma, considerando o cinema feito nos Estados Unidos como o principal representante do entretenimento fílmico, é natural que esta homogeneização lhe seja mais intensa, um aspecto convenientemente negligenciado pelas críticas especializadas, posto que estas costumam enfatizar, acertadamente, aqueles filmes de maior complexidade, terminando por iludir os leitores acerca da real porcentagem de filmes com tal qualidade. Assim, o objetivo desta tese é observar a composição de uma dessas obras costumeiramente não contempladas pela crítica, a trilogia de horror Pânico (1996; 1998; 2000), dirgida por Wes Craven, partindo da leitura cerrada de seus principais componentes estruturais - enredo, personagens, espaço e foco narrativo - e comparando-a a outros de seu subgênero, para verificar a existência de uma tensão dialética de aproximação ou distanciamento da estandardização das formas diegéticas e como esses movimentos estão relacionados com as estratégias de comercialização dos produtos. Para isso, este trabalho lança mão de um corpo de teorias de diversas áreas, desde a literatura e o cinema até o grupo de pensadores abarcado pelo epíteto Teoria, mas sempre permeado pelo conceito de indústria cultural de Adorno e Horkheimer (1985) e pelas elaborações posteriores de Adorno (2001) sobre do tema. No corpus, por um lado, a tensão entre a repetição das formas e seu rearranjo ocorre em todos os componentes selecionados, de modo que a trilogia Pânico continua a pertencer ao subgênero slasher em sua composição, ao menos na superfície, apesar de conter uma grande parcela de hibridização de outros gêneros, notadamente a estruturação das duas personagens principais, heroína e monstro, bem como de parte de sua découpage; por outro lado, há uma parcela de inovações atribuídas à trilogia, em especial a presença de uma variada veia metaficcional, uma raridade em todo o gênero horror, mas também a diminuição das cenas violentamente explícitas. Contudo, pode-se confirmar, através da interpretação dos resultados, que as modificações permitidas nunca ameaçam a quebra da quarta parede, ou mesmo a expectativa da plateia em relação aos filmes, de modo que se devem considerar praticamente todas as alterações como controladas para emular uma novidade falaciosa
Abstract: Throughout last century, the culture industry's modus operandi was responsible for a standardizing movement in cultural artifacts, constituting a tensional axis between repetition and innovation that embraces all arts, but mainly in film, having the latter a greater need for returns in its production investments. That way, regarding the American cinema as the main representative of filmic entertainment, it is natural that its homogenization is more intense, an aspect conveniently overlooked by specialized critiques, since they tend to emphasize, correctly, those films of higher complexity, ultimately deluding readers about the actual percentage of quality works. Thus, the objective of this dissertation is to observe the composition of one of these usually non critically contemplated ones, the horror trilogy Scream (1996; 1998; 2000), directed by Wes Craven, starting by the close reading of its main structural components - plot, characters, setting and point of view - and comparing it to others pertaining to the same subgenre, in order to verify the existence of a dialectic tension of approximation or distancing to the standardized diegetic forms and how these movements are related to product selling strategies. For doing so, this work makes use of a body of theories from multiple areas, from literature and film studies to the group of thinkers encapsulated under the alias Theory, but always permeated by Adorno and Horkheimer's concept of culture industry (1985), and by Adorno's further elaborations on the theme (2001). In the corpus, on the one hand the tension between formal repetition and its rearrangement occurs in all selected components, so that the trilogy remains as a member of the slasher subgenre, at least in its surface, despite containing a great amount of hybridization, notably by the structuring of its main characters, heroin and monster, as well as part of its découpage; on the other hand, there is a number of innovations attributed to the trilogy, especially the presence of a varied metafictional vein, rare in all of the horror genre, but also the lessening of violently graphic scenes. However, it can be confirmed, through the interpretation of results, that the allowed modifications never threaten the breaking of the fourth wall, or even the audience expectations for the films, in a way that practically all alterations should be considered as controlled to emulate a fallacious novelty
Doutorado
Literatura e Outras Produções Culturais
Doutor em Teoria e História Literária
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Sjöström, My. "Skräckfilmernas Sverige : En diskursanalys om reproduktionen av Sverige i skräckfilmer." Thesis, Umeå universitet, Institutionen för geografi, 2021. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-183830.
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Visual images produce a version of the world, films do so by several images per minute. Films have power to choose who and what is represented and how. This can lead to misrepresentations and the reenforcing of stereotypes. From the outside, Sweden as a country is usually associated with health, safety and equality. However within Sweden another image is produced regarding its peripheral areas. A rural area which is seen mainly as an opposite of the urban city. This study aims to use a multimodal critical discourse analysis to explore de reproduction of the Swedish in two selected horror films. The study also explores the concept of place importance in relation to the films stories and setting. The films are produced outside of Sweden but uses Swedish peripheries as its setting and Swedish culture as means of telling a story. The results found that although the films differ in their use and reconstruction of the peripheral of Sweden some similarities were found. Nordic mythology, sects and human sacrifices are just a small part of the mutual display of Sweden between the two horror films.
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Tsang, Wai-ho, and 曾煒豪. "Post-9/11 American gothic family in The hills have eyes duology and Twilight saga." Thesis, The University of Hong Kong (Pokfulam, Hong Kong), 2012. http://hub.hku.hk/bib/B48395079.
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9/11 attacks open the 21st Century into the fear of the Other, which is coincidentally at the core of the Gothic tradition. In post-911 Gothic texts, the tension of Self and Other can be seen from the gothic family (representing homeland and country) and the gothic monster (representing foreign, dangerous intruder) respectively. This essay is a close study of two sets of Hollywood films dealing with such tension - Twilight saga and The Hills Have Eyes duology. It is argued, with Foucault’s notion of Power/Knowledge, that such Hollywood gothic productions further create and hence reinforce the fear of, but not suppress, the Other. The 21st Century Gothic genre is therefore no longer subversive, but appropriated to educate the unaware public.published_or_final_version
Literary and Cultural Studies
Master
Master of Arts
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Scales, Adam. "Logging into horror's closet : gay fans, the horror film and online culture." Thesis, University of East Anglia, 2015. https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/59454/.
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Harry Benshoff has boldly proclaimed that ‘horror stories and monster movies, perhaps more than any other genre, actively invoke queer readings’ (1997, p. 6). For Benshoff, gay audiences have forged cultural identifications with the counter-hegemonic figure of the ‘monster queer’ who disrupts the heterosexual status quo. However, beyond identification with the monstrous outsider, there is at present little understanding of the interpretations that gay fans mobilise around different forms and features of horror and the cultural connections they establish with other horror fans online. In addressing this gap, this thesis employs a multi-sited netnographic method to study gay horror fandom. This holistic approach seeks to investigate spaces created by and for gay horror fans, in addition to their presence on a mainstream horror site and a gay online forum. In doing so, this study argues that gay fans forge deep emotional connections with horror that links particular textual features to the construction and articulation of their sexual and fannish identities. In developing the concept of ‘emotional capital’ that establishes intersubjective recognition between gay fans, this thesis argues that this capital is destabilised in much larger spaces of fandom where gay fans perform the successful ‘doing of being’ a horror fan (Hills, 2005). This, I argue, illustrates that gay horror fandom is constructed and performed differently across fan spaces as a means to articulate gay identity in culturally meaningful ways. In presenting the voices of gay fans, the significance of this thesis lies in challenging existing models of horror fandom by suggesting its multiplicity for the fans researched. Indeed, whilst the ‘knowledgeability’ (Hills, 2005) of horror fans is important, this study explores the meaningful connections that gay fans establish with one another and the cultural significance of horror to the identity work of fans across distinctive online spaces.
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Ruggieri, Maria Cristina. "Le vampire : origines folkloriques et transpositions cinématographiques." Paris 3, 2007. http://www.theses.fr/2007PA030157.
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"L'"existence" du vampire est un leitmotiv récurrent dans des époques et des domaines très éloignés. Ses origines doivent être recherchées en partant de l'anthropologie, puisqu'elles sont étroitement liées aux croyances ancestrales et aux craintes ataviques de l'être humain. Mon étude se propose d'analyser les étapes et les éléments fondamentaux qui ont permis au non-mort d'exister depuis toujours et de s'adapter à chaque circonstance historique, géographique et culturelle. En particulier, en bâtissant un pont entre deux disciplines très éloignées, le folklore et le cinéma, je vise à cerner ce qui reste au cinéma de l'image du vampire archétype, dont les origines plongent dans les domaines de l'anthropologie et du folklore. "The vampire is a recurring leitmotiv that can be found in differents ages and differents environments. His origins are connected to ancestral beliefs and human fears. The purpose of my study consiste in finding the archetypal vampire in modern vampire cinema
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Haynes, Simon. "Narrating horror : the horror film as cultural construct." Thesis, Keele University, 1997. http://eprints.keele.ac.uk/3841/.
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This thesis examines horror films through an application of cultural analysis (primarily the work of Pierre Bourdieu) to selected texts in order to answer critics employing psychoanalytic perspectives to horror. It argues that psychoanalysis misses much of the heart of horror texts through its claims that textual 'meaning' lies within individuals rather than in the society in which horror texts were produced. Bourdieu's hypotheses are applied to films, along with the work of more specific horror analysts such as Mark Jancovich, amending and fusing these approaches in order to question psychoanalytic criticism. The thesis argues that a limited academic canon of texts is employed in the (still relatively rare) analysis of horror, and that such a narrowing of the field is inappropriate and limiting. It argues that the study of extreme and banned material in analysis is constructive academically,accessing underground horror production through an extended focus on horror fan culture, following Robin Wood's assertion that horror aficionados form horror's main body of consumers. Through an examination of how fan culture perceives and defends itself, material previously neglected by academia, though potentially of great interest to cultural analysis (such as the underground and banned films) is analysed alongside canonical texts. The thesis focuses mainly on post-1968 films, and so examines the influence of post-Fordist economics and ideals on the texts that it studies, arguing that at every level these structures construct the subtle fears of horror's audiences, delimited through what texts present as frightening. This is developed alongside a consideration of important historical events and cultural ideals surrounding the production of texts. It is argued that such events exert subtle influences during textual creation, and that they help to exacerbate the audience fears that horror films exploit. It is also argued that, with amendment, auteur theory may be applied to some horror directors, despite the majority of internal textual meanings being generated by a film's cultural frame rather than purely its director. Though, through the horror underground and accepted academic canons many types of horror film are considered, especial attention is given to the Slasher and Possession genres, which, it is argued, oppose directly each other's subtextual, ideological agendas. Analysis of other genres and the texts (both canonical and underground/banned)t hat compose them is present throughout the thesis. Underlying all analysis is a consideration of how the mass (British and U. S) media seeks to demonise horror and its consumers, and how legislation against texts and individuals brings together fans in an alternative culture through the fanzines that they read. It is hoped that through such an approach and emphasis on the non-canonical as well as the canonical, future academic analysis of horror will be more comprehensive in its choice of studied texts. This could occur, I suggest, through an acknowledgement that, following Wood, central to the analysis of horror is an understanding of its aficionados and the culture that they forge for themselves.
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Rogers, Alan. "The contemporary horror film." Thesis, Sheffield Hallam University, 1990. http://shura.shu.ac.uk/3121/.
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This thesis approaches the contemporary horror film from a number of directions. Firstly, it is considered in relation to the historical roots of horror fiction, the tradition of the literary Gothic which stretches back as far as the late eighteenth century. The same chapter elaborates the broad outline of a methodology, drawing upon an established body of genre theory in both literary and film studies, which is then applied to the gradual diffusion of the Gothic legacy into the related genres of detective stories/thrillers, horror, and science-fiction, the inter-relatedness of these three genres forming part of the cultural context for modern horror. Chapter 3 considers Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho (1960) in relation to the structures and iconography of the original Gothic, and in the light of its fusion of conventions drawn from the horror film and the thriller. Chapter 4 compares this film with a similarly influential movie - Halloween - made almost two decades later, assessing some of the changes which the genre has undergone in the intervening period. The following five chapters (5-9) discuss a number of films of the period 1968 - 80, paying particular attention to works that have figured prominently in the established critical literarure around the genre, both as an appraisal of existing approaches and as an indication of the immediate context for developments over the last decade. The remaining four chapters (10 - 13) consider some developments of the 1980's, disputing the critical construction of the "body horror" category and providing an account of the horror-comedies which have generally been neglected by critics. The conclusion involves a synthesis of the material covered and a return to the Gothic tradition in order to conceptually situate the findings. There is an extensive biblography involving a variety of material ranging from popular magazines and newspapers to influential academic works, drawn more or less equally from the fields of literary criticism and film studies.
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Harrington, Erin Jean. "Gynaehorror: Women, theory and horror film." Thesis, University of Canterbury. Cultural Studies, School of Humanities and Creative Arts, 2014. http://hdl.handle.net/10092/9586.
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This thesis offers an analysis of women in horror film through an in depth exploration of what I term ‘gynaehorror’ – horror films that are concerned with female sex, sexuality and reproduction. While this is a broad and fruitful area of study, work in it has been shaped by a pronounced emphasis upon psychoanalytic theory, which I argue has limited the field of inquiry. To challenge this, this thesis achieves three things. Firstly, I interrogate a subgenre of horror that has not been studied in depth for twenty years, but that is experiencing renewed interest. Secondly, I analyse aspects of this subgenre outside of the dominant modes of inquiry by placing an emphasis upon philosophies of sex, gender and corporeality, rather than focussing on psychodynamic approaches. Thirdly, I consider not only what these theories may do for the study of horror films, but what spaces of inquiry horror films may open up within these philosophical areas.
To do this, I focus on six broad streams: the current limitations and opportunities in the field of horror scholarship, which I augment with a discussion of women’s bodies, houses and spatiality; the relationship between normative heterosexuality and the twin figures of the chaste virgin and the voracious vagina dentata; the representation and expression of female subjectivity in horror films that feature pregnancy and abortion; the manner in which reproductive technology is bound up within hegemonic constructions of gender and power, as is evidenced by the figure of the ‘mad scientist’; the way that discourses of motherhood and maternity in horror films shift over time, but nonetheless result in the demonisation of the mother; and the theoretical and corporeal possibilities opened up through Deleuze and Guattari’s model of schizoanalysis, with specific regard to the 'Alien' films. As such, this thesis makes a unique contribution to the study of women in horror film, while also advocating for an expansion of the theoretical repertoire available to the horror scholar.
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Roberts, Phillip Christopher. "Madeline Usher: An Opera in One Act." Bowling Green State University / OhioLINK, 2014. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1395398280.
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Wise, Krista Michelle. ""I Won't Let Anyone Come Between Us" Representations of Mental Illness, Queer Identity, and Abjection in High Tension." Bowling Green State University / OhioLINK, 2014. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1395416795.
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Downes, Sarah. "Bodily sensation in contemporary extreme horror film." Thesis, Loughborough University, 2014. https://dspace.lboro.ac.uk/2134/17114.
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Bodily Sensation in Contemporary Extreme Horror Film provides a theory of horror film spectatorship rooted in the physiology of the viewer. In a novel contribution to the field of film studies research, it seeks to integrate contemporary scientific theories of mind with psychological paradigms of film interpretation. Proceeding from a connectionist model of brain function that proposes psychological processes are underpinned by neurology, this thesis contends that whilst conscious engagement with film often appears to be driven by psychosocial conditions – including cultural influence, gender dynamics and social situation – it is physiology and bodily sensation that provide the infrastructure upon which this superstructure rests. Drawing upon the philosophical works of George Lakoff, Mark Johnson and Alain Berthoz, the argument concentrates upon explicating the specific bodily sensations and experiences that contribute to the creation of implicit structures of understanding, or embodied schemata, that we apply to the world round us. Integrating philosophy with contemporary neurological research in the spheres of cognition and neurocinematics, a number of correspondences are drawn between physiological states and the concomitant psychological states often perceived to arise simultaneously alongside them. The thesis offers detailed analysis of a selection of extreme horror films that, it is contended, conscientiously incorporate the body of the viewer in the process of spectatorship through manipulation of visual, auditory, vestibular, gustatory and nociceptive sensory stimulations, simulations and the embodied schemata that arise from everyday physiological experience. The phenomenological film criticism of Vivian Sobchack and Laura U. Marks is adopted and expanded upon in order to suggest that the organicity of the human body guides and structures the psychosocial engagement with, and interpretation of, contemporary extreme horror film. This project thus exposes the body as the architectural foundation upon which conscious interaction with film texts occurs.
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Ainslie, Mary Jane. "Contemporary Thai horror film : a monstrous hybrid." Thesis, Manchester Metropolitan University, 2012. http://e-space.mmu.ac.uk/556479/.
Full textAbstract:
This thesis aims to dispute derogatory and disdainful attitudes towards contemporary Thai film, ones that follow a long history of viewing Thailand and Thai culture as inferior. Through conducting a case study of the popular horror genre I illustrate that New Thai cinema follows a hybrid film form that has resulted in such condescending interpretations. This is an amalgamation of an earlier post-war 'characteristically Thai' film style that is a product of the lower-class rural context and the globally dominant EuroAmerican 'Natural Language' of horror. Furthermore, I illustrate that while Thai film in the post-war era targeted the provincial lower-classes, the post-97 New Thai industry has now shifted to an elite-sponsored model that promotes social conformity in the face of social crisis. My research indicates that the continued presence of lower-class characteristics from this earlier era of film disrupts the ideologically conservative agenda of New Thai productions and functions as a traumatic expression of lower-class subjectivity in this increasingly elitist age. The film form of contemporary Thai productions can therefore ultimately be attributed to the continuing and increasing level of social inequality within the country and the increasing political polarisation of Thai society in recent years.
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Christol, Florent. "Massacres et mascarades : « Hop-Frog » d'Edgar Poe (1849) et le film d'horreur américain contemporain (1964-1984)." Thesis, Poitiers, 2013. http://www.theses.fr/2013POIT5014.
Full textAbstract:
Le slasher est un sous-genre du film d'horreur reposant sur une figure de tueur masqué punissant en apparence la sexualité adolescente. Très populaire auprès du public adolescent de 1978 à 1984, il serait, selon de nombreux critiques, une expression de sadisme « gratuit ». Cependant, toute production culturelle possède une légitimité qui peut lui être conférée en trouvant une clé de lecture adéquate. Cette clé est selon-nous un archétype culturel que nous nommons foolkiller, et qui figure une victime marginale sanctionnant les actes irresponsables mettant en danger les membres les plus faibles de la communauté. Cet archétype convoque l'imaginaire médiéval du charivari, un rite de justice folklorique punissant les manquements à la morale. Pour parvenir à cette référence, il est nécessaire de montrer que le slasher a masqué un genre plus large qui gravite autour d'une victime humiliée se vengeant de ses persécuteurs et qui inclue des films comme Willard (1971), Carrie (1976), ou encore Fade to Black (1980). Or, on peut trouver une formulation prototypique de cette histoire dans Hop-Frog (1849), une nouvelle d'Edgar Poe racontant la vengeance d'un bouffon difforme persécuté par un roi sadique. Nous envisageons cette nouvelle comme un artefact prototypique de l'archétype culturel du foolkiller dont le genre masqué par le slasher est une expression contemporaine. L'étude de cette nouvelle et de ses références culturelles permet de comprendre le fonctionnement de l'archétype et son apparition en réponse à une crise sacrificielle au sens où l'entend René Girard. Une crise du même genre est repérable dans la culture américaine des années 1970, ce qui explique la résurgence de l'archétype à cette périodeThe slasher movie is a horror film sub-genre featuring a masked killer supposedly punishing teenage sexuality. Extremely popular among teens from 1978 to 1984, it is generally discarded by serious critics as a spectacle of gratuitous violence. However, the genre can be granted some legitimacy once it is seen as a contemporary form of a cultural archetype which we call "foolkiller". This archetype revolves around a freak avenging its own humiliation at the hands of bullies and punishing irresponsible acts endangering the weakest people in a community. Culturally speaking, this archetype has roots in the medieval practice of "rough music", a masked demonstration organized to humiliate some wrongdoer and to punish moral transgressions in the community. In order to access this cultural reference, it is necessary to show that the attention given the slasher film has concealed the existence of another genre, comprising slasher films but also movies such as Willard (1971), Carrie (1976), and Fade to Black (1980), whose protagonist is a victim avenging its persecution. This plot can also be found in "Hop-Frog", a short-story written by Edgar Allan Poe in 1849. It tells the story of a jester dwarf bullied by a cruel king. We argue that this tale is a prototypical artifact of the foolkiller archetype, which also informs the genre concealed by the slasher film. The cultural frame of this short story enables us to understand how the archetype functions and its relationship to what René Girard calls a "sacrificial crisis". Such a crisis is at work within 1970's American culture, which explains why the archetype reappears during this time.The slasher movie is a horror film sub-genre featuring a masked killer supposedly punishing teenage sexuality. Extremely popular among teens from 1978 to 1984, it is generally discarded by serious critics as a spectacle of gratuitous violence. However, the genre can be granted some legitimacy once it is seen as a contemporary form of a cultural archetype which we call "foolkiller". This archetype revolves around a freak avenging its own humiliation at the hands of bullies and punishing irresponsible acts endangering the weakest people in a community. Culturally speaking, this archetype has roots in the medieval practice of “rough music”, a masked demonstration organized to humiliate some wrongdoer and to punish moral transgressions in the community. In order to access this cultural reference, it is necessary to show that the attention given the slasher film has concealed the existence of another genre, comprising slasher films but also movies such as Willard (1971), Carrie (1976), and Fade to Black (1980), whose protagonist is a victim avenging its persecution. This plot can also be found in "Hop-Frog", a short-story written by Edgar Allan Poe in 1849. It tells the story of a jester dwarf bullied by a cruel king. We argue that this tale is a prototypical artifact of the foolkiller archetype, which also informs the genre concealed by the slasher film. The cultural frame of this short story enables us to understand how the archetype functions and its relationship to what René Girard calls a "sacrificial crisis". Such a crisis is at work within 1970's American culture, which explains why the archetype reappears during this time