FMS 360 Media Genres: Horror Films video1527774997

This class surveys the history, stylistic development and genre conventions of the horror film and its transformations from artistic and literary fantasy to movie house and television staple. Figures and characters from horror permeate our culture as they depict culturally taboo behaviors, moral panics and representations that are constructed to elicit a fear response from the viewer and have been appealing to audiences for over a century. In this course, we will look at a variety of films and television that represents the shifts in the genre from the gothic literature inspired silent film, through the “golden age” of monster movies, the gender implications of the slasher films of the 1970s-80s, horror as social commentary, the appearance of horror on televisions and other key transitions in the genre. We will engage relevant scholarship to examine how horror engages discourse related to gender, race, class, sexuality, and nation.