Last House on the Left

A Nightmare on Elm Street

This article examines how filmmakers utilized viewer manipulation in the Nightmare on Elm Street film series (1984—1994) as a playful mode of address, which simultaneously articulated certain socio-political anxieties prevalent in the surrounding culture. These anxieties concern notions of power and visibility as they relate to what John B. Thompson (1990, 1995) calls the “mediazation of modern culture” and the rise of “quasi-mediated interaction” with its monological or one-way flow of media messages into the private domiciles of citizens. This distinguishing characteristic of quasi-mediated interaction is mirrored through the supernatural abilities of the series’ popular villain character, Freddy Krueger, who is able to intrude into the private realms and personal lives of his victims. However, unlike other slasher villains that take the form of emotionless automatons, Freddy is a trickster; a cruel clown who takes pleasure in manipulating his victims’ perceptions of reality. Just as powerful political leaders must be concerned with their own visual presentations of self in the media age, Freddy must also appeal to his victims in the dream world as well as to the viewers on the other side of the screen. Lastly, to ensure the continuation of his cult of personality, Freddy must displace the Final Girl as the “hero” of each film and become the hero himself through strategically placed elements in the films’ mythic structure.

[en] “Welcome to Prime-Time, Bitch” by Jason Rapelje

World Trade Center

Rating films requires distinguishing what is safe from what is threatening, but the defining characteristic of terror is its capacity to confuse these categories, which makes the already complicated task of screening a film for harmful elements even more complex. Here, I analyze this vexed process in the context of the American Global War on Terror (GWOT).

[en] “Suffering? You Haven’t Seen Anything Yet” by Rebecca A. Adelman

Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay

Rating films requires distinguishing what is safe from what is threatening, but the defining characteristic of terror is its capacity to confuse these categories, which makes the already complicated task of screening a film for harmful elements even more complex. Here, I analyze this vexed process in the context of the American Global War on Terror (GWOT).

[en] “Suffering? You Haven’t Seen Anything Yet” by Rebecca A. Adelman

United 93

Rating films requires distinguishing what is safe from what is threatening, but the defining characteristic of terror is its capacity to confuse these categories, which makes the already complicated task of screening a film for harmful elements even more complex. Here, I analyze this vexed process in the context of the American Global War on Terror (GWOT).

[en] “Suffering? You Haven’t Seen Anything Yet” by Rebecca A. Adelman

The Time That Remains

A taxi drives in the dark, in the middle of a furious storm. As usual, a very talkative driver bothers the passenger who is sitting in the back, a vague shadow barely recognizable as the still and mute figure of Elia Suleiman, the main character/director of The Time That Remains, the film that has just begun. Suddenly, the driver stops, completely disoriented by the pouring rain: “I no longer know where we are.”

[en] A frozen look back to the origin by Marco Grosoli

The Happening

Subsequent to the tragedies of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, a number of popular horror films have emerged as critical responses to the culture of fear aimed inequitably at the foreigner. The thematic thread resonating from post-9/11 horror films such as Constantine, The Hills Have Eyes, Resident Evil and 28 Days Later, is anti-foreigner. Exacerbated by the politics of hysteria awakened by 9/11, these films reflect the horror and anxiety projected upon the foreigner by an American population whose attitude towards foreignness is a refusal to form relations, rejection, and annihilation.

[en] In Violation of the Balance by Adam Wadenius

The Hills Have Eyes

Subsequent to the tragedies of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, a number of popular horror films have emerged as critical responses to the culture of fear aimed inequitably at the foreigner. The thematic thread resonating from post-9/11 horror films such as Constantine, The Hills Have Eyes, Resident Evil and 28 Days Later, is anti-foreigner. Exacerbated by the politics of hysteria awakened by 9/11, these films reflect the horror and anxiety projected upon the foreigner by an American population whose attitude towards foreignness is a refusal to form relations, rejection, and annihilation.

[en] In Violation of the Balance by Adam Wadenius

Cloverfield

Subsequent to the tragedies of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, a number of popular horror films have emerged as critical responses to the culture of fear aimed inequitably at the foreigner. The thematic thread resonating from post-9/11 horror films such as Constantine, The Hills Have Eyes, Resident Evil and 28 Days Later, is anti-foreigner. Exacerbated by the politics of hysteria awakened by 9/11, these films reflect the horror and anxiety projected upon the foreigner by an American population whose attitude towards foreignness is a refusal to form relations, rejection, and annihilation.

[en] In Violation of the Balance by Adam Wadenius

Constantine

Subsequent to the tragedies of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, a number of popular horror films have emerged as critical responses to the culture of fear aimed inequitably at the foreigner. The thematic thread resonating from post-9/11 horror films such as Constantine, The Hills Have Eyes, Resident Evil and 28 Days Later, is anti-foreigner. Exacerbated by the politics of hysteria awakened by 9/11, these films reflect the horror and anxiety projected upon the foreigner by an American population whose attitude towards foreignness is a refusal to form relations, rejection, and annihilation.

[en] In Violation of the Balance by Adam Wadenius