Corporeality, Materiality, Mortality

Abstract

From head to toe, the body has been a central component of horror films since the genre’s origins as a discursively formed category of cultural production after the turn of the twentieth century (during the “cinema of attractions” period). As the physical proof of a human or nonhuman existence, the body manifests one’s inner being and makes it possible for the most unbelievable of stories—those involving supernatural events or farfetched scenarios (e.g., demonic possession, paranormal phenomena, the walking dead, etc.)—to attain a degree of plausibility through material solidity, via the actual presence of corporeal forms. Although audiences might be comforted by the thought that the monstrous figures onscreen are merely “lights and shadows,” and thus not a real threat to one’s physical or emotional well-being, horror’s affective power lies in its ability to take hold of the spectator and elicit bodily responses that sometimes mirror the actions of those monsters’ ill-fated victims. Using case studies that foreground both microscopic and sexually provocative imagery, this chapter builds upon the pioneering work of Carol Clover and Linda Williams, whose theorizing of horror as an excess-filled “body genre” makes it possible for us to see (and hear) how certain films play on or prey upon a sensate being’s feelings by way of powerful images and sounds.