Green Horror: The Use of Environmental Themes in Modern American Horror Cinema

eco-horror;horror film;climate change;catastrophe;School for Environment and Sustainability

Gordin, Dana (Devorah)Wondolleck, Julia ;

University of Michigan

关键词: eco-horror;    horror film;    climate change;    catastrophe;    School for Environment and Sustainability;   

Others  :  https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/handle/2027.42/150641/Gordin_Devorah_Thesis.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y

瑞士|英语

来源: The Illinois Digital Environment for Access to Learning and Scholarship

【 摘 要 】

This study began with the question of what environmental themes may be present incontemporary American horror media and what any trends in these narratives or works maysuggest about American understanding of, beliefs towards and fears about the potentialenvironmental future. With guidance from current and former staff at the Askwith Media Libraryat the University of Michigan, I conducted a review of films that elicit much of their audienceengagement through horror while having clear environmental themes or narratives, then selectedtwelve cinema-released films for critical analysis. Each shared a central premise in which natureshows a widespread response to collective human abuse of the natural world. My criteriaexcluded numerous examples of works with similar themes, but which did not have as direct amessage. I also privileged films that were critically acclaimed and more widely discussed.Finally, I honed for comparative analysis of tropes and themes on storylines with an overall sensethat the environment itself is not as much of a threat as other humans when it comes to survival.My results and discussion raise concerns with some of the messaging in recent environmentallyprogressive discourse that uses a similar framing of threat to bolster environmental support.While there has been an understanding that specific discussions of human threat in relationshipto the environment compels people emotionally, it is not the result of greater environmental careor understanding, but often heavily influenced by other fears, including anxiety about increasinghuman mobility, demographic pressures, and cultural differences. Such rhetoric aligns not onlywith progressive environmental campaigns, however, but also with recent examples of media useby white nationalist and supremacist groups, specifically in an attempt to demonize immigrantsto the United States of America and Europe. As such, I argue that the critical analysis of popularcinematic narratives is crucial to having a political and cultural awareness of the social fears thatexist during this time of rapid environmental change