Horror Films and Grief

@article{Millar2021HorrorFA,
  title={Horror Films and Grief},
  author={Becky Millar and Jonny Lee},
  journal={Emotion Review},
  year={2021},
  volume={13},
  pages={171 - 182}
}
Many of the most popular and critically acclaimed horror films feature grief as a central theme. This article argues that horror films are especially suited to portraying and communicating the phenomenology of grief. We explore two overlapping claims. First, horror is well suited to represent the experience of grief, in particular because the disruptive effects of horror “monsters” on protagonists mirror the core experience of disruption that accompanies bereavement. Second, horror offers ways… 
View on SAGE
eprints.whiterose.ac.uk

References

SHOWING 1-10 OF 77 REFERENCES
Cinematic Emotion in Horror Films and Thrillers: The Aesthetic Paradox of Pleasurable Fear
TLDR
This chapter discusses multiplexperiences, individualized Immersion and Collective Feelings, and moments of Collectivity in the Cinema of Fear and Feelings of Belongingness.
A Dialogue with (Un)Death: Horror Films as a Discursive Attempt to Construct a Relationship with the Dead
Death may be exiled from the living room as we no longer keep parlors as dedicated space for ritual goodbyes and communion with our shrouded dead, but banished death has reappeared with a vengeance…
Art and Negative Affect
Why do people seemingly want to be scared by movies and feel pity for fictional characters when they avoid situations in real life that arouse these same negative emotions? Although the domain of…
(Why) Do You Like Scary Movies? A Review of the Empirical Research on Psychological Responses to Horror Films
TLDR
This review provides the first synthesis of the empirical literature on the psychology of horror film using multi-disciplinary research from psychology, psychotherapy, communication studies, development studies, clinical psychology, and media studies to consider the motivations for people’s decision to watch horror.
Enjoyment of Mediated Fright and Violence: A Meta-Analysis
In this meta-analysis, we synthesized data from published journal articles that investigated viewers' enjoyment of fright and violence. Given the limited research on this topic, this analysis was…
Love and Death
Plot Summary Satire on 19 century epic Russian novels, with many mock‐serious philosophical debates. When Napoleon invades Russia, Boris (Woody Allen) is forced to enlist in the Russian army. He is…
Enjoying Negative Emotions in Fictions
There is a puzzle going back to Aristotle and Augustine that has sometimes been called the "paradox of tragedy": how is it that nonmasochistic, nonsadistic people are able to enjoy watching or…
Grief and the Unity of Emotion
The nature of grief presents a particular challenge to the view that emotions are unified psychological states. Grief can include all manner of potential ingredients, changes markedly over time, and…
Bereavement as a psychosocial transition: Processes of adaptation to change.
There are many ways of construing the psychology of loss. This paper describes one such model, which enlightens some, but not all, aspects of bereavement and needs to be used alongside other models.…
Pandemic practice: Horror fans and morbidly curious individuals are more psychologically resilient during the COVID-19 pandemic
...
1
2
3
4
5
...