[+] Who is Professor Brewer?
Tell me a little about yourself and what you do.
I'm a graduate of the Program in Modern Thought and Literature at Stanford University. My dissertation was on aesthetic response in the Victorian era, essentially, "does reading fiction and poetry make you a better person or a worse person, according to the Victorians?". So I've been thinking about how works of art affect audiences for quite some time now. At UTD, my courses in nineteenth century British literature, which include an emphasis on Gothic, have also raised these kinds of concerns. I'm teaching a course on the horror film at SMU Spring Semester.
[+] What makes scary movies scary?
What makes scary movies scary?
I'm not sure that I know for sure. There's a considerable debate over this in philosophy and aesthetics, and I find the question fascinating: "Since we know that it is after all 'just a movie', then why are we scared?". The answer can't be that we forget that it's real, because if that were the case, we'd grab our cellphones and dial 911 to help out the victim.
Some aesthetic theorists argue that we're scared, basically, because the people on the screen are: they model a response for us, and this makes a lot of sense. Character shudders; I shudder. Horror may do this uniquely: we don't need a character on screen to laugh in order for us to laugh at a comedy.
I've been reading a lot lately about the notion of "disgust," and this is probably part of the answer. We're scared of things that are disgusting. Horror movies are typically about something disgusting.
[+] How does film build tension in participants?
Could you comment on how composition and cinematography can be used to build tension?
I suppose I'm a traditionalist here, and much prefer shadows, creepy music, tracking shots rather than quick cuts (though quick cutting certainly worked well in the shower scene in *Psycho*) and gore. I'm a fan of the shocking, what you don't expect but then in retrospect realize that you should have.
My favorite all-time shot in a horror film is in Polanski's Repulsion, when a woman who is clearly mentally disturbed swings a mirror around and you see the reflection of a man in the corner behind her. It makes perfect sense in retrospect, but it's completely horrifying in its unexpectedness. That seems scariest to me: everything seems pretty normal, and then . . . (again, *Psycho* works this way: Norman Bates, nice young man, then she takes a shower).
[+] Why do people enjoy scary movies?
Why do you think some people enjoy scary movies?
The obvious answer is catharsis: it's a way to deal with our fears. I don't actually enjoy horror films that much while I'm watching them the first time. I don't really like being scared. But I think a big part of it is that the good ones are visually striking. It's like looking at paintings. Most of them we don't notice what we're looking at as we walk around in daily life. Paintings force us to look carefully. So does a good horror movie.
[+] Favorite horror/thriller films?
Do you have any personal favorites in the genre?
Repulsion, as I mentioned. I think my favorites tend to not be more or less straightforward horror movies, though I do enjoy those (e.g. Psycho), but genre hybrids like Alien. I'm also a big fan of The Sixth Sense, which is a tremendously creepy movie even without the plot twist. I really enjoyed The Eye (Pang brothers) a few years ago.
I really like this post and it has great itself. And What Is Fear
ReplyDeleteThanks! :-)
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