Deleuze and Horror Film

Deleuze Connections

by Anna Powell

The horror film analysed from a Deleuzian perspective. This book argues that dominant psychoanalytic approaches to horror films neglect the aesthetics of horror. Yet cinematic devices such as mise-en-scène, editing and sound, are central to the viewer's visceral fear and arousal. Using Deleuze's work on art and film, Anna Powell argues that film viewing is a form of 'altered consciousness' and the experience of viewing horror film an 'embodied event'. The book begins with a critical introduction to the key terms in Deleuzian philosophy and aesthetics. These include: subjectivity/becoming, the body without organs, molecularity, time/duration, affect, movement/rhythm, space, anomaly and schizoanalysis. These concepts are then applied to horror films. Themes such as insanity, sensory response to film, the subject/object, fractured time, the body and cinematography are explored in horror films such as Jacob's Ladder, Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, Psycho, Silence of the Lambs, The Fly, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Alien Resurrection, The Others, The Shining, Interview with the Vampire, Bram Stoker's Dracula and Nosferatu.

Genres: Nonfiction, Philosophy, Film

224 pages, Hardcover

First published March 24, 2005

Reviews

[kacie · Rating 3 out of 5]

some interesting analysis here, but could use some trimming. very repetitive in parts— this may a useful intro book bc of this though

[Amanda Lemes · Rating 2 out of 5]

vou revisitar esse livro quando eu tiver terminado de ler cinema 1 e cinema 2, porque, aqui, a autora fala mil vezes que vai explicar certas ideias-chave do deleuze e do bergson ao longo dos capítulos, mas as explicações me confundiram mais ainda. também não sei bem qual o público-alvo da obra, visto que, às vezes, a autora dá a entender que uma pessoa que ainda tá no feijão com arroz do deleuze vai conseguir acompanhar a leitura, no entanto, em outros momentos, parece que você já tem que ter um certo repertório.