The Blackest Eyes . . . The Devil’s Eyes
Chapter 3 refines the discussion of the sensational address and horror spectatorship by analyzing the first-person camerawork that I dub “Killer POV.” Killer POV—a subjective camera without a reverse shot—is at the center of many of the most influential writings on modern horror. However, these discussions often start from the assumption that the camera’s point of view produces identification with the unseen killers or monsters whose perspectives we presume to be represented. This chapter attempts to disengage our understanding of horror spectatorship from such models to provide an alternative reading of Killer POV that engages with the genre’s structures of looking and being looked at while remaining sensitive to what precisely is being communicated to viewers by these shots. Killer POV signals to the viewer the presence of a threat without displaying the killer onscreen. This chapter reads Killer POV through the lens of the sensational address, understanding it in terms of its effects on the spectator. In this reading, Killer POV does not elicit fantasies of mastery and control, but, rather, separates the dominating, sadistic look of the killer from the viewer’s powerless look at Killer POV.