Visceral Screens: Mediation and Matter in Horror Cinema

Horror films have rendered the human body as a media artifact,dramatically dis-figuring it with optical effects and visual fragmentation. This book argues that horror films do not merely reflect anxieties regarding contemporary media technologies but rather produce distinctive conceptual framings of the body and/as media. It covers a wide range of subgenres, from classic horror films to popular and innovative contemporary works, and balances theoretical engagement with readability.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 216 pages
Publication date: 28 February 2023
Publisher: Edinburgh University Press

From the vampire's association with optical effects to the use of editing, colour and sound to blur or fragment bodily forms, the book demonstrates how a range of different horror subgenres depict bodily mediation. It argues that horror films do not merely reflect anxieties regarding contemporary media technologies, but rather produce distinctive conceptual framings of the body and/as media. Covering a wide range of subgenres spanning the history of the genre, the book balances theoretical engagement with readability, incorporating close readings of specific films.

Horror cinema grants bodies and images a precarious hold on sense and order: from the zombie's gory disintegration to the shaky visuals of found footage horror, and from the vampire's absent reflection to the spectacle of shattering glass in the Italian giallo. Addressing classic horror movies alongside popular and innovative contemporary works, Visceral Screens investigates how they have rendered the human form as a media artefact, dramatically dis-figuring it with optical effects, chromatic shifts, glitches and audiovisual fragmentation. Conducting their own anatomies of the screen, cutting into the matter of cinema, horror films revel in the breakdown of frames, patterns and figures, undermining subjectivity and meaning.

Weight: 338g
Dimension: 156 x 234 x 19 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781399511247