Horror and its relationship with society and culture has always been a fascinating thread for me. I've enjoyed reading Carroll's account of it, specifically his arguments against the notion that horror is always either (a) a vehicle for political repression, or (b) an emancipatory medium that calls the motives of the status quo into question. I think that he rightly points out that horror can be used for either end, and if we can't give a definitive, thoroughly general scheme for how all horror objects seek to achieve either end, then the notion that horror is ideologically politically repressive or progressive (all the time) is untenable.
His attack on the structural model of horror (that horror narratives move from normal---abnormal---back to normal, back to affirmation of cultural and societal norms) is also compelling because he notes that many horror fictions do not end with the monster being subdued or normality being restored. Carpenter's version of the Thing is an excellent example because we don't clearly know which character, if either, is safe in the end (much of Carpenter's work is particularly bleak in its outlook....in They Live, he openly attacks capitalist culture and the world of commodities, clearly not establishing the status quo). Carroll is right to point out that it's more about seeing how objects of horror can apply these themes to either stigmatize or valorize certain norms. Once again, horror can be repressive or progressive.
I also like that he links horror to postmodernism. I agree with his intuitions here, especially with regards to the idea that both look to the past with nostalgia, both portray the person in tenuous terms, and they tend to address social uncertainty and unease.
I think that, finally, someone has given me partial insight into the remake craze as of recent. Carroll says, "It proceeds by recombining acknowledged elements of the past in a way that suggests that the root of creativity is to be found in looking backwards. The horror fiction of the present, though not lacking in energy, also refers back to earlier times, to classic monsters and myths, as in a gesture of nostalgia" (p. 211). This might serve to partially explain why we're so fascinated with remaking everything. I might add that our present cycle is lacking in energy, so it's turning toward the past to reignite a palette for horror.
1 comment:
Good insights. I think that Carroll is right to reject essentialist claims regarding horror's being inherently progressive, regressive, or whatever. And, as you point out, he does supply us with a way to understand the endless remakes and sequels of contemporary horror. What I would like from Carroll, however, is a more detailed and specific discussion of individual horror directors. A Jacques Tourneur/Val Lewton film is going to be different in some fairly specific and predictable ways from a James Whale film, for example. Or consider the overall "ideology" of a Wes Craven, George Romero, or John Carpenter. That is, I think that some attention to the specificities of the works of horror auteurs would help sharpen Carroll's account of what horror films "mean".
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