Film and Media Studies: The Horror Film

 Fear is defined as an unpleasant emotion caused by the belief that someone or something is dangerous, likely to cause pain, or a threat. The horror genre enables an individual to see both extrinsic and intrinsic fears from a visual aspect. Because horror films are able to bring these fears to life, individuals are not as worried about the complexities that may come with it. Though people feel that fear is simply a figment of an individual’s imagination, it is easy to become so consumed in the thought of what it could be rather than embracing what it truly is. The art of horror film making is unique in a sense of it allows an individual to receive a representation of their wildest fantasies on a movie screen. Though horror films can be seen as gory and grotesque to some, those that enjoy the thrill and understand the liberation that a good horror film can bring about tend to indulge and better relate to this particular genre. Frank Herbert once said, ““I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past, I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.” I feel that horror films allow individuals to stray away from their original concept of being and allow a person to wander and develop their own standpoint on what and/or who to fear. Upon reading the second chapter of Why Horror, a particular quote stuck out more than others. It stated, “It is my impression that the curiosity/fascination resolution that I have offered to the paradox of horror—despite its reliance on somewhat technical notions like categorical violations, and co-existentialism—is pretty obvious. It is certainly not as jazzy as many reductivist psychoanalytic theories. In fact, it may strike many as not being theoretical at all, but as nothing but a long-winded exercise in common sense.” When I initially read this, I was somewhat confused as to the authors idea of curiosity and fascination resolution. Yet, upon reading it again. I realized that horror movies were not all that grotesque and dreary as some made it out to be. Rather horror movies are seen in a negative light because they stay away from the idealistic views that plague our society. Horror movies also manage to point out the reality of what life actually is and disabled people from diving further and further into their sense of false reality. Though we can always choose positivity and happiness, counter actions and events such as sadness and death are always present to balance out the laws of the universe. Breaking the status quo and generating new conversation within the audience is what makes the horror genre and their subgenres is what makes horror one of the most dynamic genres from a creative and intellectual standpoint.

I enrolled in this class because I am a big fan of horror movies. I have watched them since I was a kid and was always drawn to them. I really was just curious to see what would scare me and that lead to a few nightmares and a few sleepless nights as a pre-teen. I never knew why I was drawn to horror films though and that is what Noel Carroll discusses in her article "Why Horror?". I found it very interesting and it really is a great topic. If horror films scare and disgust us, then why do we choose to watch them and sometimes pay money to watch something that freaks us out and repulses us. Carroll says it best when she says, "We do not, for example, attempt to add some pleasure to a boring afternoon by opening the lid of a steamy trash can in order to savor its unwholesome stew of broken bits of meat, moldering fruits and vegetables, and noxious, unrecognizable clumps, riven thoroughly by all manner of crawling things" (Carroll 33). So why do we enjoy scary films? Well that's a great question. Carroll states that we do not watch them to get disgusted but we watch them because  horror films are a still telling a narrative. It is not just random jump scares and disturbing images but it is a story and I fully agree with Carroll on that. 

Now let's get to the two films we watched for this section. Werner Herzog's 1979 film Nosferatu and Jason Lei Howden's 2015 film Deathgasm. These films in my opinion could not be more different. I watched Deathgasm first and to be honest I did not have high hopes for it after seeing the description and trailer, but it was awesome. I am a big fan of every film Quinten Tarantino film so I am no stranger to violence and gore, but this film took violence to another level. It was not really a horror movie in my opinion though. This film was a comedy with a few aspects of a horror movie. The demons and the violence were scary, sure but this movie was a comedy. It actually kind of reminded me of This is the End, which was also a comedy that had horror aspects. 

Nosferatu was completely different than Deathgasm, it was pretty slow but it was definitely a horror movie. It is just a classic horror narrative, the Dracula story. To me this movie was just really creepy. Everything about Dracula in this film is just spooky and unsettling. The way he looked, the way he talked, the way he acted, literally everything about him was creepy. This movie definitely creeped me out. I am glad I watched it because I had always heard about Nosferatu, but I had never actually seen it. It is a historic story and it I would suggest it to my patient friends who I think could sit through the entire movie. Deathgasm and Nosferatu are polar opposites in my opinion but are both great and interesting films.

The First film I watched was Nosferatu (1975). I really enjoyed the film. I had a very classic horror feel to it. Which makes sense it's based off of Dracula, you can't get more classic horror than that. The thing that stuck out most to me in the film was how slow it was. It never dove into a chase scene, where our protagonist was running for their life. Instead it was this slow dissolve into madness as the town dissolves around us, leaving us with this constant feeling of dread as the town and people get more infected as time goes on. 

I feel that the film is praying on our fear of sickness and disease. We see this clearing  as the town starts dying off from the plague. I think this is all shown in the design of Nosferatu. Nosferatu is probably one of the most distinctive depictions of Dracula. While he looks less human the most Dracula, he also looks sickly and weak. He has pale skin, their heavy sunken eyes, and seem to always be short of breath. This pulse, his connection to the pledge helps give off the feat of spreading disease and illness.   The film also prays on our fear of what to do when science fails us. We see this in the film when the idea of vampires is written off due to not being inline with the scientific enlightenment views. This leaves Lucy to fight off Dracula on her own. Science is often viewed as the source to answer any question we have about our universe, and what can reveal the unknown. When science fails us or is unable to answer a question it can leave us into the dark with no certainty of what to do. This plays into the larger fear of the unknown.  

I Think an interesting part of the film is when Lucy first sees Nosferatu, because she just sees his shadow as he approaches her in the mirror. In the article “When Women Look” Lina William talks about the idea of the blind heroine not being able to see allowing the monster to voyeuristic view at a closer distance. This scene Is kind of like a twist on this where even Lucy can see and is still blind to seeing Nosferatu. This adds this eerie element where we don’t know how long Nosferatu was there before being revealed by his shadow, and even when he is revealed Lucy still is not sure who or what he is.  

Something I found Interesting while looking at Deathgasm is the comedic elements of the film. It's fun how horror and comedy are often viewed like opposite genres, but how easy it is for one to come off as the other. For example when a horror film fails people will often end up laughing at it. On the other hand many things that are meant to come off as comical come off as scary to people. For example clowns and stopmotion animation are often meant to be funny, but people often find them scary or unnerving.

The reading for the week discussed the idea that the audience derives pleasure from horror movies and that they analyze how the monsters that exist within horror films can be "successfully confronted" (Carroll 36). In both of the movies, this idea is presented. In Nosferatu, it is shown with Jonathan not heeding the warning of the villagers and continuing on to talk to Dracula; Deathgasm exemplifies this with Brodie deciding to summon a demon after his cousin humiliates him. Within both of these movies, the audience is left to wonder if they could successfully take on either the vampire or the demon. The readings also discussed the idea of women in horror films as a means to offset the monstrous elements. In Nosferatu, it is Lucy's beauty that is able to render Dracula dead, but it comes at the cost of her own life. This may be due to a "strange sympathy and affinity that often develops between the monster and the girl may thus be less an expression of sexual desire... and more a flash of sympathetic identification" (Williams 63). For Dracula, Lucy may have represented the loss of innocence that he had when he turned into a vampire and yearned for the mortality that she was able to enjoy. In Deathgasm, Medina is treated as a sexual object. At the start of the movie, David, Brodie's cousin, is interested in having sex with her, and then Zakk hooks up with her as a means to satisfy his own boredom and as a way to apparently one-up Brodie. The readings also brought up the idea of temptation, and at the center of horror movies is this theme. In order for a story to occur, some kind of latent temptation is what inspires the inciting event. The temptation for money is what convinces Jonathan to sell the property to Dracula. The temptation for revenge and power is what ultimately releases the demon when Brodie plays the black hymn. However, women often are the embodiment of temptation in these sorts of films. Without Lucy, Dracula would not have been infatuated and without Medina then there would be no reason for Brode to feel inferior towards Zakk and no reason for David to be jealous about Medina's obvious attraction towards Brodie. Additionally, horror allows the viewers to feed their fascination and this "fascination can be savored, because the distress in question is not behaviorally pressing; it is a response to the thought of a monster, not the actual presence of a disgusting or fearsome thing" (Carroll 40). This much is true as there are no vampires living in Transvlyvania and there is no such thing as a demon that can be summed by playing a tune on a guitar. Both of these monsters only exist to entice the viewer and keep them watching. If the monsters in these types of movies didn't present a clear and terrifying threat to the movie's characters then the audience would become bored and disinterested; therefore it is clear that these monsters are the key to fascination.

For me, Nosferatu started kinda slow, and personally I struggled to understand what the characters were saying. Nosferatu is already watching her from a distance as a bat when he comes to her house occasionally at night. He is immediately interested in Lucy when he sees her on Jonathan’s pendent because he realizes moving into the house would mean he is closer to Lucy and makes it easier for him to carry out his voyeuristic desires. One scene he is seen looking at Lucy through the window without her noticing. Later, he is in her room and asks for her to give him the love that she gives Johnathan but she refuses. She looks at him and decides to tempt him in order to get him to leave. Lucy realizes in order to kill him she must look at him and allow him to carry out his sexual desires on her until dawn. Many people have heard about vampires and Count Dracula but no one really has an idea of what he would do if he really existed. But the vampire can represent more than a mythical creature, it can represent something in humans that we can’t control. Nosferatu struggling with his desires which is a trait among all humans. While most humans don’t desire to suck other’s blood we still all desire something and sometimes struggle to withhold in our desires. The first woman we see in Deathgasm is Brodie’s mother who is put into a mental hospital. The next woman is his super conservative aunt. Medina is next and at first seen as an innocent girl that Brodie’s cousin is interested in but she doesn’t agree with his bullying. Medina becomes interested in Brodie and helps them carry out the tasks of defeating the demon. The first time Medina listened to metal she imagines herself on top of a mountain. The other woman we see is first seen giving Aeon a blowjob. Later, she backstabs him in order to be the darkest human and become the host of the demon. When it becomes time to see who will become the host she removes her clothes. Like Lucy, it’s almost allowing the monster to sexualize her when it comes time. When it comes to Deathgasm the demons are brought back by the music. When the band plays The Black Hymn the demon starts to take over. This was interesting because some people do see metal music as devil-worshipping music. This took a mindset by some and explored in the way they think. This gives the idea that it allows those to see what could happen if the music actually summoned a demon. Most people rather not experience it but might still wonder which makes Deathgasm interesting to audiences. While summoning a demon might scare most people the comedy aspect of Deathgasm makes is less scary to watch. This allows people to give in curiosity without feeling like it’s really happening. Both movies were interesting in their own way. The difference in the time period they were made in was obvious when watching but still, each of them had their own style.