Perverse pleasures: Spectatorship- The blair witch project

Date
2006-11-16T11:02:28Z
Authors
Hayter, Tamiko Southcott
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Abstract
By drawing on contemporary scholarship that addresses spectatorship in the cinema generally, and in the horror genre specifically, I analyze the perverse pleasure afforded by The Blair Witch Project. To do this I argue that pleasure in horror is afforded through the masochistic positioning of the viewer, especially in relation to psychoanalytic theories surrounding gender in spectator positioning. I also look at the way the film re-deploys conventions, both documentary conceptions of the ‘real’, as well as generic expectations of horror, to activate the perverse pleasure of horror.
Description
Student Number : 9803476V - MA research report - School of Arts - Faculty of Humanities
Keywords
The Blair Witch Project, spectatorship, psychoanalytic film theory, horror, film conventions, gender, abjection, monstrous feminine, masochism
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