Víc než jen strašidelné filmy: Jak rozumět hororu

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Kód Zakončení Kredity Rozsah Jazyk výuky Semestr
376HC zkouška 3 2 hodiny PŘEDNÁŠEK týdně (45 minut), 54 až 69 hodin domácí příprava anglicky, česky letní

Garant předmětu

Jindřiška BLÁHOVÁ

Jméno vyučujícího (jména vyučujících)

Richard Andrew NOWELL

Katedra

Předmět zajišťuje Kabinet teorie a historie audiovize

Obsah

“(More than) Scary Movies” aims to develop student understandings of horror cinema so they can better explore this format in their creative practice. The course consists of six historically- and theoretically-focused seminars that challenge the notion that horror is a dumb, conservative, sadistic format aimed mainly at young men. It does so by focusing instead on Art Horror like A Ghost Story (2017), Progressive Horror like American Psycho (2001), Quirky Horror like Carrie (1976), Children’s Horror like It: Chapter One (2017), and Girl Horror like Scream (1996). Students will explore these topics in their own horror movie concept, which they will pitch in a short video at the end of the course. In so doing, the course seeks to enrich students’ appreciation of the industrial, social, and especially the textual dimensions of one of the most historically important of all media genres.

Please Note: To be as inclusive as possible, this course will not include screenings of extreme or ultra-violent horror. Such films may, however, be discussed in passing on the course.

Course Moodle Site (for all Slides, Readings, and Screenings): https://moodle.amu.cz/course/view.php?id=1487

COURSE OUTLINE

SESSION I THE HORROR FORMAT

Our first seminar defines horror as a media format. We will consider how horror makers use a distinctive combination of elements to encourage emotional responses. This model helps us to think about horror as building block, one that can be combined with other content to generate films that can be scary, but much, much more.

Learning Outcomes:

I: Horror and story

II: Horror and affect

III: Horror and hybridity

Preparation

Home Screening: The Lovely Bones (2009)

I: Do you consider this film a horror movie? If so, why?

II: Would you classify this film differently? If so, how and why?

Recommended Reading I: Wood, 63–85.

Recommended 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 definitions?

SESSION 2ART HORROR

Horror is often considered to be among the lowest forms of entertainment. However, this session focuses on scary movies that draws from that most prestigious of formats, art cinema. Students will consider how such films are positioned as superior cultural products for discerning audiences.

Learning Outcomes

I. Horror as a lowbrow format.

II. Art cinema as a building block

III. “Elevated” horror.

Preparation

Home Screening: A Ghost Story (2017)

  1. How do the makers of this film position it as a superior form of scary movie?
  2. Do you find this film difficult to understand; if so, why?
  3. What do you think this film might really be about?

Recommended 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?

SESSION 3 PROGRESSIVE HORROR

Whereas horror is often reductively considered to be a reactionary or conservative genre, this session considers how some scary movies offer radical critiques of the status quo, by focusing on those that demonize economic inequalities.

Learning Outcomes

I. Horror as conservative.

II. Progressive horror.

III. Class-critique horror.

Preparation

Home Screening: American Psycho (2001)

  1. What does this film consider to be monstrous?
  2. What does this film suggest is problematic about American social and economic life?

Recommended 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?

SESSION 4 QUIRKY HORROR

Where horror is often damned as a sadistic genre that solicits pleasure from cruelty, this session focuses on scary movies that invite sympathy for the monster. We will consider how such films invite audiences to reflect on what is to be the outsider, and to ask who the monsters among us really are.

Learning Outcomes

I: Horror as sadistic format

II: The features of quirky horror

III: The terrors of the “normal world”

Preparation

Home Screening: Carrie (1976)

  1. Who or what is the monster in this film
  2. How does the film depict “the normal world”?
  3. How does this film offer support to outsiders in the audience?

Recommended Reading: Nowell.

  1. What is quirky horror?
  2. How does quirky horror depict outsiders?
  3. How does quirky horror depict “the normal world”?

SESSION 5 KID HORROR

While horror is typically imagined as a genre for grownups, this session explores those scary movies made specifically for children. The session examines how these films introduce youngsters to the benefits of consuming horror media consumption as a means of helping them cope with the challenges of being a kid.

Learning Outcomes

I. Horror as an adult-oriented format.

II. The features of children’s horror.

III. Children’s horror as training for horror film consumption.

Preparation

Home Screening: It: Chapter 1 (2017)

  1. How does this film suggest horror is a part of children’s lives?
  2. How does the film depict the adult world?
  3. How does it suggest consuming horror media can benefit children?

Recommended Reading: Lester, 22-37.

  1. What led to the emergence of child-oriented horror films in the 1980s?
  2. How does Lester suggest these films are tailored for younger audiences?
  3. What does she suggest are the main themes of the films?

SESSION 6 GIRL HORROR

Although horror is typically associated with male audiences, especially teenage boys, this session examines scary movies that are tailored specifically for female audiences. We will consider how they offer sensitive and supportive positions on girlhood, addressing the concerns, fears, outrage, and pleasures of this often-overlooked audience segment.

Learning Outcomes

I. Horror as male-oriented format.

II. The forces driving female-oriented horror

III. The gendered politics and preoccupations of this format.

Preparation

Home Screening: Scream (1996)

  1. How does this film try to be relevant to female youth?
  2. How does this film suggest concerns this audience?
  3. What messages does this film suggest to males viewing it?

Recommended Reading: Wee, 50-61.

  1. Why does Wee Suggest this film was made for girls?
  2. How does she suggest it distances itself from earlier films considered sexist?
  3. How does it raise issues thought to be relevant to young female audiences?

Výsledky učení

This course aims uses the case of the modern horror film to bridge Film Studies and Creative Practice. On the one hand, it aims to familiarize students with critical and revisionist understandings of audio-visual formats, by focusing their industrial, aesthetic, and social dimensions. On the other, it encourages students to integrate critical tools, frameworks, approaches, and skills into their creative practice. By the end of the course, students will be expected to demonstrate a capacity engage with the historical and theoretical concepts introduced in the seminars through their production of an original horror concept pitched in a short video at the end of the course.

For learning outcomes specific to each topic, see below for individual session outlines.

TEACHING METHODS

This course is built around six biweekly seminars. 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 read the provided scholarship and watch the home screenings in relation to questions included in the syllabus; these will form the basis of 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 and the course as a whole.

Předpoklady a další požadavky

Literatura

RECCOMENDED READINGS

Carroll, Noel. “The Nature of Horror”, The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, 46.1 (Autumn, 1987), pp. 51–59.

Lester, Catherine. “The Children’s Horror Film: Characterizing an ‘Impossible’ Genre”, The Velvet Light Trap, no. 78 (2016), pp. 22-37.

Church, David. “Apprehension Engines: The New Independent ‘Prestige Horror’”, in Post-Horror: Art, Genre, and Cultural Elevation (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2021), pp. 15-33.

Grant, Barry Keith. “Rich and Strange: The Yuppie Horror Film”, Journal of Film and Video, 48.1/2 (1996), pp. 4-16.

Nowell, Richard, “Like the Toasted Cheese Sandwiches Mother Used to Make: The American Film Industry, Quirky Horror, and Psycho II (1983)”.

Wood, Robin, “The American Nightmare: Horror in the 1970s”, in Hollywood From Vietnam to Reagan … and Beyond (York: Columbia University Press, 2003), pp. 63-85.

Wee, Valerie, “Resurrecting and Updating the Teen Slasher: The Case of Scream”, Journal of Popular Film & Television 34.2 (Summer 2006), pp. 50-61.

HOME SCREENINGS:

American Psycho (Mary Harron, 2000)

Carrie (Brian De Palma, 1976)

Ghost Story (David Lowery, 2017)

It: Chapter 1 (Andy Muschietti, 2017)

Lovely Bones, The (Peter Jackson, 2009)

Scream (Wes Craven, 1996)

Hodnoticí metody a kritéria

At the end of the course, students are to submit a short 5-to-10-minute video, pitching their original Horror movie concept.

Value: 100% of Final Grade

Due Date: TBA

Learning Outcomes: Students are expected to show an understanding of the following in their short video:

  1. Horror as a format
  2. Horror and audience address
  3. Horror and audience-relevant content
  4. Horror and real-world themes
  5. Balancing conventions with invention or originality.

Value: 100% of Final Grade

Due Date: TBA

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 assessment. 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 their assessment. This feedback is designed to be constructive so will spotlight strengths, shortcomings, and suggestions on how the paper might have been elevated.

General Evaluation:

Grades from A-F will be awarded based on the following general criteria.

A

90<Responding to the prompt in a focused and direct fashion. Clear and sustained evidence of all of the stated learning outcomes. Executed in a clear and inventive manner. No real evidence of blind-spots or misunderstandings.

B

80 – 89.99Responding to the prompt in largely focused and direct fashion. Clear and considerable evidence of most of the stated learning outcomes. Executed in a generally clear and somewhat inventive manner. Little evidence of blind-spots or misunderstandings.

C

70 – 79.99Responding to the prompt in a generally focused and direct fashion. Evidence of some of the stated learning outcomes. Executed in a generally clear and somewhat inventive manner. Some evidence of blind-spots or misunderstandings.

D

60 – 69.99Responding to the prompt in a somewhat indirect and unfocused fashion. Evidence of a small number of the states learning outcomes. Executed in a somewhat unclear and unimaginative manner. Significant evidence of blind-spots or misunderstandings.

E

50 – 59.99Responding to the prompt in a largely indirect and unfocused manner. Little evidence of the stated learning outcomes. Executed in an unclear and unoriginal manner. Considerable blind-spots and misunderstandings.

F

<50No significant evidence of any of the stated learning outcomes.

Další informace

Předmět je součástí nabídky volitelných předmětů fakulty

Rozvrh na zimní semestr 2026/2027:

06:00–08:0008:00–10:0010:00–12:0012:00–14:0014:00–16:0016:00–18:0018:00–20:0020:00–22:0022:00–24:00
Po
Út
St
Čt
místnost
()
NOWELL R.
12:20–14:45
LICHÝ TÝDEN
(přednášková par. 1)
Výuka bude v U7 FAMU ve dnech 8.10.;22.10.;5.11.; 19.11.; 3.12.;17.12.
Pá
Datum Den Čas Vyučující Místo Poznámky Č. paralelky
Čt 12:20–14:45 Richard Andrew NOWELL
Výuka bude v U7 FAMU ve dnech 8.10.;22.10.;5.11.; 19.11.; 3.12.;17.12. přednášková par. 1

Rozvrh na letní semestr 2026/2027:

Rozvrh zatím není připraven

Předmět je součástí následujících studijních plánů