Fear in British/American films

[gipi23]

I would like to explore how fear shapes our everyday experience, and how is this phenomena investigated in [literature] and visual art.

Representations of rational and irrational fear in Arts and Literature:

- Fear, traumas and angst of the unknown, “the Other�

- Facing phobias (death, birds, spiders, darkness, claustrophobia…)

- Parapsychological and supernatural phenomena

- Monsters, ghosts, goblins, creatures, the living dead, spirit possession

- Religious fear and prophetic visions, mysticism

- Cultural hatred and xenophobia

- Fear and music, fear in/of music

- Fear and theatre, fear in/of theatre

- Modern forms of fear and traumas

o Soulless world of virtual reality

o Life in the terror-haunted world

o Loss of humanity

o Transhumanism and posthumanism



Exploring fearsome narratives:

- Horror, Thriller, Gothic novel, Adventure story, War novels

- Fear in modern children´s and young adult literature

- Fear in cross-over literature

- Popular culture narratives

- Movie and theatre adaptations of literary works

- Visual, auditory and literary expressive means evoking fear



British/American films are the ones I focus onto, yet Australian movies would also apply. Do you have any suggestion as on what to concentrate, and, additionally, provide some tips for the movies, where that particular type of fear is represented/depicted/dealt with, etc...?



Thank you

[CaptainWaggett]

Sounds very interesting. Perhaps you could tell us what examples you have chosen so we aren't duplicating your efforts.

[GoggleboxUK]

I'd suggest you take a look at the scene from 1984 where Wnston (John Hurt) is tortured by Richard Burton. There's a segment where one of Winston's teeth is pulled out, a common fear which manifests itself regularly in dreams and is cited as representing fear of loss or grief.



The section of the book in which Winston's fear of rats is horrifically exploited is also well depicted in the movie although this section in the novel seems far more chilling.

[gipi23]

name='CaptainWaggett' timestamp='1285331051' post='476953']

Sounds very interesting. Perhaps you could tell us what examples you have chosen so we aren't duplicating your efforts.

Nothing in particular yet, I am trying to narrow down the selection, since I have to focus on one/two issues and then try to identify as many examples as possible and/or the ways they are either resoluted/faced with or what impact they have on one's psyche/life, etc. The will share my findings later. I have a week to decide and then about a month to carry out the research.

[gipi23]

name='GoggleboxUK' timestamp='1285331366' post='476954']

I'd suggest you take a look at the scene from 1984 where Wnston (John Hurt) is tortured by Richard Burton. There's a segment where one of Winston's teeth is pulled out, a common fear which manifests itself regularly in dreams and is cited as representing fear of loss or grief.



The section of the book in which Winston's fear of rats is horrifically exploited is also well depicted in the movie although this section in the novel seems far more chilling.

I have both seen the film and read the book, and I have already had in mind that if I am to choose physical aspect/means that cause fear, 1984 would certainly have its say in the paper.

[jimw1]

Probably another one you already had in Mind' But as soon as I saw the Title of Your Thread the Vision of Dustin Hoffman, and Laurence Olivier in the Marathon Man sprang to mind..............



Is It Safe !!!!

[jaycad]

it's not very often that i watch a film and am genuinely frightened nowadays,the 'loud noise/jump out at you' scenes in some horrors may have worked in the 1980s but are old hat and expected. the only intetesting scene that i can think of is near the end of 'the blair witch project' in which the camera pans to the back of one of the 'investigating team' who is stood in the corner of the room(the explanation is given earlier in the film) it didn't bother me at the time of watching but for some reason played in my mind for two weeks afterwards and gave me unexplainable nightmares! 'the blair witch project' was slated by some at the time but i think it is a great pyschological horror!

[GoggleboxUK]

If you're looking for representation's of fear in a character or characters within movies rather than examples of scary moments then this is one of my favourites:



[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NEZv0FUPtcc[/media]

[zettel45]

You really are going to have to narrow this down a bit because almost any drama or horror film ever made at least touches on some of the areas in your list.

name='gipi23' timestamp='1285330272' post='476949']- Modern forms of fear and traumas

o Soulless world of virtual reality

o Loss of humanity

A few to look at in this category would be:



Virtual Reality



Tron

Videodrome

The Truman Show

eXistenZ

The Matrix



Loss of Humanity



Metropolis

Invasion of the Body Snatchers

The Stepford Wives

Crash (Cronenberg's film of JG Ballard's novel, not the later one about racism)



Even here, though, there are literally hundreds of films that touch on this issue in one way or another.

[porlock]

Any exploration into the theme of fear in British movies must include Michael Powell's Peeping Tom.

[Rowdon]

name='gipi23' timestamp='1285332078' post='476960']

Nothing in particular yet, I am trying to narrow down the selection, since I have to focus on one/two issues and then try to identify as many examples as possible and/or the ways they are either resoluted/faced with or what impact they have on one's psyche/life, etc. The will share my findings later. I have a week to decide and then about a month to carry out the research.

Porlock beat me to it, but I was going to mention Peeping Tom. The reason is that reading your first post it was the first film I thought of, because the whole horror is that the investigators can't imagine what terror the victims witnessed which left them with such fear on their dead faces. It's a film about trying to create and use fear in other other people - trying to imagine what would really terrify them, and then presenting them with it. 1984, as has been said, is the same. Room 101 is about that: playing with an individual's fear.

That's the aspect I would look at; films wherein somebody has tried to discover, then make real and use, their victim's inner fear.





By the way - isn't there a Batman villain that creates fear in his victims? The Scarecrow maybe?

[GoggleboxUK]

name='Rowdon' timestamp='1285351210' post='477053']







By the way - isn't there a Batman villain that creates fear in his victims? The Scarecrow maybe?

Indeed there is Rowdon, the aptly named Scarecrow is indeed his moniker.

[Rowdon]

name='GoggleboxUK' timestamp='1285352489' post='477058']

Indeed there is Rowdon, the aptly named Scarecrow is indeed his moniker.

Thought so. And there was a Daredevil story where everyone was terrified of some witch-doctor type villain but Matt Murdoch (for it is he) was unaffected because he is blind, you see, and it was all hypnosis, not magic. Can I get a name on that villain?







(BTW - Is that supposed to be the Scarecrow at the beginning of Dark Knight?)

[GoggleboxUK]

name='Rowdon' timestamp='1285353941' post='477066']

Thought so. And there was a Daredevil story where everyone was terrified of some witch-doctor type villain but Matt Murdoch (for it is he) was unaffected because he is blind, you see, and it was all hypnosis, not magic. Can I get a name on that villain?







(BTW - Is that supposed to be the Scarecrow at the beginning of Dark Knight?)

I think the witch doctor was called Devourer, wasn't he some sort of Mayan god?



I can't recall the Scarecrow in TDK but i've only seen it about a dozen times. He's an excellent character in the animated Batman series though, very spooky!

[GoggleboxUK]

Apparently I blinked and missed him, you're right Rowdon:



[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H7yOeXLz_FE[/media]

[zettel45]

name='Rowdon' timestamp='1285353941' post='477066'](BTW - Is that supposed to be the Scarecrow at the beginning of Dark Knight?)

Yes, but the same character features much more heavily in Batman Begins, which involves a plot to infect Gotham City with a gas that makes everyone paranoid, scared and violent.



You could argue that a similar thing happens in 28 Days Later, though really "the rage" just makes everyone homicidal (see also The Crazies).

[Rowdon]

name='zettel45' timestamp='1285396959' post='477195']

Yes, but the same character features much more heavily in Batman Begins, which involves a plot to infect Gotham City with a gas that makes everyone paranoid, scared and violent.

Don't worry, Gogglebox, if you didn't notice him in The Dark Knight - he gets out of the van in the car park at the beginning and is dealt with in 10 seconds by Batman and the Sons of Batman vigilantes. The weird thing is that I don't remember him at all from Batman Begins - scary! I'm getting that disease ... oh, what's it called? Oh, you know... the one where you lose your ... em ... oh damn ...

[wadsy]

I think one very effective portrayal of a person showing true fear is Brian Wilde's brief performance in Night of the Demon

[smudge]

Though essentially a modest (but effective) B&W 'shocker', within its narrative Sidney Hayer's NIGHT OF THE EAGLE examines both fear of the unknown (supernatural) and fear as part of the cult of witchcraft.



Smudge