The Contours of Horror: An Investigation of Heterogenous Audience Responses to Slasher Media

观看恐怖和血腥媒体的伦理是学者们关注的重点。观看恐怖片对个人有什么影响？为什么观众喜欢恐怖和暴力的作品？这些问题的答案依赖于对这些影响和吸引力之前的情感体验的理解。认知电影理论是理解这一问题的主要方法之一，但它虽然为上述问题提供了部分答案，但电影观众体验的精确轮廓仍然是一个谜。本研究将通过深入的理论研究和新颖的实验现象学方法，试图揭示现有的认知主义对恐怖反应的解释在多大程度上解释了实际体验;观众的反应在多大程度上是同质的;以及为什么尽管受到了大量的审查，但恐怖体验仍然如此神秘

The ethics of viewing horror and slasher media are of key concern for scholars. What impact doesviewing horror have on an individual and why do viewers enjoy works of fear and violence?Answers to these questions rely upon an understanding of the emotional experiences which precedethose impacts and appeals. One leading approach for gaining this understanding is cognitive film theory,yet while it has provided partial answers to the above questions, the precise contours of the cinematichorror experience remain a mystery.Through an in-depth theoretical investigation as well as a novel experimental phenomenological method,the proposed research will seek to uncover the extent to which existing cognitivist explanations ofresponses to horror account for actual experiences; to what extent audience responses are homogenous;and why, despite the significant scrutiny it has received, the horror experience remains so mysterious