Why Horror? The Peculiar Pleasures of a Popular Genre

Digital play: a new classification

“…April had previously played this game and stated that she found it scary, so it is of interest that she wanted to play it again. As numerous scholars have attested, humans are attracted to fearful, imaginary experiences (Clasen 2012;Tudor 1997). In this kind of digital play, children experience tension and fear as they do in risky offline play, but they have more control over the outcomes; it is relatively easy to switch a digital game off if it is causing too much emotional stress, whereas this is not always possible with deep play in a physical environment.…”

‘Not to Be Toyed With’: Drug Addiction, Bullying and Self-empowerment inBuffy the Vampire Slayer

“…Story arcs in Buffy, as Roz Kaveney points out, extend across the self-contained thematics of each season and deal for the greater part in character development (Kaveney, 2001, p. 12). Consequently, this is not unlike Umberto Eco's notion of the open text (Eco, 1979, p. 3), Buffy allows the multiple location of the notion of the transformative 'drug' in various and varied elements of the idea of the stable self, whether that be the representation of the 'druginduced effect' as the release of an inner, primal nature, or an outer and invasive abject (Tudor, 1997), or as the abject and invasive other (Creed, 1993). The transformation of the significations of drugs and alcohol in Buffy is, then, something which cannot be disconnected from notions of subjectivity, identity and the ideation of selfhood as it is located within a preceding set of discourses and power relations.…”

Homesick for the unheimlich: Back to the uncanny future in Alien: Isolation

“…Isolation facilitates nostalgia for the pleasurable horror of the original film, acknowledging that the uncanny in works of horror can generate diverse pleasures and appeal for horror fans (Tudor 1997). In this sense, it is indeed possible to feel a sense of nostalgia (a longing for a perceived better past, or in this case a perceived genre exemplar) for something inherently uncanny (a sense of dread and fear that, while repulsive, can be interpreted as pleasurable to horror audiences).…”

“…Quoting Charles Nodier, Vidler recognizes the perceived fragility of Piranesi's environments and the risks that travellers would face if they attempted the climb, only to be presented with an endless repetition of spatial challenges (1992: [39][40]. Piranesi's nightmarish, labyrinthlike spaces play with our perceptions of reality whilst instilling a sense of dread.…”