Horror Film and Affect

by Xavier Aldana Reyes

This book brings together various theoretical approaches to Horror that have received consistent academic attention since the 1990s – abjection, disgust, cognition, phenomenology, pain studies – to make a significant contribution to the study of fictional moving images of mutilation and the ways in which human bodies are affected by those on the screen on three representationally, emotionally and somatically. Aldana Reyes reads Horror viewership as eminently carnal, and seeks to articulate the need for an alternative model that understands the experience of feeling under corporeal threat as the genre’s main descriptor. Using recent, post-millennial examples throughout, the book also offers case studies of key films such as Hostel, [REC] , Martyrs or Ginger Snaps , and considers contemporary Horror strands such as found footage or 3D Horror.

Genres: Horror

220 pages, Hardcover

First published July 1, 2016

About the author

Xavier is Reader in English Literature and Film at Manchester Metropolitan University. He is co-president of the International Gothic Association (2022-2026) and a founding member of the Manchester Centre for Gothic Studies.

Reviews

[Dan]

A superb study of horror cinema that confidently outlines a theoretical framework that prioritizes the body rather than any cultural or narrative codes as foundational in how the genre affects us. The writing can be a little stuffy and the high number of typos and punctuation errors indicate that it could have done with a more thorough copy edit — but this is sadly what you get these days with indifferent commercial academic publishers like Routledge. 🚮

[Lyndsay]

This was just for my dissertation, but it was really interesting - now, onto the fun books!