Film
Cult Cinema and Viewing Praxis
Presenter(s): Lyric Luedke
Advisor(s): Dr. Kelli Fuery
Studies of cult cinema have long been dominated by questions of intertextuality (Bruce Austin, 1981), when in fact the intersubjective viewing experience of cult films occupies a critical, if neglected, role in our understanding of cinematic spectatorship. According to Jeffrey Sconce (1995) and Siegfried Kracauer (1987), cult cinema has historically invited active participation alongside the text on behalf of the spectator. This means that the physical, discursive, and affective viewing environment is paramount to the function of cult cinema. Whether its audience arrives costumed as a favorite character, dances in the aisles during musical interludes, or brings objects from home to toss toward the screen on cue, the experience of the cult text transcends the bounds of the frame, and is actively created in turn by the spectator. This paper will triangulate the work of Pierre Bourdieu (1984) on taste with the work of Susan Sontag (1999) and Tom Gunning (2019) on excess, spectacle, and immersive modes of spectatorship, in addition to citing films such as The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975) and The Room (2003), which are exemplary of the behaviors listed above and therefore provide a basis for any delineation of the cult viewing environment. Overall, this paper will examine the vital condition of intersubjective viewership to cult cinema and suggest applications to the lived experience of film and technology in an increasingly interactive 21st century media landscape.
Media Manipulation and the Uncertainty of Recorded History
Presenter(s): Marc Heller
Advisor(s): Dr. Kelli Fuery
Lived experience and media have become increasingly intertwined within the Western World to the point of becoming indistinguishable. Jean Bauldrillard’s book Simulation and Simulation(Bauldrillard, 1983) demonstrates the reflexive nature of phenomenological understanding of and semiotic depiction. Using Stuart Hall’s Reception Theory presented in Encoding and Decoding in the Television Discourse (Hall, 1973) and Hannah Arendt’s essay “Lying In Politics''(Civil Disobedience, Arendt 1972), I aim to investigate how media transmitted to a massive audience has the power to shape the collective reception experience. The response of Reddit users to the 2013 Boston Marathon Bombing exemplifies how a collective belief altered the history of the event as it was unfolding in real-time. The users attempted to hunt down the perpetrators of the terrorist attack, placing guilt upon the wrong individual in the court of public opinion; their attempted vigilanteism resulted in their suspect’s suicide. When experiences become depicted in media, their histories’ are dominated by their popular representation; forcing those with a lived experience of the represented moment to establish either a negotiated or oppositional reception. This can be seen with culturally impactful experiences like the OJ Simpson and Ted Bundy trials and depiction within both narrative and documentary film. The Ted Bundy trials gave many Americans their first interaction with a serial killer by projecting the trial’s events into television sets across the nation, allowing his charisma to shape his public reception. The OJ Simpson trials received a similar broadcasting event, depicting another charismatic and camera friendly suspect, now with race relations and previously established fame to be added to the mix. As these moments slip farther and farther into the past, their representations become increasingly hegemonic; reducing the ability for those without the lived experience to negotiate or oppose the given representation.
Wes Craven: Desensitization and Violence
Presenter(s): Melissa Cusano
Advisor(s): Dr. Kelli Fuery
It is long debated (Barker and Petley 1997): Why do we enjoy horror? Suggested in the 1994 Newson Report: Does cinematic violence cause real life violence? Voyeuristic film spectatorship has been associated with satisfaction (Mulvey 1975). In Sigmund Freud’s Three Essays on Sexuality, scopophilia is an unconscious agency of pleasure, one that is achieved through the objectification of another, removing all agency of selfhood with regard to desire in looking (Freud 1905). Filmmakers aren’t always conscientious in their capitalization of this human impulse. This study will highlight Wes Craven’s The Last House on The Left (1972) and Scream (1996). Craven is a pioneer for self-referential teen slasher films and Scream is aware of the conventions. Protagonist Sidney even jokes that all slasher films are the same. Noël Carroll suggests that to side with protagonists, the spectator must sympathize with them and those who punish impurity and eliminate them of disgust with impure characters: “...moral concern ripe for articulation by moviemakers is that of purity, and, especially, violations therefore” (Carroll 2010). Craven’s films often have immoral protagonists. They defy the rules; their death becomes permissible, in response to the effect that this strategy causes. Can viewing cinematic violence lead to desensitization? A study on emotional and physiological desensitization stated: “...habituation effects that may indicate physiological desensitization to televised violence” (Mrug 2014). Alison Young argues that violent films invite the spectator to see “illegitimate as legitimate” (Young 2009). I will compare Craven’s films and today's True Crime documentaries, notably I Am Killer (2018): Death row inmates tell their story. It may be tricky comparing fiction to documentaries, yet they present the killer similarly. The crime is introduced first, backstory next. Highlighting tactics used in Craven’s films and modern True Crime documentaries, the question is asked: Is media violence responsible for heightening desensitization to real-life violence?