Science of Horror
Directors Comment
With the arrival of literary works such as Carol Clover’s “Men, women and chain saws” (1992) as well as Linda Williams “Hard Core” (1989), feminist film theory took a new look at the so called “low body genres”. Until then, genres such as horror and pornography had been mainly condemned by feminist writings, as it was regarded as a cinema, which was solely made for a male audience, often serving to fulfil sadistic pleasures.
“Men, women and chainsaw” and “Hard core” also attracted attention, as it emerged from an acknowledged academical background, with both authors being scholars at the University of California, Berkeley. Although never denying the misogynistic subtexts in those genres, the authors opened the door and gave way for a feminist reading, which went beyond the established and often negative attitudes towards these genres.
“Science of horror” tries to capture those newer cycles of ideas. It quite consciously opens with the recurring famous topics of horror, such as “censorship” and “catharsis”, but develops into a discourse, which more and more finds a focus on gender related approaches. By doing this, it likes to provide a broad scientifical look at the genre, while incorporating issues, which have not been discussed in film before.
The almost equal appearances of filmmakers and theorists within the film, is a means to explore the genre from different perspectives. In addition, it is a comment on the often neglected influence, which the two disciplines, filmmaking and film criticism, have on each other.
