Horror

@book{openalexw629044669,
    author = "Clarens, Carlos",
    title = "An Illustrated History of the Horror Film",
    year = "1967",
    openalex = "W629044669"
}

Dreadful Pleasures takes a lively look at the stories that make our hair stand on end. James Twitchell examines the appeal of horror through the centuries--its persistence in our culture, its manifestations in art, literature, and cinema, and our need for the frisson it provides. From the cave paintings at Lascaux to the slasher movies of today, Twitchell traces our fascination with horror stories and explores why certain myths and images--vampires and transformational monsters like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde--have had special resonance in our culture, and why others have faded. Whether discussing the engravings of William Hogarth or The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Twitchell is consistently insightful and entertaining. Film buffs and scholars, literary critics and Gothic novel devotees will all welcome this study of the horror genre and the immense appeal it has had throughout the centuries.

@book{openalexw635989082,
    author = "Twitchell, James B.",
    title = "Dreadful Pleasures: An Anatomy of Modern Horror",
    year = "1985",
    abstract = "Dreadful Pleasures takes a lively look at the stories that make our hair stand on end. James Twitchell examines the appeal of horror through the centuries--its persistence in our culture, its manifestations in art, literature, and cinema, and our need for the frisson it provides. From the cave paintings at Lascaux to the slasher movies of today, Twitchell traces our fascination with horror stories and explores why certain myths and images--vampires and transformational monsters like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde--have had special resonance in our culture, and why others have faded. Whether discussing the engravings of William Hogarth or The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Twitchell is consistently insightful and entertaining. Film buffs and scholars, literary critics and Gothic novel devotees will all welcome this study of the horror genre and the immense appeal it has had throughout the centuries.",
    openalex = "W635989082"
}

@article{doi10103700223514513586,
    author = "Zillmann, Dolf and Weaver, James B. and Mundorf, Norbert and Aust, Charles F.",
    title = "Effects of an opposite-gender companion's affect to horror on distress, delight, and attraction.",
    year = "1986",
    journal = "Journal of Personality and Social Psychology",
    url = "https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.51.3.586",
    doi = "10.1037/0022-3514.51.3.586",
    openalex = "W2018039825",
    references = "openalexw629044669"
}

@misc{king1987the1,
    author = "King, S",
    title = "The Tommyknockers",
    year = "1987",
    howpublished = "New York, Putnam",
    note = "talkorigins\_source = {true}; raw\_reference = {King, S., 1987, The Tommyknockers: New York, Putnam.}"
}

Noel Carroll, film scholar and philosopher, offers the first serious look at the aesthetics of horror. In this book he discusses the nature and narrative structures of the genre, dealing with horror as a transmedia phenomenon. A fan and serious student of the horror genre, Carroll brings to bear his comprehensive knowledge of obscure and forgotten works, as well as of the horror masterpieces. Working from a philosophical perspective, he tries to account for how people can find pleasure in having their wits scared out of them. What, after all, are those paradoxes of the heart that make us want to be horrified?

@article{doi1023072904611,
    author = "MacKenzie, Scott and Carroll, Noël",
    title = "The Philosophy of Horror or Paradoxes of the Heart.",
    year = "1991",
    journal = "MLN",
    abstract = "Noel Carroll, film scholar and philosopher, offers the first serious look at the aesthetics of horror. In this book he discusses the nature and narrative structures of the genre, dealing with horror as a transmedia phenomenon. A fan and serious student of the horror genre, Carroll brings to bear his comprehensive knowledge of obscure and forgotten works, as well as of the horror masterpieces. Working from a philosophical perspective, he tries to account for how people can find pleasure in having their wits scared out of them. What, after all, are those paradoxes of the heart that make us want to be horrified?",
    url = "https://doi.org/10.2307/2904611",
    doi = "10.2307/2904611",
    openalex = "W1983208800"
}

America is in love with horror, with demon children, gender-bending vampires, and the battlefield aesthetic of post-Vietnam movies. Illuminating the dark side of the American century, this provocative book uncovers the links between horror entertainment and the crises of our time, as well as horror's function as a pop analogue to surrealism. 100 illustrations.

@article{doi105860choice311317,
    title = "The monster show: a cultural history of horror",
    year = "1993",
    journal = "Choice Reviews Online",
    abstract = "America is in love with horror, with demon children, gender-bending vampires, and the battlefield aesthetic of post-Vietnam movies. Illuminating the dark side of the American century, this provocative book uncovers the links between horror entertainment and the crises of our time, as well as horror's function as a pop analogue to surrealism. 100 illustrations.",
    url = "https://doi.org/10.5860/choice.31-1317",
    doi = "10.5860/choice.31-1317",
    openalex = "W1552976635"
}

Abstract What is the appeal of horror? Various attempts have been made to answer this question, generally combining arguments about the nature of horror texts with arguments about the distinctive character of horror consumers. The most common attempts at general explanation are grounded in concepts drawn from psychoanalytic theory, some depending quite directly on Freud's 'return of the repressed' argument in his discussion of 'the uncanny', others utilizing the framework of 'structural psychoanalysis' to explore the ways in which the unconscious structures forms of representation. Examples of both forms of analysis are discussed – largely in relation to horror movies – exemplified in the recent work of Wood, Twitchell, Creed and Clover. General explanations which do not use psychoanalytic arguments are less common, though Carroll has recently offered one such approach which is given consideration here. It is argued that these attempts at posing general explanations of the appeal of horror are, at worst, inappropriately reductive and, at best, insufficiently specific, failing to distinguish the diverse pleasures that heterogeneous horror audiences take from their active involvement in the genre. Alternative, more particularistic approaches are considered (exemplified in aspects of work by Biskind, Carroll, Dika, Jancovich and Tudor) which seek to relate textual features to specific social circumstances. It is argued that such approaches pre-suppose a social ontology centred upon active social agents who use cultural artefacts as resources in rendering coherent their everyday lives. This is in some contrast to attempts to provide general explanations of horror's appeal where the tacit model is one in which human agents are pre-constituted in key respects, horror appealing, therefore, because it gratifies pre-established desires. It is suggested that the former, active and particularistic conception is to be preferred and that this necessitates a renewed attempt to grasp the diversity of what is, after all, a heterogenous audience capable of taking diverse pleasures from their favoured genre.

@article{doi101080095023897335691,
    author = "Tudor, Andrew",
    title = "WHY HORROR? THE PECULIAR PLEASURES OF A POPULAR GENRE",
    year = "1997",
    journal = "Cultural Studies",
    abstract = "Abstract What is the appeal of horror? Various attempts have been made to answer this question, generally combining arguments about the nature of horror texts with arguments about the distinctive character of horror consumers. The most common attempts at general explanation are grounded in concepts drawn from psychoanalytic theory, some depending quite directly on Freud's 'return of the repressed' argument in his discussion of 'the uncanny', others utilizing the framework of 'structural psychoanalysis' to explore the ways in which the unconscious structures forms of representation. Examples of both forms of analysis are discussed – largely in relation to horror movies – exemplified in the recent work of Wood, Twitchell, Creed and Clover. General explanations which do not use psychoanalytic arguments are less common, though Carroll has recently offered one such approach which is given consideration here. It is argued that these attempts at posing general explanations of the appeal of horror are, at worst, inappropriately reductive and, at best, insufficiently specific, failing to distinguish the diverse pleasures that heterogeneous horror audiences take from their active involvement in the genre. Alternative, more particularistic approaches are considered (exemplified in aspects of work by Biskind, Carroll, Dika, Jancovich and Tudor) which seek to relate textual features to specific social circumstances. It is argued that such approaches pre-suppose a social ontology centred upon active social agents who use cultural artefacts as resources in rendering coherent their everyday lives. This is in some contrast to attempts to provide general explanations of horror's appeal where the tacit model is one in which human agents are pre-constituted in key respects, horror appealing, therefore, because it gratifies pre-established desires. It is suggested that the former, active and particularistic conception is to be preferred and that this necessitates a renewed attempt to grasp the diversity of what is, after all, a heterogenous audience capable of taking diverse pleasures from their favoured genre.",
    url = "https://doi.org/10.1080/095023897335691",
    doi = "10.1080/095023897335691",
    openalex = "W1998125195",
    references = "doi1023072904611, openalexw635989082"
}

Abstract This paper contends that modernity is not a monolithic historical phenomenon but rather has many different representations and its own internal contradictions. Visions of modernity as shaped and staged in studio photography differ from those evoked in the Mami Wata shrines of Nigeria, as well as from those in the more recent horror films. In the Mami Wata cult, modernity appears as an allegory. It afflicts people, and their diffuse fascination with the modern is something dangerous which has to be channeled through images and rituals and eventually will be transferred into the sphere of the sacred. Studio photography, on the other hand, celebrates and idealizes modernity. It is much more concerned with making people participate in modernity and in providing them with modern likenesses. In Ghanaian horror cinema, finally, the audiences obsessively confront what their modern mind has not been able to bury or to explain away fully. Here modernity appears as a horrifying and horrific tale, illustrating the price one has to pay for participating in modernity.

@article{doi1010800894946820019966835,
    author = "Wendl, Tobias",
    title = "Visions of modernity in Ghana: Mami Wata shrines, photo studios and horror films",
    year = "2001",
    journal = "Visual Anthropology",
    abstract = "Abstract This paper contends that modernity is not a monolithic historical phenomenon but rather has many different representations and its own internal contradictions. Visions of modernity as shaped and staged in studio photography differ from those evoked in the Mami Wata shrines of Nigeria, as well as from those in the more recent horror films. In the Mami Wata cult, modernity appears as an allegory. It afflicts people, and their diffuse fascination with the modern is something dangerous which has to be channeled through images and rituals and eventually will be transferred into the sphere of the sacred. Studio photography, on the other hand, celebrates and idealizes modernity. It is much more concerned with making people participate in modernity and in providing them with modern likenesses. In Ghanaian horror cinema, finally, the audiences obsessively confront what their modern mind has not been able to bury or to explain away fully. Here modernity appears as a horrifying and horrific tale, illustrating the price one has to pay for participating in modernity.",
    url = "https://doi.org/10.1080/08949468.2001.9966835",
    doi = "10.1080/08949468.2001.9966835",
    openalex = "W2007673373",
    references = "doi105860choice311317"
}

Horror, The Film Reader brings together key articles to provide a comprehensive resource for students of horror cinema. Mark Jancovich's introduction traces the development of horror film from The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari to The Blair Witch Project, and outlines the main critical debates. Combining classic and recent articles, each section explores a central issue of horror film, and features an editor's introduction outlining the context of debates.

@book{doi1043249780203204849,
    author = "Jancovich, Mark",
    title = "Horror, The Film Reader",
    year = "2002",
    abstract = "Horror, The Film Reader brings together key articles to provide a comprehensive resource for students of horror cinema. Mark Jancovich's introduction traces the development of horror film from The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari to The Blair Witch Project, and outlines the main critical debates. Combining classic and recent articles, each section explores a central issue of horror film, and features an editor's introduction outlining the context of debates.",
    url = "https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203204849",
    doi = "10.4324/9780203204849",
    openalex = "W2109090116"
}

@article{doi101111j15405931200800513x,
    author = "Kattelman, Beth",
    title = "The Horror Film: An Introduction",
    year = "2008",
    journal = "The Journal of Popular Culture",
    url = "https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-5931.2008.00513.x",
    doi = "10.1111/j.1540-5931.2008.00513.x",
    openalex = "W1991844646"
}

This paper examines the prestige ‘shocker’ The Spiral Staircase (1946), suggesting that it challenges the perception of the decline in quality in the horror genre in the 1940s, as well as assumptions in scholarship that the genre has historically been addressed to a male audience. Whilst the film is usually discussed as a woman's film, on release it was centred as part of a distinct shift in the horror genre from ‘grade B thrillers to deluxe chillers’. The reclassification of films like The Spiral Staircase as woman's films could be seen as an attempt to make text fit established theory – the film is addressed to a female audience and thus cannot be a horror film. Through an analysis of textual and extra-textual discourses, including reception and publicity materials, this paper will challenge the pervasive theories that suggest female pleasure or identification is unattainable in horror spectatorship. Whilst the theory is that women refuse to look at horror, averting their eyes or turning away, in 1946 The Spiral Staircase asked a predominantly female audience to take a closer look and question the very act of looking at the cinema screen.

@article{doi10108017400300902816952,
    author = "Snelson, Tim",
    title = "‘From grade B thrillers to deluxe chillers’: prestige horror, female audiences, and allegories of spectatorship in The Spiral Staircase (1946)",
    year = "2009",
    journal = "New Review of Film and Television Studies",
    abstract = "This paper examines the prestige ‘shocker’ The Spiral Staircase (1946), suggesting that it challenges the perception of the decline in quality in the horror genre in the 1940s, as well as assumptions in scholarship that the genre has historically been addressed to a male audience. Whilst the film is usually discussed as a woman's film, on release it was centred as part of a distinct shift in the horror genre from ‘grade B thrillers to deluxe chillers’. The reclassification of films like The Spiral Staircase as woman's films could be seen as an attempt to make text fit established theory – the film is addressed to a female audience and thus cannot be a horror film. Through an analysis of textual and extra-textual discourses, including reception and publicity materials, this paper will challenge the pervasive theories that suggest female pleasure or identification is unattainable in horror spectatorship. Whilst the theory is that women refuse to look at horror, averting their eyes or turning away, in 1946 The Spiral Staircase asked a predominantly female audience to take a closer look and question the very act of looking at the cinema screen.",
    url = "https://doi.org/10.1080/17400300902816952",
    doi = "10.1080/17400300902816952",
    openalex = "W1542332103",
    references = "openalexw629044669"
}

Horror cinema is a hugely successful, but at the same time culturally illicit genre that spans the history of cinema. It continues to flourish with recent cycles of supernatural horror and torture porn that span the full range of horror styles and aesthetics. It is enjoyed by audiences everywhere, but also seen as a malign influence by others. In this Routledge Film Guidebook, audience researcher and film scholar Brigid Cherry provides a comprehensive overview of the horror film and explores how the genre works. Examining the way horror films create images of gore and the uncanny through film technology and effects, Cherry provides an account of the way cinematic and stylistic devices create responses of terror and disgust in the viewer. Horror examines the way these films construct psychological and cognitive responses and how they speak to audiences on an intimate personal level, addressing their innermost fears and desires. Cherry further explores the role of horror cinema in society and culture, looking at how it represents various identity groups and engages with social anxieties, and examining the way horror sees, and is seen by, society.

@book{doi1043249780203882184,
    author = "Cherry, Brigid",
    title = "Horror",
    year = "2009",
    abstract = "Horror cinema is a hugely successful, but at the same time culturally illicit genre that spans the history of cinema. It continues to flourish with recent cycles of supernatural horror and torture porn that span the full range of horror styles and aesthetics. It is enjoyed by audiences everywhere, but also seen as a malign influence by others. In this Routledge Film Guidebook, audience researcher and film scholar Brigid Cherry provides a comprehensive overview of the horror film and explores how the genre works. Examining the way horror films create images of gore and the uncanny through film technology and effects, Cherry provides an account of the way cinematic and stylistic devices create responses of terror and disgust in the viewer. Horror examines the way these films construct psychological and cognitive responses and how they speak to audiences on an intimate personal level, addressing their innermost fears and desires. Cherry further explores the role of horror cinema in society and culture, looking at how it represents various identity groups and engages with social anxieties, and examining the way horror sees, and is seen by, society.",
    url = "https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203882184",
    doi = "10.4324/9780203882184",
    openalex = "W4229850675"
}

This essay examines the ways in which the reception of 1940s horror was often bound up with concerns about cultural distinctions, examining the different ways in which New York Times critics evaluated horror productions during the period. While the Times critics displayed affection for many low-budget horror films, particularly those starring Boris Karloff, they complained about both high- and low-budget films that indulged in "psychologization," viewing such subtexts to be pretentious and overreaching, draining the films of their fun and vitality.

@article{doi101353cj00213,
    author = "Jancovich, Mark",
    title = {"Two Ways of Looking": The Critical Reception of 1940s Horror},
    year = "2010",
    journal = "Cinema Journal",
    abstract = {This essay examines the ways in which the reception of 1940s horror was often bound up with concerns about cultural distinctions, examining the different ways in which New York Times critics evaluated horror productions during the period. While the Times critics displayed affection for many low-budget horror films, particularly those starring Boris Karloff, they complained about both high- and low-budget films that indulged in "psychologization," viewing such subtexts to be pretentious and overreaching, draining the films of their fun and vitality.},
    url = "https://doi.org/10.1353/cj.0.0213",
    doi = "10.1353/cj.0.0213",
    openalex = "W1967898347",
    references = "openalexw629044669"
}

Horror fiction is a thriving industry. Many consumers pay hard-earned money to be scared witless by films, books, and computer games. The well-told horror story can affect even the most obstinate skeptic. How and why does horror fiction work? Why are people so fascinated with monsters? Why do horror stories generally travel well across cultural borders, if all they do is encode salient culturally contingent anxieties, as some horror scholars have claimed? I argue that an evolutionary perspective is useful in explaining the appeal of horror, but also that this perspective cannot stand alone. An exhaustive, vertically integrated theory of horror fiction incorporates the cultural dimension. I make the case for a biocultural approach, one that recognizes evolutionary underpinnings and cultural variation.

@article{doi101037a0027918,
    author = "Clasen, Mathias",
    title = "Monsters Evolve: A Biocultural Approach to Horror Stories",
    year = "2012",
    journal = "Review of General Psychology",
    abstract = "Horror fiction is a thriving industry. Many consumers pay hard-earned money to be scared witless by films, books, and computer games. The well-told horror story can affect even the most obstinate skeptic. How and why does horror fiction work? Why are people so fascinated with monsters? Why do horror stories generally travel well across cultural borders, if all they do is encode salient culturally contingent anxieties, as some horror scholars have claimed? I argue that an evolutionary perspective is useful in explaining the appeal of horror, but also that this perspective cannot stand alone. An exhaustive, vertically integrated theory of horror fiction incorporates the cultural dimension. I make the case for a biocultural approach, one that recognizes evolutionary underpinnings and cultural variation.",
    url = "https://doi.org/10.1037/a0027918",
    doi = "10.1037/a0027918",
    openalex = "W2140855541",
    references = "doi105860choice311317"
}

@article{doi101111jpcu12001,
    author = "Birch‐Bayley, Nicole",
    title = "Terror in Horror Genres: The Global Media and the Millennial Zombie",
    year = "2012",
    journal = "The Journal of Popular Culture",
    url = "https://doi.org/10.1111/jpcu.12001",
    doi = "10.1111/jpcu.12001",
    openalex = "W1982587438",
    references = "openalexw629044669"
}

@article{doi105406jfilmvideo6430021,
    author = "Jancovich, Mark",
    title = "Relocating Lewton: Cultural Distinctions, Critical Reception, and the Val Lewton Horror Films",
    year = "2012",
    journal = "Journal of Film and Video",
    url = "https://doi.org/10.5406/jfilmvideo.64.3.0021",
    doi = "10.5406/jfilmvideo.64.3.0021",
    openalex = "W1974205857",
    references = "openalexw604593164, openalexw629044669"
}

@misc{benshoff2014horror,
    author = "Benshoff, Harry M.",
    title = "Horror Before “The Horror Film”",
    year = "2014",
    booktitle = "A Companion to the Horror Film",
    url = "https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118883648.ch12",
    doi = "10.1002/9781118883648.ch12",
    openalex = "W1520527451",
    pages = "206-224",
    references = "doi101111j15405931200800513x, doi1015353kinemavi829, doi1023072904611, doi105860choice283230, doi105860choice311317, doi105860choice342675, doi107312sedg90478, openalexw1599421975, openalexw629044669, openalexw635989082"
}

Chapter 1 establishes the main aims of the book, and introduces what is meant by the term ‘food horror’, and how it has become prominent in a number of cultural forms, including film. The chapter highlights the characteristics of the ‘food horror’ movie; the term is addressed visually, conceptually, and metaphorically. I explain why the book focuses on the post-1980 era, and why it is important and timely to outline and analyse the concept of ‘food horror’ in film in our contemporary moment, especially in relation to recurrent preoccupations such as consumerism, disgust, abjection, cultural identity, and the experience of corporeality. The chapter discusses why it is important to address the relationship between food and horror in an interdisciplinary framework, and what this approach entails critically and contextually. Food is introduced as a liminal subject, one that breaks the seemingly fixed boundaries of the body, society, and culture. Finally, the chapter offers a brief description of the chapters that will follow.

@incollection{doi10105797811374505171,
    author = "Piatti‐Farnell, Lorna",
    title = "Approaching Food and Horror",
    year = "2017",
    booktitle = "Palgrave Macmillan UK eBooks",
    abstract = "Chapter 1 establishes the main aims of the book, and introduces what is meant by the term ‘food horror’, and how it has become prominent in a number of cultural forms, including film. The chapter highlights the characteristics of the ‘food horror’ movie; the term is addressed visually, conceptually, and metaphorically. I explain why the book focuses on the post-1980 era, and why it is important and timely to outline and analyse the concept of ‘food horror’ in film in our contemporary moment, especially in relation to recurrent preoccupations such as consumerism, disgust, abjection, cultural identity, and the experience of corporeality. The chapter discusses why it is important to address the relationship between food and horror in an interdisciplinary framework, and what this approach entails critically and contextually. Food is introduced as a liminal subject, one that breaks the seemingly fixed boundaries of the body, society, and culture. Finally, the chapter offers a brief description of the chapters that will follow.",
    url = "https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-45051-7\_1",
    doi = "10.1057/978-1-137-45051-7\_1",
    openalex = "W2592768925",
    references = "doi101111j15405931200800513x"
}

@incollection{doi10100797833199740647,
    author = "Piatti‐Farnell, Lorna",
    title = "Blood Flows Freely: The Horror of Classic Fairy Tales",
    year = "2018",
    url = "https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-97406-4\_7",
    doi = "10.1007/978-3-319-97406-4\_7",
    openalex = "W2899939477"
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:At the dawn of the early sound-film era, Eisenstein worried about the prospect of sound merely duplicating images, and such concern was realized during the early years of the talkies. One exception, however, was the use of disembodied sound in Hollywood monster horror films. This aspect of early classical horror cinema has been curiously neglected or understated by critics, including Eisenstein himself. The aim of this article is to foster a renewed appreciation of this aural technique by showing that contrapuntal use of off-screen sound was present in key scenes of essentially all Hollywood monster horror films in the early 1930s.

@article{doi1010800195605120191566201,
    author = "Hong, Seung Min",
    title = "Contrapuntal Aurality: Exceptional Sound in Hollywood Monster Horror Films during the Early Sound Era",
    year = "2019",
    journal = "Journal of Popular Film and Television",
    abstract = ":At the dawn of the early sound-film era, Eisenstein worried about the prospect of sound merely duplicating images, and such concern was realized during the early years of the talkies. One exception, however, was the use of disembodied sound in Hollywood monster horror films. This aspect of early classical horror cinema has been curiously neglected or understated by critics, including Eisenstein himself. The aim of this article is to foster a renewed appreciation of this aural technique by showing that contrapuntal use of off-screen sound was present in key scenes of essentially all Hollywood monster horror films in the early 1930s.",
    url = "https://doi.org/10.1080/01956051.2019.1566201",
    doi = "10.1080/01956051.2019.1566201",
    openalex = "W2983867909",
    references = "doi105860choice283230"
}

Abstract American politics and horror have been linked since the birth of the United States. Within this genre, two frames of horror are common: the classic and the conflicted. The 2016 presidential campaign advertisements of Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton employed these horror frames in vastly different ways. Analysis of these ads as a part of an extended message to the American public reveals that Clinton primarily used a conflicted horror frame when attacking Trump, with some rare usage of the classic horror frame. Further, her campaign gave little in the way of audience efficacy through positive assessments of herself, specific policy proposals to defeat the monster, or calls for collective, mob action. Trump, however, almost exclusively used the classic horror frame to articulate threats to America. Even though this frame is more conducive to conventional demonization and fear mongering, Trump also included specific policy proposals, numerous positive assessments of himself, and a call for mob action by American voters to slay the monsters facing the country.

@article{doi1014321rhetpublaffa2220281,
    author = "Montgomery, Fielding",
    title = "The Monstrous Election: Horror Framing in Televised Campaign Advertisements during the 2016 Presidential Election",
    year = "2019",
    journal = "Rhetoric and Public Affairs",
    abstract = "Abstract American politics and horror have been linked since the birth of the United States. Within this genre, two frames of horror are common: the classic and the conflicted. The 2016 presidential campaign advertisements of Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton employed these horror frames in vastly different ways. Analysis of these ads as a part of an extended message to the American public reveals that Clinton primarily used a conflicted horror frame when attacking Trump, with some rare usage of the classic horror frame. Further, her campaign gave little in the way of audience efficacy through positive assessments of herself, specific policy proposals to defeat the monster, or calls for collective, mob action. Trump, however, almost exclusively used the classic horror frame to articulate threats to America. Even though this frame is more conducive to conventional demonization and fear mongering, Trump also included specific policy proposals, numerous positive assessments of himself, and a call for mob action by American voters to slay the monsters facing the country.",
    url = "https://doi.org/10.14321/rhetpublaffa.22.2.0281",
    doi = "10.14321/rhetpublaffa.22.2.0281",
    openalex = "W2955230503",
    references = "benshoff2014horror, doi101017ccol0521772818008, doi10108003637759209376276, doi1011771075547013520239, doi101353rap00068, doi1023071394918, doi1043249780203204849, doi1043249780203328446, doi105860choice302952, openalexw1554632219, openalexw1579706498"
}

This paper delves into the fascinating journey of the horror film genre, tracing its evolution from classic monster themes to the emergence of psychological terrors. Through an exploration of key trends, shifts in audience preferences, and the cultural impact of horror films, this review provides insights into how the genre has transformed over time. From the foundational classic monsters to the rise of supernatural horror and the exploration of the human psyche, this paper offers a comprehensive analysis of the dynamic progression of horror cinema.

@article{doi1056397as20231001,
    author = "Baako, Logan",
    title = "The Evolution of Horror Films: From Classic Monsters to Psychological Terrors",
    year = "2023",
    journal = "Art and Society",
    abstract = "This paper delves into the fascinating journey of the horror film genre, tracing its evolution from classic monster themes to the emergence of psychological terrors. Through an exploration of key trends, shifts in audience preferences, and the cultural impact of horror films, this review provides insights into how the genre has transformed over time. From the foundational classic monsters to the rise of supernatural horror and the exploration of the human psyche, this paper offers a comprehensive analysis of the dynamic progression of horror cinema.",
    url = "https://doi.org/10.56397/as.2023.10.01",
    doi = "10.56397/as.2023.10.01",
    openalex = "W4387708914",
    references = "doi105860choice283230"
}

“The Finest Examples of Motion Picture Art”: Prestige, Stardom and Gender in the Critical Reception of Silent and Early Sound Horror. Un article de la revue Monstrum (Volume 6, numéro 1, june 2023, p. 5-301) diffusée par la plateforme Érudit.

@article{doi1072021101388ar,
    author = "Brown, Shane and Jancovich, Mark",
    title = "“The Finest Examples of Motion Picture Art”: Prestige, Stardom and Gender in the Critical Reception of Silent and Early Sound Horror",
    year = "2023",
    journal = "Monstrum",
    abstract = "“The Finest Examples of Motion Picture Art”: Prestige, Stardom and Gender in the Critical Reception of Silent and Early Sound Horror. Un article de la revue Monstrum (Volume 6, numéro 1, june 2023, p. 5-301) diffusée par la plateforme Érudit.",
    url = "https://doi.org/10.7202/1101388ar",
    doi = "10.7202/1101388ar",
    openalex = "W4393019913",
    references = "benshoff2014horror, doi1010079781349191451, doi10108009502380110107607, doi1014325mississippi97816047341330010001, doi1015159780691186276, doi1015159780691187754, doi1015259780520940703, doi1050409781350987661, doi1050409781838710491, doi105860choice283230, doi107312wood91452"
}

We investigate the applicability of the Condon approximation (i.e., the notion that the diabatic coupling is invariant to geometry) in the context of both electron transfer (ET) and triplet energy transfer (TET) and compare the two cases. Although it is well appreciated that diabatic couplings usually arise from the interactions of electronic wave function tails, we show that ET tails are very different from TET tails. Using a simple model problem, our analysis explains in detail why the rates of TET decays with twice the rate of ET, while also leading to the hypothesis that the smaller diabatic couplings found for TET (versus ET) should imply more sensitivity to non-Condon fluctuations. As an example, for the classic sets of molecules investigated by Closs, we show that the Condon approximation is indeed less applicable for TET than for ET.

@article{doi101021acsjctc5c01734,
    author = "DeRosa, Jennifer R and Qiu, Tian and Cofer-Shabica, D Vale and Subotnik, Joseph E",
    title = "Marcus Theory and The Condon Approximation Revisited II: The Horror of Triplet Energy Transfer.",
    year = "2026",
    journal = "Journal of chemical theory and computation",
    abstract = "We investigate the applicability of the Condon approximation (i.e., the notion that the diabatic coupling is invariant to geometry) in the context of both electron transfer (ET) and triplet energy transfer (TET) and compare the two cases. Although it is well appreciated that diabatic couplings usually arise from the interactions of electronic wave function tails, we show that ET tails are very different from TET tails. Using a simple model problem, our analysis explains in detail why the rates of TET decays with twice the rate of ET, while also leading to the hypothesis that the smaller diabatic couplings found for TET (versus ET) should imply more sensitivity to non-Condon fluctuations. As an example, for the classic sets of molecules investigated by Closs, we show that the Condon approximation is indeed less applicable for TET than for ET.",
    url = "https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41660802/",
    doi = "10.1021/acs.jctc.5c01734",
    openalex = "W7128359923",
    pmid = "41660802",
    references = "doi101016000926149285354d, doi1010160301010480800450, doi101021cr00005a007, doi1010631441359, doi1010631443853, doi1010631479866, doi101093oso97801985297980010001, doi101103revmodphys32300, doi101103revmodphys35457, doi101126science2404851440"
}

Music strongly shapes emotional perception, yet its influence on social threat evaluation remains underexplored. This study examined whether scary music biases threat perception of emotional faces using subjective ratings and pupillometry. In a within-subjects design, a predominantly female sample of participants viewed angry, neutral, and happy faces following either scary music or white noise. Behavioural ratings showed that faces were perceived as more threatening after scary music relative to white noise, consistent with affective priming accounts. Notably, the effect extended beyond angry and neutral faces to happy faces, suggesting that the pairing with fear-inducing music distorted their positive meaning, perhaps conveying ill-intent instead. Pupillometry results revealed no overall effect of scary music on pupil size, however, an interaction showed increased pupil dilation to neutral faces under scary music, consistent with the heightened susceptibility of ambiguous stimuli to priming. Angry and happy faces may have elicited sufficient arousal on their own, limiting additional music-related effects. These findings demonstrate that scary music biases threat perception both behaviourally and physiologically, though not uniformly across emotions. By showing that music can alter evaluation of socially meaningful stimuli (i.e., facial expressions), this study advances understanding of cross-modal affective priming and has implications for contexts where music may unconsciously shape social judgements.

@article{doi10117717470218261447279,
    author = "Lua, Li Fun and Kong, Xuan Nee and Lee, Jasmine K W and Sidhu, Shumetha Kaur",
    title = "EXPRESS: The Sound of Fear: How Horror Soundtracks Shape Threat Perception of Emotional Faces.",
    year = "2026",
    journal = "Quarterly journal of experimental psychology (2006)",
    abstract = "Music strongly shapes emotional perception, yet its influence on social threat evaluation remains underexplored. This study examined whether scary music biases threat perception of emotional faces using subjective ratings and pupillometry. In a within-subjects design, a predominantly female sample of participants viewed angry, neutral, and happy faces following either scary music or white noise. Behavioural ratings showed that faces were perceived as more threatening after scary music relative to white noise, consistent with affective priming accounts. Notably, the effect extended beyond angry and neutral faces to happy faces, suggesting that the pairing with fear-inducing music distorted their positive meaning, perhaps conveying ill-intent instead. Pupillometry results revealed no overall effect of scary music on pupil size, however, an interaction showed increased pupil dilation to neutral faces under scary music, consistent with the heightened susceptibility of ambiguous stimuli to priming. Angry and happy faces may have elicited sufficient arousal on their own, limiting additional music-related effects. These findings demonstrate that scary music biases threat perception both behaviourally and physiologically, though not uniformly across emotions. By showing that music can alter evaluation of socially meaningful stimuli (i.e., facial expressions), this study advances understanding of cross-modal affective priming and has implications for contexts where music may unconsciously shape social judgements.",
    url = "https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/42033191/",
    doi = "10.1177/17470218261447279",
    openalex = "W7155600222",
    pmid = "42033191"
}

The article analyzes contemporary body horror cinema from 2014 to 2025 as a medium of gnostic knowledge. The subject of the study is the aesthetics of bodily otherness and transgression as mechanisms for the formation of female subjectivity. The research corpus comprises nine films organized into three thematic clusters: motherhood and bodily boundaries (The Babadook, Ich seh Ich seh, Prevenge), the doppelgänger and the dissolution of identity (Raw, Titane, The Substance), and simulation and nomos (Border, The Ugly Stepsister, Gretel & Hansel). The study examines how the visual and narrative strategies of contemporary body horror translate bodily transgression into an affect of recognition — the unveiling of the social order's falsity — how the shift from the "victim-body" to the "knowledge-bearing body" is accomplished, and what new modalities of female action emerge in the transition from the Final Girl of classic slasher cinema to the post-Final Girl of contemporary body horror. The study employs a triaxial methodology synthesizing gnostic hermeneutics as its central analytical framework with psychoanalytic theory (Lacan, Kristeva, Žižek) and feminist horror theory (Creed, Clover, Williams). The scientific novelty lies in the first systematic application of gnostic hermeneutics to the analysis of body horror. The study proposes a model of the "gnostic body" that describes the structural relations between body, knowledge, and subjectivity in contemporary genre cinema. Three states of female gnosis are identified — refusal, authorship, and bodily pleroma — alongside a fourth position: false gnosis, defined as recognition that fails to produce liberation. The concept of the post-Final Girl is introduced to describe a heroine whose agency is grounded not in overcoming an external threat but in integrating bodily otherness. The study demonstrates that body horror occupies a liminal position between postmodernist and metamodernist modes: it deconstructs nomos while simultaneously proposing alternative mythologemes — pleroma, Sophia, gnostic awakening — as a horizon rather than nostalgia. The findings situate body horror within the broader context of gnostic visual culture in the twenty-first century and extend Barbara Creed's concept of the monstrous-feminine as applied to contemporary genre cinema.

@article{doi1025136240987442026278486,
    author = "Pozharov, Alexey Igorevich",
    title = "Gnosis Through Flesh: Bodily Transgression and the Formation of Female Subjectivity in Contemporary Body Horror",
    year = "2026",
    journal = "Человек и культура",
    abstract = {The article analyzes contemporary body horror cinema from 2014 to 2025 as a medium of gnostic knowledge. The subject of the study is the aesthetics of bodily otherness and transgression as mechanisms for the formation of female subjectivity. The research corpus comprises nine films organized into three thematic clusters: motherhood and bodily boundaries (The Babadook, Ich seh Ich seh, Prevenge), the doppelg\&\#228;nger and the dissolution of identity (Raw, Titane, The Substance), and simulation and nomos (Border, The Ugly Stepsister, Gretel \& Hansel). The study examines how the visual and narrative strategies of contemporary body horror translate bodily transgression into an affect of recognition — the unveiling of the social order's falsity — how the shift from the "victim-body" to the "knowledge-bearing body" is accomplished, and what new modalities of female action emerge in the transition from the Final Girl of classic slasher cinema to the post-Final Girl of contemporary body horror. The study employs a triaxial methodology synthesizing gnostic hermeneutics as its central analytical framework with psychoanalytic theory (Lacan, Kristeva, \&\#381;i\&\#382;ek) and feminist horror theory (Creed, Clover, Williams). The scientific novelty lies in the first systematic application of gnostic hermeneutics to the analysis of body horror. The study proposes a model of the "gnostic body" that describes the structural relations between body, knowledge, and subjectivity in contemporary genre cinema. Three states of female gnosis are identified — refusal, authorship, and bodily pleroma — alongside a fourth position: false gnosis, defined as recognition that fails to produce liberation. The concept of the post-Final Girl is introduced to describe a heroine whose agency is grounded not in overcoming an external threat but in integrating bodily otherness. The study demonstrates that body horror occupies a liminal position between postmodernist and metamodernist modes: it deconstructs nomos while simultaneously proposing alternative mythologemes — pleroma, Sophia, gnostic awakening — as a horizon rather than nostalgia. The findings situate body horror within the broader context of gnostic visual culture in the twenty-first century and extend Barbara Creed's concept of the monstrous-feminine as applied to contemporary genre cinema.},
    url = "https://doi.org/10.25136/2409-8744.2026.2.78486",
    doi = "10.25136/2409-8744.2026.2.78486",
    openalex = "W7134134477",
    references = "doi1014393ll63v40202415"
}