Mar 28, 2024  
2016-2018 Undergraduate Catalog 
    
2016-2018 Undergraduate Catalog [ARCHIVED CATALOG]

CT 3230 - The Horror Film


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Why do we like to be scared? There is nothing truly attractive in fear, but perhaps horror literature and film are so popular because for most of us, we are never more alive than when we think we are being scared to death. With horror films, the fear is actually twice removed-it is not happening to us, and it is not really happening at all. Horror films seem to confirm our worst anxieties and give substance to nightmares, yet we know we will awaken unharmed. This course focuses on the history of this peculiar yet durable genre from the Frankenstein monster phase to the exorcism craze of the mid-1970s and the recent blending of horror and high fashion. Analysis will center on what these films speak to in human nature that causes their continued appeal.

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