DFM 355 - Horror & Modern Culture

3 credit hours - The genre of Horror, although frequently overlooked as “serious” cinema, serves an important social function: Acting as a cultural barometer for social anxieties and woes of the time they’re made. Horror inherently deals with taboo or disturbing subject matter, and as a consequence, might be the most socially revealing. The course is thematic, with the primary concern not so much the history of horror films, but rather, “what” horror is. How do we represent horror? What cultural function does horror serve? Why do we “like” horror? And what pleasure do we derive from it?