I love horror films and fiction but lately I’ve begun wondering about their portrayal of knowledge. I can’t think of any horror works which do not cause horror by increasing knowledge–in Psycho and Silence of the Lambs the climactic reveal is what’s in the basement; in The Changeling it’s in the attic; in The Shining one of the most horrifying/memorable scenes shows what’s in room 227; I thought Misery might be an exception, but the reveal there is Annie’s past as documented in her scrapbook. In Texas Chainsaw Massacre there are a couple of reveals, including the nature of the BBQ the teens have eaten and Pam’s realization that she’s taken refuge with Leatherface’s brother. In The Ring, the nature of the ring and its importance to Sadako are initially a mystery, and seeing the tape is fatal unless you spread that knowledge by endangering someone else.
Have any works managed to increase horror without revealing new information? And has anyone written compellingly about the politics/philosophy of horror in regards to knowledge (in any format–mass-market nonfiction, blogs, dissertation, whatever)?
There are a lot of terrible horror movies out there. Possibly more than any other genre, horror seems to appeal to wannabe filmmakers who figure it’s easy and cheap to pull off a scary movie – and thanks to the success of many low budget horror movies, distributors seem to be putting out an awful lot of them. So I’d understand if you didn’t want to trawl through an endless sea of crap to find the few real gems amongst the cinematic slurry.
Horror films are a dime a dozen, so few of them have the potential to become classics of the genre. Among the thousands of entries, only a handful of titles ever resonate with audiences beyond the loyal base. Nightmare on Elm Street, Halloween, and The Exorcist are household names, even those too afraid to watch horror films are keenly aware of these titles and the legends they’ve spawned. But outside of horror fans, who has ever heard of Carnivore (The Final Terror) starring a young Daryl Hannah, the sadly underappreciated Just Before Dawn, or the Do-It-Yourself gore fest Cannibal Campout?
