FAVz091 (More Than) Scary Movies

Faculty of Arts
Autumn 2021
Extent and Intensity
2/0/0. 5 credit(s). Type of Completion: zk (examination).
Teacher(s)
Richard Andrew Nowell, B.A., M.A., Ph.D. (lecturer)
Mgr. Šárka Jelínek Gmiterková, Ph.D. (assistant)
Mgr. et Mgr. Bc. Pavla Wernerová (assistant)
Guaranteed by
Mgr. Šárka Jelínek Gmiterková, Ph.D.
Department of Film Studies and Audiovisual Culture – Faculty of Arts
Contact Person: Mgr. Šárka Jelínek Gmiterková, Ph.D.
Supplier department: Department of Film Studies and Audiovisual Culture – Faculty of Arts
Timetable
Thu 23. 9. 12:00–13:40 Virtuální místnost, Thu 7. 10. 12:00–13:40 Virtuální místnost, Thu 21. 10. 12:00–13:40 Virtuální místnost, Thu 4. 11. 12:00–13:40 Virtuální místnost, Thu 18. 11. 12:00–13:40 Virtuální místnost, Thu 2. 12. 12:00–13:40 Virtuální místnost
Prerequisites
There are none.
Course Enrolment Limitations
The course is only offered to the students of the study fields the course is directly associated with.

The capacity limit for the course is 30 student(s).
Current registration and enrolment status: enrolled: 1/30, only registered: 0/30
fields of study / plans the course is directly associated with
there are 18 fields of study the course is directly associated with, display
Course objectives
“(More Than) Scary Movies” aims to develop students’ understandings of modern American horror cinema (1968-Present). As a cultural category, horror has been generally portrayed as dumb, sensational, marginal, reactionary, and aimed mainly at young men. By contrast, this course centralizes five content-tailoring strategies that challenge such notions: Elevated Horror, High Concept Horror, Progressive Horror, Child-Orientated Horror, and Female- Youth-Oriented Horror. Students will explore the industrial, textual, and social dimensions of these approaches, alongside exemplary films including Carrie (1976), The Shining (1980), Scream (1996), American Psycho (2001), and It (2017). In addition to revising commonplace perspectives of a supremely important aspect of American audio-visual culture, students will be furnished with frameworks that promise to enrich their analysis of other media formats.

Please Note: In order to be as inclusive as possible, this course will not feature screenings of extreme or ultra-violent horror. Such films are, however, discussed in passing on the course, and students are free to examine them in the final paper upon which this course is assessed.
Learning outcomes
This course uses the case of modern American horror cinema to promote critical and revisionist understandings of audio-visual formats, considering their industrial, aesthetic, and social dimensions. The course familiarizes students with transferable critical tools, frameworks, approaches, and skills that promise to deepen their capacity critically to engage with media formats both on and beyond this course. By the end of the course, students will be expected to demonstrate a capacity to synthesize engagement of scholarly frameworks with textual and contextual analysis. Their proficiency in such areas shall be assessed through their production of an original analysis of an example film, one that recognizes its status as a product, a thematic/aesthetic object, and an experiential good. Generally speaking, students are also expected to develop critical insights on:
• Horror form
• Horror and generic hybridity
• Horror thematics
• Horror and audience targeting
• Horror and cultural hierarchies
For learning outcomes specific to each topic, see below for individual session outlines.
Syllabus
  • SESSION ONE 23.09.2021
  • CONCEPTUALIZING HORROR
  • This session aims to conceptualize horror cinema in a manner that underpins the case-study- based sessions that comprise the remainder of the course. The session draws upon a half- century of genre scholarship to suggest that horror can be seen as a format rooted in recognizable efforts to employ structure and content to generate emotional responses. It suggests that such an industrial-textual model helps us to explain the multifaceted nature of horror cinema, as well as its status as textual building block that can be combined with other formats so as to generate the diverse output this course examines across subsequent sessions.
  • Targeted Learning Outcomes:
  • I: How horror has been conceptualized narratively.
  • II: How horror has been conceptualized cognitively.
  • III: How horror can be conceptualized as a hybrid(izable) format.
  • Preparation
  • Reading I: Wood, 63–85.
  • Reading: II: Carroll, 51–59.
  • 1. What does each scholar suggest distinguishes horror as a genre?
  • 2. What do you consider the strengths and the weaknesses of their respective definitions?
  • Home Screening: The Lovely Bones (2009).
  • Available at: https://vikv.net/watch/the-lovely-bones-2009-34110
  • I: Do you consider this film a horror movie? If so, why?
  • II: Would you classify this film differently? If so, how and why?
  • SESSION TWO 07.10.2021
  • PROGRESSIVE HORROR
  • Horror is often considered a reactionary genre, based on the questionable logic of witnessing the ultimate destruction of an outsider or – “Other” – that threatens the status quo. However, this session considers scary movies that critique American society. In particular, we shall approach those that have sought to question systemic inequalities and oppressive institutions.
  • Targeted Learning Outcomes
  • I. The implications of imagining horror as an exclusively reactionary or conservative format.
  • II. The dynamics of progressive horror.
  • III. The cultural politics of class-themed horror films.
  • Preparation
  • Reading: Grant, 4-16.
  • 1. How does Grant build on Wood’s definition of horror?
  • 2. What does he suggest was the American yuppy culture of the 1980s (and beyond)?
  • 3. How does he suggest scary movies engaged with yuppie culture?
  • Home Screening I: American Psycho (2001)
  • Available at: https://vikv.net/watch/american-psycho-2000-831
  • Home Screening II: The People Under the Stairs (1991)
  • Available at: https://vikv.net/watch/the-people-under-the-stairs-1991-13905
  • 1. What do these films consider to be monstrous?
  • 2. What do these films suggest is problematic about American social and economic life?
  • SESSION THREE 21.10.2021
  • CHILDREN’S HORROR
  • Where horror is typically imagined as a genre for grownups, this session explores the extent to which scary movies have been made specifically for children. Students will consider how the format has been recalibrated for an audience segment typically thought of as highly sensitive to frightening material. In particular, the session examines how such films familiarize youngsters with horror as a format so they might become loyal consumers as they grow up, while thematising challenges children may be facing in their everyday lives.
  • Targeted Learning Outcomes
  • I. The implications of imaging horror as an adult-oriented format.
  • II. The aesthetic and thematic negotiations of child horror.
  • III. Child horror as training ground for later horror consumption.
  • Preparation
  • Reading: Lester, 22-37.
  • 1. What led to the (purported) emergence of child-oriented horror films in the 1980s?
  • 2. How does Lester suggest these films are tailored for “sensitive” younger audiences?
  • 3. What does she suggest are the main themes of child-oriented horror films?
  • Home Screening I: The Monster Squad (1987)
  • Available at: https://yesmovies.ag/movie/the-monster-squad-11825/1-1/watching.html
  • Home Screening II: It (2017)
  • Available at: https://fmovies.to/film/it.5kkom/2o15qwq
  • 1. How do these films position horror as part of children’s everyday lives?
  • 2. What do they depict the adult world?
  • 3. How do the films suggest the consumption of horror media can benefit children?
  • SESSION FOUR 04.11.2021
  • FEMALE-YOUTH-ORIENTED HORROR
  • Although horror is typically associated with male audiences, this session examines the degree to which scary movies have also been tailored for female audiences, focusing on examples aimed primarily at teenage girls and young women. This subgenre is routinely criticized for its purported misogyny. However, upon closer examination, it can be seen to articulate quite sensitive and supportive positions, providing a staging ground for the concerns, fears, outrage, and pleasures of this historically marginalized audience segment.
  • Targeted Learning Outcomes
  • I. The implications of imagining horror as male-oriented.
  • II. The forces that have shaped female-oriented horror
  • III. The gendered politics and preoccupations of this format.
  • Preparation
  • Reading: Fradley, 204–221.
  • 1. What does Fradley mean by Postfeminist cinema?
  • 2. What are some of the female-oriented themes teen horror articulates?
  • 3. What does Fradley consider the positives and negatives of the positions these films offer?
  • Home Screening I: Carrie (1976)
  • Available at: https://vikv.net/watch/carrie-1976-5651
  • Home Screening II: Black Christmas (2019)
  • Available at: https://www9.0123movies.com/movies-black-christmas-2019- 0123movies.html?play=1
  • 1. How do these film try to be specifically relevant to female youth?
  • 2. How do these films offer support to girls and young women in the audience?
  • SESSION FIVE 18.11.2021
  • ELEVATED HORROR
  • While horror is often cast as the lowest type of non-pornographic entertainment, this session examines examples that draw from arguably the most prestigious of formats: art cinema. Students consider the strategies used to position some scary movies as elevated cultural products that project notions of authenticity of message, autonomy of execution, and alternativeness to the assumed formulaic commerciality of “regular horror”.
  • Targeted Learning Outcomes
  • I. The implications of imagining horror as a lowbrow format.
  • II. Art cinema as a mobile generic component.
  • III. The dynamics of “elevated” horror.
  • Preparation
  • Reading: Church, 15-33.
  • 1. What is “elevated” or post-horror?
  • 2. What does Church suggest distinguishes these from “regular” horror films?
  • 3. What pleasures does he suggest these films offer their targeted audiences?
  • Home Screening I: A Ghost Story (2017)
  • Available at: https://vikv.net/watch/a-ghost-story-2017-41436
  • Home Screening II: The Shining (1980)
  • Available at: https://vikv.net/watch/the-shining-1980-12847
  • 1. How do the makers of these films position themselves as a superior scary movies?
  • 2. What is the “monster” in each of these films?
  • 3. What do you think each of these films is really about?
  • SESSION SIX 02.12.2021
  • HIGH CONCEPT HORROR
  • The traits that led horror to be imagined as standing in opposition to the art world have also led to its being seen as residing beyond a mainstream culture. However, in this session, students will consider how countless scary movies have been fashioned as supreme manifestations of mainstream. In particular, we shall examine scary movies that have adopted the High Concept approach synonymous with high-end Hollywood output since the 1970s.
  • Targeted Learning Outcomes
  • I. The implications of imagining horror as a marginal format.
  • II. The industrial dimensions of high concept.
  • III. The textual and extra-textual dimensions of high concept horror.
  • Preparation
  • Reading: Abbott, 27-44.
  • 1. What is High Concept?
  • 2. How does Stacey suggest horror films have used this model?
  • 3. How else does she suggest some horror films have been positioned as mainstream culture?
  • Home Screening I: A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (1987)
  • Available at: https://vikv.net/watch/a-nightmare-on-elm-street-3-dream-warriors-1987-5518
  • Home Screening II: Scream (1996)
  • Available at: https://vikv.net/watch/scream-1996-17585
  • 1. How do these films draw on the high concept model?
  • 2. How do these films try to distance themselves from low-budget horror?
  • 3. How do these films ally themselves with other media to support their mainstream status?
Literature
    required literature
  • WOOD, Robin. Hollywood from Vietnam to Reagan-- and beyond. Expanded and rev. ed. New York: Columbia University Press, 2003, xlv, 363. ISBN 9780231129664. info
    not specified
  • CONRICH, Ian (ed.) Horror Zone: The Cultural Experience of Contemporary Horror Cinema. London: I.B. Tauris, 2010.
  • GRANT, Barry Keith. “Rich and Strange: The Yuppie Horror Film”. Journal of Film and Video. 1996, roč. 48, č. 1/2, s. 4-16.
  • LESTER, Catherine. “The Children’s Horror Film: Characterizing an ‘Impossible’ Genre”. The Velvet Light Trap. 2016, č. 78, s. 22-37.
  • CHURCH, David. Post- Horror: Art, Genre, and Cultural Elevation. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2021.
  • GWYNNE, Joel a Nadine MILLER (eds.) Postfeminism and Contemporary Hollywood Cinema. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013.
  • CARROLL, Noel. “The Nature of Horror”. The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism. 1987, roč. 46, č. 1, s. 51–59.
Teaching methods
This course is built around six biweekly online sessions run on MS Teams. The sessions will combine elements of both traditional seminars and lectures, insomuch as student-focused discussions are supported with brief framing, summarizing, and contextual “lecturettes”. As preparation, students are expected to study the provided scholarship and home screenings in relation to the questions issued in advance; these will form the basis of the seminar discussions, to which students are expected actively to contribute. Such an approach is intended to maximize students’ engagement and comprehension of the learning outcomes of each session.
Assessment methods
At the end of the course, each student is to submit one circa. 1500–2000-word original essay written in response to one of five prompts derived from the topics introduced across the course.
Value: 100% of Final Grade
Due Date: Midnight CET Sunday 19 December 2021
Note: films screened on this course may NOT be used as examples for any of the prompts.
Advice and Learning Outcomes: Towards the end of the course, an advice sheet will be issued spotlighting the general qualities graded highly on this course. Time will also be set aside towards the end of the final session to discuss these matters.

Prompt A
Where American horror is often seen as a reactionary genre – one that maintains the status quo by vanquishing threats from society’s Others – it is also clear that this format has also been used to critique the world in which we live. With this point in mind, show how a modern American horror film invites its audience to think critically about US society.
Targeted Learning Outcomes/Areas of Assessment
I. The limitations of imagining horror as a reactionary format.
II. How structural elements give rise to progressive horror films.
III. How a horror film advances progressive cultural-political positions.

Prompt B
Although horror is often associated with young adult audiences, some scary movies have been made specifically for much younger people. With this point in mind, show how a modern American horror film has been tailored to be relevant and appealing to children.
Targeted Learning Outcomes/Areas of Assessment
I. Why horror has tended to be imagined as an adult-oriented format.
II. The aesthetic and thematic approaches of child-oriented horror.
III. How a modern American horror film is tailored to address the concerns of children.

Prompt C
While American horror has been typically imagined as a male-oriented format, it is clear that countless scary movies accommodate or prioritize address to female audiences. With this point in mind, explain how a modern American horror film seeks to address the concerns, fears, and hopes of teenage girls and/or young women.
Targeted Learning Outcomes/Areas of Assessment
I. Why horror has tended to be imagined as a male-oriented format.
II. The aesthetic and thematic approaches of female-youth-oriented horror.
III. How a modern American horror film is tailored to address the concerns of teenage girls and/or young women.

Prompt D
While often associated with ultra-lowbrow exploitation cinema, American horror has also historically boasted an arty, indie, or elevated “wing”. With this point in mind, show how a modern American horror film projects the hallmarks of authenticity, autonomy, and alternativeness associated with prestige cultural productions like art cinema.
Targeted Learning Outcomes/Areas of Assessment
I. Why horror has tended to be imagined as a lowbrow format.
II. The textual and discursive tendencies of elevated cultural production.
III. How a modern American horror film draws from art cinema.

Prompt E
Its association with exploitation cinema has meant that American horror has often been considered by both critics and fans as residing outside an imagined cultural mainstream. However, it is clear that many horror films draw from approaches to a blockbuster cinema that have come to exemplify the mainstream. With this point in mind, show how a modern American horror film employs the High Concept model seen since the 1970s as the epitome of the Hollywood blockbuster.
Targeted Learning Outcomes/Areas of Assessment
I. Why horror has tended to be imagined as a non-mainstream format.
II. The textual and extra-textual dimensions of high concept.
III. How a modern American horror film draws from the high concept model.

All Essays are to be submitted in PDF or word format to MS TEAMS or to richard_nowell@hotmail.com - Please include your name and the course title in the name of the file.
NB: Extensions can be arranged with the instructor in advance, based on health, humanitarian, and other grounds.
Tutorials
Students may arrange one-on-one tutorials to discuss any issues arising from the course, including the assessments. Meetings can be arranged by email and will take place online at a time of mutual convenience.

Feedback
Each student will be emailed individually with detailed personal feedback on his or her paper. This feedback is designed to be constructive so will spotlight strengths, shortcomings, and suggestions on how the paper might have been elevated.

Plagiarism Information
It is the duty of every student to ensure that s/he has familiarized him- or herself with the following details pertaining to plagiarism.
(A) Any use of quoted texts in seminar papers and theses must be acknowledged. Such use must meet the following conditions: (1) the beginning and end of the quoted passage must be shown with quotation marks; (2) when quoting from periodicals or books, the name(s) of author(s), book or article titles, the year of publication, and page from which the passage is quoted must all be stated in footnotes or endnotes; (3) internet sourcing must include a full web address where the text can be found as well as the date the web page was visited by the author.
(B) In case the use of any texts other than those written by the author is established without proper acknowledgement as defined in (A), the paper or thesis will be deemed plagiarized and handed over to the Head of School.
Language of instruction
English
Teacher's information
Dr. Richard Nowell gained his PhD at the University of East Anglia. In his research he focuses on the generative mechanisms underwriting the development of film cycles and textual/thematic trends; the mechanics, motivations, and algorithms of repackaging American genre cinema and the appropriation of popular generic discourse in the assembly and marketing of American cinema. He is a widely published film theorist and historian, author of the book Blood Money: A History of the First Teen Slasher Film Cycle and editor of the collection Merchants of Menace: The Business of Horror Cinema.
  • Enrolment Statistics (recent)
  • Permalink: https://is.muni.cz/course/phil/autumn2021/FAVz091