The Contours of Horror: An Investigation of Heterogenous Audience Responses to Slasher Media

The ethics of viewing horror and slasher media are of key concern for scholars. What impact does
viewing horror have on an individual and why do viewers enjoy works of fear and violence?
Answers to these questions rely upon an understanding of the emotional experiences which precede
those impacts and appeals. One leading approach for gaining this understanding is cognitive film theory,
yet while it has provided partial answers to the above questions, the precise contours of the cinematic
horror experience remain a mystery.
Through an in-depth theoretical investigation as well as a novel experimental phenomenological method,
the proposed research will seek to uncover the extent to which existing cognitivist explanations of
responses to horror account for actual experiences; to what extent audience responses are homogenous;
and why, despite the significant scrutiny it has received, the horror experience remains so mysterious