Research Catalog

Details

Description

1. viii, 255 pages : illustrations; 25 cm

Summary

1. "It makes us jump. It makes us scream. It haunts our nightmares. So why do we watch horror? Why do we play it? What could possibly be appealing about a genre that tries to terrify us? Why would we subject ourselves to shriek-inducing shocks, or spend dozens of hours watching a television show about grotesque flesh-eating monsters? Horror offers us a connection to fears that are otherwise unspeakable, even inconceivable, so why do we seek it out? Monstrous Forms offers a theory of horror that works through the genre across a broad range of contemporary moving-image media: film, television, videogames, YouTube, gifs, streaming, virtual reality. This book analyzes our experience of and engagement with horror by focusing on its form, paying special attention to the common ground, the styles and forms that move between mediums. It looks at the ways that moving-image horror addresses its audiences, the ways that it elicits, or demands, responses from its viewers, players, browsers. Camera movement (or "camera" movement), jump scares, offscreen monsters--horror innovates and perfects styles that directly provoke and stimulate the bodies in front of the screen. Analyzing films including Paranormal Activity, It Follows, and Get Out, videogames including Amnesia: The Dark Descent, Layers of Fear, and Until Dawn, and TV shows including The Walking Dead and American Horror Story, Monstrous Forms argues for understanding horror through its sensational address and dissects the forms that make that address so effective. Horror, Film Studies, New Media, Digital Media, Game Studies, Television Studies, Monsters and Monstrosity, Gifs, YouTube, Netflix, Spectatorship"--

Subject

1. Horror films > History and criticism
2. Horror in mass media
3. Horror television programs > History and criticism
4. Horror films
5. Horror television programs

Genre/Form

1. Criticism, interpretation, etc.

Contents

1. Introduction: haunted screens -- Shocks to the system: how we watch/play/browse horror -- I'M SCREEEEEEEEAMING!!!!: the lowly art of the jump scare -- The blackest eyes... the devil's eyes--horror's first person camerawork, part 1: killer POV -- The blackest eyes... the devil's eyes--horror's first person camerawork, part 2: the searching camera -- The monster function -- Monsters and the viewers who love them -- Monster stories: storied monsters -- Epilogue: three ways of looking at horror in 2017.

Call number

1. MFL 20-2483

Bibliography (note)

1. Includes bibliographical references (pages [249]-252) and index.

Author

1. Hart, Adam Charles, author.

Title

1. Monstrous forms : moving image horror across media / Adam Charles Hart.

Publisher

1. New York, NY : Oxford University Press, [2020]

Type of content

1. text

Type of medium

1. unmediated

Type of carrier

1. volume

Bibliography

1. Includes bibliographical references (pages [249]-252) and index.

LCCN

1. 2019021043

Other standard identifier

1. 40029657854

ISBN

1. 9780190916237 hardcover
2. 0190916230 hardcover
3. 9780190916244 paperback
4. 0190916249 paperback
5. 9780190916268 electronic publication
6. 9780190916251 electronic book

Research call number

1. MFL 20-2483