Theoretical Approaches to Horror Films

The Philosophy of Horror - Noel Carroll
Carroll defines the emotion sought by each author of horror to instill within their audience/readers as 'art-horror'. This is a combination of fear of the described object etc. with revulsion at it's presence.  He refers to how fear is an expected response to danger, where as revulsion is trickier to do.  Carroll also refers to magnification of the former and massification in the case of the latter; this means that what most people find repellent is magnified in horror, either by making the object larger or having a lot of the object which evokes fear.


Mulvey, Laura - "Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema" 
This theory contains the aspect of 'The Male Gaze'; Mulvey explored how we as audiences like to see things on screen that provides us with pleasure, mostly focusing on men. Throughout film women have been sexualised and made to appear desirable and nice for the male audience to watch. This is shown through deliberate camera-angles and editing to emphasise aspects of a woman, which places the audience in the perspective of a male. This objectifies women and takes away their identity within the film. Most filmmakers are men and so their perspectives and representations of women are their own. Mulvey states a female character in a narrative has two functions; as an erotic object for the characters within the narrative to view, and as an erotic object for the spectators within the cinema to view.


Freud - 'The Uncanny'
The Uncanny is a psychological experience that is strangely familiar, rather than mystery. This may also explain an object or event is subjected to a context that is eerie, unsettling or taboo. As a result of this, and for example in horror movies, there is a dicomforting effect which usually leads to a complete rejection of the object, which is referred to the Uncanny Valley effect. This means that we as an audience have a strange revulsion toward things that may appear human but are not right in our mind. With this comes the negative emotional responses, such as fear, like what the audience would feel whilst watching a horror film. We can apply this theory to horror films as we know that the characters within the film are intregied by the horror element, whether it may be a possessed child or ghost etc. This is the same for the audience, as we are intregied by the distortion of society and life through horror film, despite it resulting in the negative emotion of fear.

Freud explored the idea that the Uncanny's mixture of what is real with the unfamiliar and eerie confronts the subject with our unconcious, repressed impulses. Therefore, within horror films, such as 'The Ring', 'The Blair Witch Project', and 'The Babadook', not only do they just scare us but they pschologically effect the audience as the incorporation of what is familiar to those watching and making it distorted emphaises the scare factor within the film. Usually, audiences enjoy horror films because the ideas/content are so obscure they are unbelievable, and therefore they're comforting for the audience; although, with the incorporation of reality and events/objects in people's everyday life, it is more influentional to the audience as the ideas seem more plausable.
Freud further identifies Uncanny effects that result from the 'reputation of the same thing', which is also linked to the concept of repetition compulsion. Freud uses the example where someone becomes lost and accidently retraces their steps or in instances where random numbers occur which seem meaningful. This idea is said to be prefiguring Jung's concept of 'synchronicity'.

Jung - The Shadow

This theory is referred to as the Shadow, Id, or Shadow Aspect/Archetype. This theory refers to an unconscious aspect of the personality which the conscious ego of the individual does not identify itself in. This is referred to as the Shadow and is largely negative. It mainly surrounds an undesirable aspect of an individual's personality. Jung suggests that to truly know yourself, you must accept this 'dark side'. Although, in contrast to Freud's theory of the Shadow, Jung's can be positive or negative. therefore, when applying this to horror films, it can be in a character who is not accepting their dark tendencies/personality. This would be mainly shown in psychological horrors with characters who murder or are susceptible to the supernatural. Although, Jung explores that the Shadow is not part of the self but rather something that is a counter-part that follows the self. The horror caused by the Shadow aims to terrify the body through the mind rather than through abject mutilation of the

character's bodies (gore). As well as through animism; dolls, automatons and dismembered limbs that are powered by independent activity raises the question and uncertainty if the object is alive or dead.

Carol Clover - The Legend!
This theory explores 'The final girl theory'; the idea that there is one female character that survives within the horror narrative until the end when she is the only one left to defeat the horror element. 

Adam Lowenstein
Lowenstein explores how horror in film reflects the horror within history/society. Within 'Deathdream', a short horror film which Lowenstein analysed, it focuses on the trauma of the Vietnam war and how death is a gift to the soldier who suffered within it. Lowenstein refers to this as an allegorical moment, which is embodied in the character of a living corpse. This paradox of the living and the dead combined challenges the allegorical moment to the binary opposites that emphasise the trauma and horror. Lowenstein explores how shocking representation is used in horror to evoke fear through the disbelief at what they are viewing.