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

观看恐怖和恐怖媒体的伦理问题一直是学者们关注的焦点。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？这些问题的答案取决于对这些影响和吸引力之前的情感体验的理解。获得这种理解的一个主要方法是认知电影理论，然而，尽管它为上述问题提供了部分答案，但观影体验的精确轮廓仍然是一个谜。通过深入的理论调查以及一种新颖的实验现象学方法，拟议的研究将试图揭示现有的对恐怖反应的认知主义解释在多大程度上解释了实际经验；观众的反应在多大程度上是同质化的；为什么尽管受到了严格的审查，恐怖经历仍然如此神秘

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