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Noel Carroll
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Sat Jan 5 05:24:41 2008
THE EMPIRE'S NEW CLOTHES
Wars; Lucas bowed out as director of The Empire it is success that holds Lucas in thrall. His protes-
Strikes Back. Had he wanted to test the impor- tations to the contrary notwithstanding, he has in
tance of direction to the making of a film, he could The Empire Strikes Back done "the same formula
scarcely have designed a better experiment: with over again." The differences between the films are
the same story, the same cast, the same producer, sufficiently negligible that had anyone else made
and much of the same creative crew, a film was The Empire Strikes Back. Lucas could have sued
made that had everything in common with its for plagiarism and won-plagiarism of everything
predecessor but conviction, verve, and bazzazz, but the point of the enterprise, the only thing he
the very unreproducible elements that made Star couldn't copy. It is the essence of my sense of
Wars a success in the first place. In a sense, The betrayal not that he didn't copy himself, but that
Empire Strikes Back constitutes an ironic com- he did.
mentary on Lucas's fate. The daring young man
with nothing to lose wrote himself into the first
film as the selfless hero to whom he gave his NOTES
name. The name's the same but the game is dif-
1. Quoted in John May, editor. Star Wurs-The Empire Strikes
ferent. The gutsy kid battling the Hollywood sys- Buck. Paradise Press, Ridgefield. Connecticut, 1980. 62
tem in the name of all creative spirits is now the 2. Quoted in Paul Scanlon, "The Force Behind George Lucar."
aging wonder battling his individual success, for Rollirrg Storre. August 25. 1977. 48.
it is success that is the dark side of the Force, and
NOEL CARROLL
N ~ ~ ~ T MAN^
A TR ~EH
E ORROR
Film:
T ~ Symbolic
E Bioloqy of FANTAST~C
B~i~qs
Whereas the Western and the crime film were the depression, recession, Cold War strife, galloping
dominant genres of the late sixties and early seven- inflation, and national confusion.
ties, horror and science fiction are the reigning The purpose of this paper is to examine the
popular forms of the late seventies and early eigh- basic structures and themes of these timely genres
ties. Launched by blockbusters like The Exorcist by extending some of the points made in Ernest
and Jaws, the cycle has flourished steadily; it seenis Jones's On the Nightmare. 'Jones used his analysis
as unstoppable as some of the demons it has of the nightmare to unravel the synlbolic meaning
spawned. The present cycle, like the horror cycle and structure of such figures of medieval super-
of the thirties and the science fiction cycle of the stition as the incubus, vampire, werewolf, devil,
fifties, comes at a particular kind of nloment in and witch. Similarly, I will consider the manner in
American history-one where feelings of paralysis, which the imagery of the horror/science fiction
helplessness, and vulnerability (hallmarks of the film is constructed in ways that correspond to the
nightmare) prevail. If the Western and the crime construction of nightmare imagery. My special,
film worked well as open forums for the debate though not exclusive, focus will be on the articula-
about our values and our history during the years tion of the imagery horrific creatures-on what I
of the Vietnam war, the horror and science fic- call their symbolic biologies. A less pretentious
tion film poignantly expresses the sense of power- subtitle for this essay might have been "How to
lessness and anxiety that correlates with times of make a monster."
NIGHTMARE AND THE HORROR FILM
Before beginning this "unholy" task, some qual- evening I sat down, and began to write, without
ifications are necessary. Throughout this article I knowing in the least what 1 intended to say or relate.
will slip freely between examples drawn from The work grew on my hands and I grew so fond of it
horror films and science fiction films. Like many that one evening, I wrote from the time I had drunk
my tea, about six o'clock, till half an hour after one
connoisseurs of science fiction literature, I think in the morning, when my hands and fingers were so
that, historically, movie science fiction has evolved weary that I could not hold the pen to finish the
as a sub-class of the horror film. That is, in the sentence.
main, science fiction films are monster films, The assertion that a given horror story originated
rather than explorations of grand themes like as a dream or nightmare occurs often enough that
alternate societies or alternate technologies. one begins to suspect that it is something akin to
Secondly, I am approaching the horror/science invoking a muse (or an incubus or succubus, as the
fiction film in terms of a psychoanalytic frame- case may be). Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. Bram
work, though I do not believe that psychoanalysis Stoker's Dracula, and Henry James's "The Jolly
is a hermeneutic method that can be applied un- Corner" are all attributed to fitful sleep as is much
problematically to any kind of film or work of art. of Robert Louis Stevenson's output-notably Dr.
Consequently, the adoption of psychoanalysis as Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.* In what sense these tales
an interpretive tool in a given case should be accom- were caused by nightmares or modeled on dreams
panied by a justification for its use in regard to that is less important than the fact that the nightmare is
case. And in this light, I would argue that it is a culturally established framework for presenting
appropriate to use psychoanalysis in relation to the
and understanding the horror genre. And this
horror film because within our culture the horror makes the resort to psychoanalysis unavoidable.
genre is explicitly acknowledged as a vehicle for A central concept in Jones's treatment of the
expressing psychoanalytically significant themes imagery of nightmare is conflict. The products of
such as repressed sexuality, oral sadism, necro- the dreamwork are often simultaneously attractive
philia, etc. Indeed, in recent films, such as Jean and repellent insofar as they function to enunciate
Rollin's Le Frisson des Vampires and La Vampire both a wish and its inhibition. Jones writes, "The
Nue, all concealment of the psychosexual subtext
reason why the object seen in a Nightmare is fright-
of the vampire myth is discarded. We have all
ful or hideous is simply that the representation of
learned to treat the creatures of the night-like
the underlying wish is not permitted in its naked
werewolves-as creatures of the id, whether we are
form so that the dream is a compromise of the wish
spectators or film-makers. As a matter of social
on the one hand and on the other of the intense
tradition, psychoanalysis is more or less the lingua fear belonging to the i n h i b i t i ~ n . "The
~ notion of
franca of the horror film and thus the privileged
the conflict between attraction and repulsion is
critical tool for discussing the genre. In fact horror
particularly useful in considering the horror film,
films often seem to be little more than bowdlerized,
as a corrective to alternate ways of treating the
pop psychoanalysis, so enmeshed is Freudian psy-
genre. Too often, writing about this genre only
chology with the genre.
emphasizes one side of the imagery. Many journal-
Nor is the coincidence of psychoanalytic themes
ists will single-mindedly underscore only the repel-
and those of the horror genre only a contemporary
lent aspects of a horror film-rejecting it as dis-
phenomenon. Horror has been tied to night-
gusting, indecent, and foul. Yet this tack fails to
mare and dream since the inception of the modern
offer any account of why people are interested in
tradition. Over a century before the birth of psy-
seeing such exercises.
choanalysis Horace Walpole wrote of the Castle of
On the other hand, defenders of the genre or
Otranto.
of a specific example of the genre will often indulge
I waked one morning, in the beginning of last June,
from a dream, of which all I could recover was, that in allegorical readings that render their subjects
I had thought myself in an ancient castle (a very wholly appealing and that do not acknowledge
natural dream for a head like mine filled with Gothic their repellent aspects. Thus, we are told that
story) and that on the uppermost bannister of a great Frankenstein is really an existential parable about
staircase I saw a gigantic hand in armour. In the man thrown-into-the-world, an "isolated suf-
NIGHTMARE AND THE HORROR FILM
ferer."4 But if Frankenstein is part Nausea, it is clarify what is involved in this sort of analysis, an
also nauseating. Where in the allegorical formula- example is in order.
tion can we find an explanation for the purpose of When The Exorcist first opened, responses to
the unsettling effect of the charnel-house imagery? it were extreme. It was denounced as a new cul-
The dangers of this allegorizing/valorizing tendency tural low at the same time that extra theaters had
can be seen in some of the work of Robin Wood, to be found in New York, Los Angeles, and other
the niost vigorous champion of the contemporary cities to accommodate the overflow crowds. The
horror film. Sisters, he writes, "analyzes the ways imagery of the filni touched deep chords in our
in which women are oppressed within patriarchal national psyche. The spectacle of possession ad-
society on two levels which one can define as pro- dressed and reflected profound fears and desires
fessional (Grace) and the psychosexual (Danielle/ never before explored in filni. The basic infectious
Dominque)."' terror in the filni is that personal identity is a frail
One wants to say "perhaps but. . . ." Specific- thing, easily lost. Linda Blair's Regan, with her
ally, what about the unnerving, gory murders and "tsks" and her "ahs," is a model of middle-class
the brackish, fecal bond that links the Siamese domesticity, a vapid mask quickly engulfed by
twins? Horror films cannot be construed as com- repressed powers. The character is not just another
pletely repelling or completely appealing. Either evil child in the tradition of The Bad Seed. It is
outlook denies something essential to the form. an expression of the fear that beneath the self we
Jones's use of the concept of conflict in the night- present to others are forces that can erupt to oblit-
mare to illuminate the symbolic portent of the erate every vestige of self-control and personal
monsters of superstition, therefore, suggests a identity.
direction of research into the study of the horror In The Exorcist, the possibility of the loss of self
film which accords with the genre's unique coni- is greeted with both terror and glee. The fear of
bination of repulsion and delight. losing self-control is great, but the manner in
To conclude my qualifying remarks, I must note which that loss is manifested is attractive. Once
that as a hardline Freudian, Jones suffers from one possessed, Regan's new powers, exhibited in hys-
important liability; he over-emphasizes the degree terical displays of cinematic pyrotechnics, act out
to which incestuous desires shape the conflicts in the imagery of infantile beliefs in the omnipotence
the nightmare (and, by extension, in the forma- of the will. Each grisly scene is a celebration of
tion of fantastic beings) and he claims that night- infantile rage. Regan's anger cracks doors and
mares always relate to the sexual act.6 As John ceilings and levitates beds. And she can deck a
Mack has argued, this perspective is too narrow; full-grown man with a flick of a wrist.The audience
"the analysis of nightmares regularly leads us to is aghast at her loss of self-control, which begins
the earliest, most profound, and inescapable an- fittingly enough with her urinating on the living
xieties and conflicts to which human beings are room rug, but at the same time its archaic beliefs
subject: those involving destructive aggression, in the metaphysical prowess of the emotions are
castration, separation and abandonnient,devour- cinematically confirmed. Thought is given direct
ing and being devoured, and fear regarding loss causal efficacy. Regan's feelings know no bounds;
of identity and fusion with the mother."' Thus, they pour out of her, tearing her own flesh apart
modifying Jones, we will study the nightmare con- with their intensity and hurling people and furni-
flicts embodied in the horror film as having ture in every direction. Part of the legacy of The
broader reference than simply sexuality. Exorcist to its successors-like Carrie, The Fury
and Patrick, to name but a few titles in this ram-
Our starting hypothesis is that horror film iniag- pant subgenre-is the fascination with telekinesis,
ery, like that of the nightmare, incarnates archaic, which is nothing but a cinematic metaphor of the
conflicting impulses. Furthermore, this assunip- unlimited power of repressed rage. The audience
tion orients inquiry, leading us to review horror is both drawn to and repelled by it-we recognize
film imagery with an eye to separating out thematic such rage in ourselves and superstitiously fear its
strands that represent opposing attitudes. To emergence, while simultaneously we are pleased
NIGHTMARE AND THE HORROR FILM
when we see a demonstration, albeit fictive, of tions; in theology, it is described as a technique
the power of that rage.8 Satan uses when sodomizing witches. Regan in-
Christopher Lasch has argued that the neurotic carnates images of worthlessness, of being virtually
personality of our time vacillates between fanta- trash, in a context laden with sex and self-lacera-
sies of self-loathingand infantile delusions of gran- tion. But the moments of self-degradation give
. ~ strength of The Exorcist is that it cap-
d e ~ rThe way ,to images that express delusions of grandeur
tures this oscillation cinematically. Regan, through as she rocks the house in storms of rage. She
the machinations of Satan, is the epitome of self- embodies moods of guilt and rebellion, of self-
hatred and self-degradation-a filthy thing, fester- loathing and omnipotence that speak to the Nar-
ing in its bed, befoulling itself, with fetid breath, cissus in each of us.
full of scabs, dirty hair, and a complexion that The fantastic beings of horror films can be seen
makes her look like a pile of old newspapers. as symbolic formations that organize conflicting
The origins of this self-hatred imagery is con- themes into figures that are simultaneously attrac-
nected with sexual themes. Regan's sudden con- tive and repulsive. Two major symbolic structures
cupiscence corresponds with a birthday, presum- appear most prominent in this regard: fusion, in
ably her thirteenth. There are all sorts of allusions which the conflicting themes are yoked together
to masturbation: not only does Regan misuse the in one, spatio-temporally unified figure; and fis-
crucifix, splattering her thighs with blood in an sion, in which the conflicting themes are distrib-
act symbolic of both loss of virginity and menstrua- uted-over space or time-among more than one
tion, but later her hands are bound (one enshrined figure.
method for stopping "self-abuse") and her skin Dracula, one of the classic film monsters, falls
goes bad (as we were all warned it would). Turn- into the category of fusion. In order to identify
ing the head 360 degrees also has sexual connota- the symbolic import of this figure we can begin
'%''re$
that are
simultaneously
attractive
and
r~ulrivc":
DR.JEKYLL
AND
MR. HYDE
NIGHTMARE AND THE HORROR FILM
with Jones's account of vampires-since Dracula ingly younger, more vibrant Count. The phallic
is a vampire-but we must also amplify that symbolism of Dracula is hard to miss-he is aged,
account since Dracula is a very special vampire. buried in a filthy place, impure, powerful, and
According to Jones, the vampires of superstition aggressive.
have two fundamental constituent attributes: reve- The contrast with Van Helsing immediately
nance and blood sucking. The mythic, as opposed suggests another cluster of Dracula's attributes.
to movie, vampire first visits its relatives. For He does appear the younger of the two specifically
Jones, this stands for the relatives' longing for the because he represents the rebellious son at the
loved one to return from the dead. But the figure same time that he is the violent father. This identi-
is charged with terror. What is fearful is blood fication is achieved by means of the Satanic imag-
sucking, which Jones associates with seduction. ery that contributes to Dracula's persona. Dracula
In short, the desire for an incestuous encounter is the Devil-one film in fact refers to him in its
with the dead relative is transformed, through a title as the "Prince of Darkness." With few ex-
form of denial, into an assault-attraction and ceptions, Dracula is depicted as eternally uncon-
love metamorphose into repulsion and sadism. trite, bent on luring hapless souls. Most impor-
At the same time, via projection, the living portray tantly, Dracula is a modern devil which, as Jones
themselves as passive victims, imbuing the dead points out, means that he is a rival to God. Reli-
with a dimension of active agency that permits the giously, Dracula is presented as a force of unmiti-
"victim" pleasure without blame. Lastly, Jones gated evil. Dramatically, this is translated into a
not only connects blood sucking with the exhaust- quantum of awesome will or willfulness, often
ing embrace of the incubus but with a regressive flexed in those mental duels with Van Helsing.
mixture of sucking and biting characteristic of Dracula, in part, exists as a rival to the father,
the oral stage of psychosexual development. By as a figure of defiance and rebellion, fulfilling the
negation-the transformation of love to hate, by oedipal wish via a hero of Miltonic proclivities.
projection-through which the desired dead be- The Dracula image, then, is a fusion of conflicting
come active, and the desiring living passive, and by attributes of the bad (primal) father and the re-
regression-from genital to oral sexuality, the bellious son which is simultaneously appealing and
vampire legend gratifies incestuous and necro- forbidding because of the way it conjoins differ-
p h i l i a ~desires by amalgamating them in a fear- ent dimensions of the oedipal fantasy.
some iconography. The fusion of conflicting tendencies in the figure
The vampire of lore and the Dracula figure of of the monster in horror films has the dream
stage and screen have several points of tangency, process of condensation as its approximate psychic
but Dracula also has a number of distinctive prototype. In analyzing the symbolic meaning of
attributes. Of necessity, Dracula is Count Dracula. these fusion figures our task is to individuate the
He is an aristocrat; his bearing is noble; and, of conflicting themes that constitute the creature.
course, through hypnosis, he is a paradigmatic Like Dracula, the Frankenstein monster is a fusion
authority figure. He is commanding in both senses figure, one that is quite literally a composite. Mary
of the word. Above all. Dracula demands obedi- Shelley first dreamed of the creature at a time in
ence of his minions and mistresses. He is extremely her life fraught with tragedies connected with
old-associated with ancient castles-and pos- childbirth.I0 Victor Frankenstein's creation-
sessed of incontestable strength. Dracula cannot his "hideous progenyw-is a gruesome parody of
be overcome by force-he can only be outsmarted birth; indeed, Shelley's description of the crea-
or outmaneuvered; humans are typically described ture's appearance bears passing correspondences
as puny in comparison to him. At times, Dracula to that of a newborn-its waxen skin, misshapen
is invested with omniscience, observing from afar head, and touch of jaundice. James Whale's Frarz-
the measures taken against him. He also hoards kensteirz also emphasizes the association of the
women and is a harem master. In brief, Dracula monster with a child; its walk is unsteady and
is a bad father figure, often balanced off against halting, its head is outsized and its eyes sleepy.
Van Helsing who defends virgins against the seem- And in the film, though not in the novel, the crea-
NIGHTMARE AND THE HORROR FILM
ture's basic cognitive skills are barely developed;
it is mystified by fire and has difficulty differen-
tiating between little girls and flowers. The mon-
ster in one respect is a child and its creation is a
birth that is presented as ghastly. At the same
time, the monster is made of waste, of dead things,
in "Frankenstein's workshop of filthy creation."
The excremental reference ishardly disguised. The
association of the creature with waste implies that,
in part, the story is underwritten by the infantile
confusion over the processes of elimination and
reproduction. The monster is reviled as heinous
and as unwholesome filth, rejected by its creator
B R I D EOF F R A N K E N S T E I N Elsa
:
-its father-perhaps in a way that reorchestrated Lanchesfer and Borzs Karloff
Mary Shelley's feelings of rejection by her father
William Godwin. fusion. On the visual level, this often entails the
But these images of loathesomeness are fused construction of creatures that transgress categori-
with opposite qualities. In the film myth, the mon- cal distinctions such as inside/outside, insect/hu-
ster is all but omnipotent (it can function as a man, flesh/machine, etc.I2 The particular affective
sparring partner for Godzilla), indomitable and, significance of these admixtures depends to a large
for all intents and purposes, immortal (perhaps extent on the specific narrative context in which
partly for the intent and purpose of sequels). It is they are embedded. But apart from fusion, another
both helpless and powerful, worthless and god- means for articulating emotional conflicts in
like. Its rejection spurs rampaging vengeance, horror films is fission. That is, conflicts concern-
combining fury and strength in infantile orgies ing sexuality, identity, aggressiveness, etc. can be
of rage and destruction. Interestingly, in the novel mapped over different entities-each standing for
this ire is directed against Victor Frankenstein's a different facet of the conflict-which are never-
family. And even in Whale's 1931 version of the theless linked by some magical, supernatural, or
myth the monster's definition as outside (excluded sci-fi process. The type of creatures that I have
from a place in) the family is maintained in a in mind here include doppelgiingers, alter-egos,
number of ways: the killing of Maria; the juxta- and werewolves.
position of the monster's wandering over the coun- Fission has two major modes in the horror
tryside with wedding preparations; and the oppo- film.13 The first distributes the conflict over space
sition of Frankenstein's preoccupation with affairs through the creation of doubles, e.g., The Portrait
centered around the monster to the interest of of Dorian Gray, The Student of Prague, and
propagating an heir to the family barony. The Warning Shadows. Structurally, what is involved
emotional logic of the tale proceeds from the initial in spatial fission is a process of multiplication, i.e.,
loathesomeness of the monster, which triggers its a character or set of characters is multiplied into
rejection, which causes the monster to explode one or more new facets each standing for another
in omnipotent rage over its alienation from the aspect of the self, generally one that is either
family, which, in turn, confirms the earlier intima- hidden, ignored, repressed, or denied by the char-
tion of "badness," thereby justifying the parental acter who has been cloned. These examples each
rejection." This scenario, moreover, is predicated employ some mechanism of reflection-a portrait,
on the inherently conflicting tendencies-of being a mirror, shadows-as the pretext for doubling.
waste and being god-that are condensed in the But this sort of fission figure can appear without
creature from the start. It is, therefore, a necessary such devices. In I Married a Monster from Outer
condition for the success of the tale that the Space, a young bride begins to suspect that her
creature be repellent. new husband is not quite himself. Somehow he's
One method for composing fantastic beings is different than the man she used to date. And she's
NIGHTMARE AND THE HORROR FILM
quite right. Her boyfriend was kidnapped by imagery becomes especially compelling in The
invaders from outer space on his way back from Wolfman, where the tension between father and
a bachelor party and was replaced by an alien son mounts through anger and tyranny until at
duplicate. This double, however, initially lacks last the father beats the son to death with a silver
feelings-the essential characteristic of being cane in a paroxysm of oedipal anxiety.16
human in fifties sci-fi films-and his bride intuits Fusion and fission generate a large number of
this. The basic story, sci-fi elements aside, re- the symbolic biologies of horror films, but not
sembles a very specific paranoid delusion called all. Magnification of power or size-e.g., giant
Capgras syndrome. The delusion involves the insects (and other exaggerated animalcules)-is
patient's belief that his or her parents, lovers, etc. another mode of symbol formation. Often magni-
have become minatory doppelgangers. This en- fication takes a particular phobia as its subject
ables the patient to deny his fear or hatred of a and, in general, much of this imagery seems com-
loved one by splitting the loved one in half, creat- prehensible in terms of Freud's observation that
ing a bad version (the invader) and a good one "the majority of phobias . . . are traceable to such
(the victim). The new relation of marriage in I a fear on the ego's part of the demands of the
Married a Monster appears to engender a conflict, libido.""
perhaps over sexuality, in the wife which is ex- Giant insects are a case in point. The giant
pressed through the fission figure.14 Splitting as spider, for instance, appeared in silent film in
a psychic trope of denial is the root prototype for John Barrymore's Jekyll and Hyde as an explicit
spatial fission in the horror film, organizing con- symbol of desire. Perhaps insects, especially spi-
flict through the multiplication of characters. ders, can perform this role not only because of
Fission occurs in horror films not only in terms their resemblance to hands-the hairy hands of
of multiplication but also in terms of division. masturbation-but also because of their cultural
That is, a character can be divided in time as well association with impurity." At the same time,
as multiplied in space. Dr. JekyN and Mr. Hyde their identification as poisonous and predatory-
and the various werewolves, cat people, gorgons, devouring-can be mobilized to express anxious
and other changelings of the genre are immediate fantasies over sexuality. Like giant reptiles, giant
examples. In the horror film, temporal fission- insects are often encountered in two specific con-
usually marked by shape changing-is often self- texts in horror films. They inhabit negative para-
consciously concerned with repression. In Curse of dises-jungles and lost worlds-that unaware
the Werewolf one shot shows the prospective mon- humans happen into, not to find Edenic milk and
ster behind the bars of a wine cellar window hold- honey but the gnashing teeth or mandibles of
ing a bottle; it is an icon of restrained delirium. oral regression. Or, giant insects or reptiles are
The traditional conflict in these films is sexuality. slumbering potentials of nature released or awak-
Stevenson's Jekyll and Hyde is altered in screen ened by physical or chemical alterations caused
variants so that the central theme of Hyde's bru- by human experiments in areas of knowledge best
tality-which 1 think is connected to an allegory left to the gods. Here, the predominant metaphor
against alcoholism in the text-becomes a pre- is that these creatures or forces have been unfet-
occupation with lechery. Often changeling films, tered or unleashed, suggesting their close connec-
like The Werewolf of London or The Cat People. tion with erotic impulses. Like the fusion and fis-
eventuate in the monster attacking its lover, sug- sion figures of horror films, these nightmares are
gesting that this subgenre begins in infantile con- also explicable as effigies of deep-seated, archaic
fusions over sexuality and aggression. The imag- conflicts.
ery of werewolf films also has been associated with
conflicts connected with the bodily changes of So far 1 have dwelt on the symbolic composition
puberty and adolescence: unprecedented hair of the monsters in horror films, extrapolating from
spreads over the body, accompanied by uncon- the framework set out by Jones in On the Night-
trollable, vaguely understood urges leading to mare in the hope of beginning a crude approxima-
puzzlement and even to fear of madness.ls This tion of a taxonomy. But before concluding, it is
NIGHTMARE AND THE HORROR FILM
worthwhile to consider briefly the relevance of
archaic conflicts of the sort already discussed to
the themes repeated again and again in the basic
plot structures of the horror film.I9
Perhaps the most serviceable narrative armature
in the horror film genre is what I call the Discovery
Plot. It is used in Dracula. The Exorcist. Jaws
MII, It Came From Outer Space, Curse of the
Demon, Close Encounters of the Third Kind. It
Came From Beneath the Sea, and myriad other
films. It has four essential movements. The first
is onset: the monster's presence is established,
e.g., by an attack, as in Jaws. Next, the monster's Donald Suthcrland in the toils ofthe delayed-
existence is discovered by an individual or a group, discoveryplot: INVASION OF THE BODYSNATCHERS
-
S t a t e University. B A R B A R A Q U A R T lives i n New Y o r k ,
a n d t e a c h e s a t t h e College of S t a t e n I s l a n d . D E N I S University Press
W O O D , a g e o g r a p h e r a n d lifelong film e n t h u s i a s t ,
t e a c h e s a t N o r t h C a r o l i n a S t a t e University Raleigh.
College Station, Texas 77843