Repeat to Remake: Diablo Cody and Karyn Kusama’s Jennifer’s Body

2018 ◽  
pp. 60-99
Author(s):  
Katarzyna Paszkiewicz
Keyword(s):  
Horror Films ◽  
Media Culture ◽  
Women Filmmakers ◽  
Horror Genre ◽  
Film Distribution ◽  
Productive Potential ◽  
The Relationship

If, as Jane Gaines (2012) suggests, instead of ‘transgressing’ the formal dictates of the industrial genre (that is, instead of ‘going against genre’), some women filmmakers ‘go with genre’, this might be particularly so in the case of horror cinema. The analysis of the much-maligned Jennifer’s Body (2009), written by Diablo Cody and directed by Karyn Kusama, demonstrates precisely this point. The chapter begins by discussing the marketing of Jennifer’s Body, in order to show how those in charge of film distribution and publicity used the director’s and writer’s gender as a promotional tool, and how the filmmakers themselves might have determined certain feminist and postfeminist readings of their film. These readings are contextualised within Diablo Cody’s broader self-promotional activities and her “commercial auteurism” (Corrigan 1991) and raise several questions about what is at stake when women practitioners make horror films and the implications should a filmmaker self-identify as a feminist filmmaker. The chapter then offers a close examination of Jennifer’s Body by rethinking the theories of Barbara Creed (1993) and Carol J. Clover (1992) and by inscribing the film within the wider context of teen movies and postfeminist media culture, making room for reflection on female spectatorial pleasures. It concludes that rather than undoing the horror genre, Jennifer’s Body explores its productive potential, participating in its continuous re-inscription of the relationship between women and violence.

“I’m Nervous That Horror Films Are Immoral”

2021 ◽  
pp. 71-86
Author(s):  
Mathias Clasen
Keyword(s):  
Moral Psychology ◽  
Real World ◽  
Horror Films ◽  
Moral Panics ◽  
Horror Genre ◽  
Cautionary Tales ◽  
The Relationship

The horror genre has historically been the focus of several moral panics, most recently revolving around films in the “torture porn” subgenre, and before that around “video nasties,” rape-revenge films, and splatter movies. However, there is no research to support a concern that horror fans are immoral or that horror films make people unempathetic or sadistic. Horror films are more morally complex than many critics have assumed, and the relationship between horror films and moral psychology is also more complex than critics have assumed. Studies have also shown that horror films may actually be associated with a decrease in real-world violence. Moreover, horror films (with their roots in cautionary tales) are often moralizing, but their effects on viewers’ moral compasses may be limited.

scholarly journals “Demons to some. Angels to others”: BDSM and how Vanilla Sex Regulates Sexuality in Hellraiser and Strangeland

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexandrea Fiorante
Keyword(s):  
Popular Culture ◽  
Social Order ◽  
Horror Films ◽  
Psychological Disorder ◽  
Statistical Manual ◽  
Horror Genre ◽  
Diagnostic And Statistical Manual ◽  
Identity Disclosure ◽  
Mainstream Culture ◽  
The Relationship

[Introduction] Setting the Mood Sex is typically seen as special, thrilling and transcendent — or, alternatively, as a menacing force with the power to upset social order and diminish us to beasts. In the horror genre, representations of sex are often expressed through the imagery of BDSM (Bondage, Domination, Sadomasochism), and are aligned with monsters, torture and scary settings. The reality of the BDSM subculture is disfigured by mainstream horror films, which demonize BDSM and use it as a portable method of garnering screams. Horror as a genre allows audiences to flirt with danger, while reinforcing boundaries between pathological non-normal sexuality and protected and privileged normal sexuality. BDSM has gained considerable scholarly attention in the last two decades within and beyond sociology, particularly in the areas of sexual deviance, identity disclosure and development, stigma management (Bezreh, Pitagora, Simula), and more recently, BDSM’s diffusion into the mainstream culture (Weiss, Scott). Further, research has examined how popular culture perpetuates misconceptions about BDSM, and frames practitioners as victims of trauma, abuse, and rape (Brock, Bezreh, Rubin). This pathologization of BDSM, in part, stems from the assumption that BDSM is a mental illness, a consequence of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders’s (DSM) historical conflation of psychological disorder and sadomasochism. Additionally, Western horror cinema has had a pivotal influence on popular discourses about BDSM. Less scholarship, however, has examined the relationship between horror and BDSM. This paper contributes to the scholarship on BDSM portrayals in popular culture by examining BDSM representations in two Hollywood horror films: Strangeland (1998) and Hellraiser (1987).

scholarly journals “Demons to some. Angels to others”: BDSM and how Vanilla Sex Regulates Sexuality in Hellraiser and Strangeland

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexandrea Fiorante
Keyword(s):  
Popular Culture ◽  
Social Order ◽  
Horror Films ◽  
Psychological Disorder ◽  
Statistical Manual ◽  
Horror Genre ◽  
Diagnostic And Statistical Manual ◽  
Identity Disclosure ◽  
Mainstream Culture ◽  
The Relationship

[Introduction] Setting the Mood Sex is typically seen as special, thrilling and transcendent — or, alternatively, as a menacing force with the power to upset social order and diminish us to beasts. In the horror genre, representations of sex are often expressed through the imagery of BDSM (Bondage, Domination, Sadomasochism), and are aligned with monsters, torture and scary settings. The reality of the BDSM subculture is disfigured by mainstream horror films, which demonize BDSM and use it as a portable method of garnering screams. Horror as a genre allows audiences to flirt with danger, while reinforcing boundaries between pathological non-normal sexuality and protected and privileged normal sexuality. BDSM has gained considerable scholarly attention in the last two decades within and beyond sociology, particularly in the areas of sexual deviance, identity disclosure and development, stigma management (Bezreh, Pitagora, Simula), and more recently, BDSM’s diffusion into the mainstream culture (Weiss, Scott). Further, research has examined how popular culture perpetuates misconceptions about BDSM, and frames practitioners as victims of trauma, abuse, and rape (Brock, Bezreh, Rubin). This pathologization of BDSM, in part, stems from the assumption that BDSM is a mental illness, a consequence of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders’s (DSM) historical conflation of psychological disorder and sadomasochism. Additionally, Western horror cinema has had a pivotal influence on popular discourses about BDSM. Less scholarship, however, has examined the relationship between horror and BDSM. This paper contributes to the scholarship on BDSM portrayals in popular culture by examining BDSM representations in two Hollywood horror films: Strangeland (1998) and Hellraiser (1987).

Hell house or something more? Horror, abjection and mental illness

2019 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 43-56
Author(s):  
Zachary Sheldon
Keyword(s):  
Mental Illness ◽  
Social Relations ◽  
Horror Films ◽  
Horror Genre ◽  
The Core ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Discursive Resources

Abstract Many theorists argue that abjection is at the core of the experience and fascination of the horror genre. Abjection relates to the simultaneous attraction and revulsion that audiences feel around the horrific, gory or disturbing subjects that comprise the focus of horror films. Some recent horror media have centred on the gendered components of abject theory, notably the relationship of a mother to her children, as well as the stigma surrounding mental illness. These films transform motherhood into an abjection tied intimately to depression and ultimately suggest ways for audiences to make sense of both depression and conceptions of abject motherhood. This article examines Netflix's The Haunting of Hill House (2018) for its contribution to this ongoing discussion, arguing that the series takes advantage of the camera's ability to surveil its subjects in order to suggest ways that a mother's abjection and mental illness suffuse the network of familial and social relations that she is caught up in. In this, the series' horrific surveillance of its characters provides varying discursive resources with which the audience may evaluate and act regarding their own experiences of depression and abject motherhood.

Living Dead: Fearful Attractions of Film

2010 ◽  
Vol 110 (1) ◽  
pp. 105-128 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adam Lowenstein
Keyword(s):  
Historical Trauma ◽  
Theoretical Concept ◽  
Horror Films ◽  
Temporal Relations ◽  
Historical Understanding ◽  
Living Dead ◽  
The Dead ◽  
The Relationship

This essay analyzes the relationship between fear and film by exploring the theoretical concept of "attractions" and its value for a historical understanding of three seminal American horror films directed by George A. Romero: Night of the Living Dead (1968), Land of the Dead (2005), and Diary of the Dead (2008). All three films belong to the same "Living Dead" series, so the essay focuses especially on their shared temporal relations to historical trauma through issues of deferral, belatedness, and retranscription.

Food in the Russian Media Culture

2020 ◽  
pp. 23-28
Author(s):  
S. Avilkina
Keyword(s):  
Media Culture ◽  
Food Culture ◽  
Media Industry ◽  
Russian Media ◽  
The Media ◽  
The Relationship

This article discusses the relationship between media understanding and food culture. Considered questions of the influence of society on the media behavior of man. Reveals the reasons for the emergence and spread in the media industry gastronomic cult.

British film production and the horror genre

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Johnny Walker
Keyword(s):  
Horror Films ◽  
Horror Film ◽  
Film Production ◽  
Home Video ◽  
Horror Genre ◽  
British Cinema ◽  
Distinctive Aspect ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Audience Demographics ◽  
New Millennium

Chapter 2 contemplates why British horror was revived at the dawning of the new millennium, and also considers some of the reasons why British horror films produced in the 2000s and 2010s can be viewed as constituting a distinctive aspect of contemporary British cinema. I discuss the establishment of the UK Film Council (UKFC) in 2000 and contextualise the contemporary British horror film in the international film marketplace, drawing parallels between British horror and British film production more broadly, British horror and international horror production, and the audience demographics targeted by distributers and film production companies. This involves examining British horror’s shift from a theatrical genre to one associated primarily with the home video and online market.

“I’m Nervous That Watching Horror Makes Me Look Stupid”

2021 ◽  
pp. 87-99
Author(s):  
Mathias Clasen
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Cultural Capital ◽  
Horror Films ◽  
Horror Genre ◽  
Academic Study

The horror genre has traditionally struggled with an image problem, with horror films being seen as unintelligent, aesthetically uninteresting, and perhaps even morally problematic. This genre stigma has historically been extended to horror fans, who may worry about a lack of cultural capital. Horror movies rarely receive prestigious critical accolades, and the academic study of horror only emerged toward the end of the twentieth century. In recent years, an emergence of ambitious and genre convention-challenging horror movies has prompted some critics to talk about a horror renaissance or even the birth of “post-horror” or “elevated horror.” However, horror films have always had the capacity for engaging with serious themes in an artistic way, and there is often a discrepancy between critics’ evaluations of horror films and audiences’ evaluations. The genre stigma seems to be abating, but some horror fans may still worry about looking stupid—especially if they startle easily.

Polanski and Horror: Rosemary’s Baby

Macbeth ◽  
2017 ◽  
pp. 15-26
Author(s):  
Rebekah Owens
Keyword(s):  
Horror Films ◽  
Horror Film ◽  
Horror Genre

This chapter considers Roman Polanski's approach to the genre and horror output before the film Macbeth. It discusses Polanski's 1965 work Repulsion, that centres around Carol Ledoux and her disintegrating sanity, which is expressed from her subjective viewpoint. It also mentions how Repulsion showed Polanski as a master of the craft of psychological horror. The chapter looks at the Gothic aspects of the horror genre that is recorded in Polanski's autobiography, where he wrote of his experiences watching horror films in Paris. It details how Polanski decided to make a horror film that was designed to make people laugh, rather than the unintentional merriment that Hammer horror had provoked.

Grief, Mourning, and the Horrors of Familial Inheritance

2021 ◽  
pp. 68-101
Author(s):  
David Church
Keyword(s):  
Horror Films ◽  
Narrative Strategies ◽  
Art Cinema ◽  
Horror Genre ◽  
Familial Inheritance

Familial traumas, especially grief about a lost parent or child, form one of the most prominent ways that post-horror encroaches on the generic territory of serious arthouse dramas, generating lingering discomfort in viewers. With the affective shape of trauma at their disposal, many of these films depict mothers and their offspring turned monstrous through unsuccessful processes of mourning. Examining the narrative strategies and depictions of trauma in Goodnight Mommy, The Babadook, and Hereditary, this chapter argues that themes of generationally inherited dysfunction serve as a larger metaphor for post-horror’s own relationship to both the horror genre and art cinema, including its atavistic influences from earlier generations of art-horror films.

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