The purpose of this essay is to examine if theories that derive from Comparative Religion can be applied to horror films. Can theories such as Victor Turner ’s liminal stages or Mary Douglas’ theories on anomalies clarify, to some extent, why horror movies construct unholy scenarios where filth and the breaking of taboo is essential, or why monsters tend to dwell in, as well as being, a liminal phase or a grey area? Can these theories shed some light on why monsters tend to be twofold? We also aim to examine how gender roles are constructed and portrayed in horror films. As a means of reaching our agenda we have chosen four horror films in a span of ten years, between 1984-1994. By applying a critical discourse analysis to our empirical material we will reveal that all four films carry out a bias gender construction towards women, as well as a recurring usage of anomalies and liminal stages. The four films are A Nightmare on Elm Street, The Fly, Child’s Play and Interview with the Vampire.

<p>Japanese horror film has since the late 1990: ies been extremely successful. The success could probably, at least partly, be due to the Japanese narrative style (which in my own opinion is quite suitable and effective in horror films). In what way does the Japanese narrative tradition work in matter of expression? My results point towards a narrative discrepancy between J-horror and American horror film, possibly due to the Japanese narrative tradition – a narrative tradition under the influence of various forms of ancient Japanese theatre and general Japanese culture.</p>

Japanese horror film has since the late 1990: ies been extremely successful. The success could probably, at least partly, be due to the Japanese narrative style (which in my own opinion is quite suitable and effective in horror films). In what way does the Japanese narrative tradition work in matter of expression? My results point towards a narrative discrepancy between J-horror and American horror film, possibly due to the Japanese narrative tradition – a narrative tradition under the influence of various forms of ancient Japanese theatre and general Japanese culture.

The paper examines how the slasher genre has developed over the years. The main point of this examination focus on differences in the stylistic appearance of the killer, the development of the “final girl”, the film sole survivor and if there are some narrative changes in the plot structure. The films selected for analysis are scattered over the years, including films like Halloween (Carpenter, 1978), A Nightmare on Elm Street (Craven, 1984) and Scream (Craven, 1996). The main changes that have occurred over the years according to this examination tells us that the stylistic features to hide the killer from the spectators isn’t that important and prominent today as it was in the late 70’s and early 80’s, especially the lightning feature, that characterized Michael Myers in Halloween. Even the characteristic point-of-view shots, who marks the killers presence, is as gone. The biggest development for the final girl is that she doesn’t need to be a virgin anymore in order to defeat the killer, who was the case early on. The narrative structure haven’t changed significantly over the years, but the characteristic opening scene which used to contain a sequence that takes place several years earlier where the killer experiencing a trauma of some kind is gone.

No description available.

I uppsatsen undersöker jag om Carol Clovers teorier från boken Men, Women and Chain saws: Gender in the Modern Horror Film fortfarande går att applicera på filmer som kom ut efter det att boken publicerats 1992. De två frågorna jag vill besvara är huruvida Clovers text fortfarande går att applicera, samt hur sexualitet och genus representeras i filmerna jag valt att använda. Mina teoretiska utgångspunkter är ”The final girl”, som är taget ur Clovers bok, samt queerteori. Min metod är att analysera filmerna utifrån Clover för att se hur sexualitet och genus representeras, samtidigt som jag då ser huruvida Clovers text fortfarande är aktuell. De filmerna jag använder mig av är Scream 2 (1997), Teeth (2007), och The Babysitter (2017). Jag visar på att Clovers bok fortfarande är aktuell och går att applicera på filmer producerade nyligen. Jag visar även på att sexualitet och genus är konstant närvarande teman i de tre skräckfilmerna jag använder på ett eller annat sätt, där jag även visar på hur representation av sexualitet och genus har ändrats med tiden och ser olika ut i de tre filmerna.

The primary target for this thesis is to examine what characterizes Nordic slasher films. When the subgenre became successful in North America in the beginning of the 1980’s, the genre was almost nonexistent in the Nordic countries. When a boom of horror films emerged in the beginning of the new millennium almost every Nordic country within a couple of years had produced at least one slasher film each. To outline the purpose of this essay three research questions have been formed: (1) how do gender roles differ? (2) what narrative and stylistic features are used in the films? (3) how is gender specific violence represented? Since the essay aims at defining Nordic slasher films and not a specific country, at least one film from every Nordic country has been employed as a case study. Sweden is represented by Camp Slaughter (Martin Munthe, 2004) and The Drowning Ghost (Strandvaskaren, Mikael Håfström, 2004), Iceland by Reykjavik Whale Watching Massacre (Júlíus Kemp, 2009), which is the country´s very first horror film, Denmark by Room 205 (Kollegiet, Martin Barnewitz), Norway, where most of the horror films from this period were produced, by Cold Prey (Fritt vilt, Roar Uthaug, 2006), Cold Prey 2 (Fritt vilt II, Mats Stenberg, 2008) and Manhunt (Rovdyr, Patrik Syversen, 2008) while Finland is represented by Lake Bodom (Bodom, Taneli Mustonen, 2016). The analysis is based on research about the slasher films produced in North America, where the authors have pointed out two particular cycles: the classical, which extends from 1974 to 1996, and the postmodern which began with Scream in 1996. The Nordic slasher films are produced in the postmodern cycle, but, based on comments and the few surveys that have been done, the films are highly influenced by the classical genre cycle. My study shows that the Nordic slasher films employ conventions and features from both the North American cycles, but differ for various other reasons. First, the killer is not per se the main antagonist per se, he is just an extension of Nordic nature which is the real threat. Moreover, the last surviving character, the one who famously has been called the “final girl” (Clover), is represented in a more progressive manner, not being punished for having sex, drinking alcohol and doing drugs. And, finally, my thesis shows that there is no gender bias with regards to violence against individuals.

<p>August Underground is one of the sickest series of movies that ever been made. We try to understand what makes them so chocking to its audience. Critics says that the August Underground movies imitates Snuff, and we ask the question; How do people know what Snuff looks like.</p>

<p>Syftet med denna uppsats är att skänka en grundläggande illustration av hur relationen bild</p><p>inom bild och skräck kan se ut. Studien koncentrerar sig på estetiken och reflexiviteten hos</p><p>bilderna inom bilden hos de japanska skräckfilmerna The Ring, Pulse och Dark Water. Dessa</p><p>bilder består av ett videoband i The Ring, webbkamerabilder i Pulse och övervakningsbilder i</p><p>Dark Water.</p><p>Användningen av rörliga bilder inom rörliga bilder är reflexivt i den meningen att vi</p><p>medvetandegörs om filmmediet självt som en konstruktion av bilder. Detta fenomen</p><p>uppmärksammar oss också på akten att se. Syftet i skräckfilm är att skapa känslor av olust och</p><p>skräck hos oss och detta åstadkoms, bland annat, genom hur bilderna ser ut och är upplagda.</p><p>Ett återkommande element hos bilderna inom bilden hos våra filmer är otydligheten hos</p><p>flera av dem och detta att vi inte kan se bilden tydligt kan ge upphov till olustkänslor. Något</p><p>dessa bilder också har gemensamt och som kan te sig otäckt är att de är ologiska på olika sätt.</p><p>Ologiska i förhållande till verkligheten, det vill säga vår verklighet utanför fiktionen, och</p><p>ologiska i förhållande till det klassiska filmberättandet där åskådarna ska föreställa ”osynliga</p><p>vittnen” till en händelse.</p> / <p>The aim of this paper is to give a basic illustration of how the relation horror and image</p><p>within image can present itself. The study is concentrated upon the aesthetics and reflexivity</p><p>of the images within the image in the Japanese horrorfilms The Ring, Pulse and Dark Water.</p><p>The images within the image in these films consist of a videotape in The Ring, webcamera</p><p>images in Pulse and images of surveillance in Dark Water.</p><p>The use of moving images within moving images is reflexive in the sense that we come</p><p>aware of the medium as a construction of moving images. This phenomenon also attracts our</p><p>attention to the act of looking. The purpose in horrorfilm is to frighten us and to make us feel</p><p>unpleasant. That is achieved, among other, by how the images look - it is the images that</p><p>assault our eyes.</p><p>An element that recurs is the indistinctness of several of these images, which can</p><p>generate an unpleasant feeling. Another theme these images have in common and that may</p><p>seem awkward is how illogical they appear. Illogical in comparison to our reality outside the</p><p>fiction, and illogical in relation to classical narration in fiction film as far as the audience</p><p>being invisible observers.</p>

Syftet med denna uppsats är att skänka en grundläggande illustration av hur relationen bild inom bild och skräck kan se ut. Studien koncentrerar sig på estetiken och reflexiviteten hos bilderna inom bilden hos de japanska skräckfilmerna The Ring, Pulse och Dark Water. Dessa bilder består av ett videoband i The Ring, webbkamerabilder i Pulse och övervakningsbilder i Dark Water. Användningen av rörliga bilder inom rörliga bilder är reflexivt i den meningen att vi medvetandegörs om filmmediet självt som en konstruktion av bilder. Detta fenomen uppmärksammar oss också på akten att se. Syftet i skräckfilm är att skapa känslor av olust och skräck hos oss och detta åstadkoms, bland annat, genom hur bilderna ser ut och är upplagda. Ett återkommande element hos bilderna inom bilden hos våra filmer är otydligheten hos flera av dem och detta att vi inte kan se bilden tydligt kan ge upphov till olustkänslor. Något dessa bilder också har gemensamt och som kan te sig otäckt är att de är ologiska på olika sätt. Ologiska i förhållande till verkligheten, det vill säga vår verklighet utanför fiktionen, och ologiska i förhållande till det klassiska filmberättandet där åskådarna ska föreställa ”osynliga vittnen” till en händelse. / The aim of this paper is to give a basic illustration of how the relation horror and image within image can present itself. The study is concentrated upon the aesthetics and reflexivity of the images within the image in the Japanese horrorfilms The Ring, Pulse and Dark Water. The images within the image in these films consist of a videotape in The Ring, webcamera images in Pulse and images of surveillance in Dark Water. The use of moving images within moving images is reflexive in the sense that we come aware of the medium as a construction of moving images. This phenomenon also attracts our attention to the act of looking. The purpose in horrorfilm is to frighten us and to make us feel unpleasant. That is achieved, among other, by how the images look - it is the images that assault our eyes. An element that recurs is the indistinctness of several of these images, which can generate an unpleasant feeling. Another theme these images have in common and that may seem awkward is how illogical they appear. Illogical in comparison to our reality outside the fiction, and illogical in relation to classical narration in fiction film as far as the audience being invisible observers.