The Spark of Fear: Technology, Society and the Horror Film

Summary

The allure of the horror film is varied. Some prefer the voyeurism of watching others suffer. Some enjoy the cinematic depiction of gore. Still, others are tempted by the psychological torment of watching others in danger. The Spark of Fear: Technology, Society, and the Horror Film explores all of these elements through one unifying element: the rise of technology in the modern world.

The horror genre is continually embroiled in reinvention; this is apparent in how the horror film explores technology as a manner for exposing everyday fears. This book details the ways by which the horror film exploits our continued reliance on technology, presenting a society that is in a continuous state of reinvention. As new technologies present previously unrealized methods, through which our daily anxieties and phobias are re-examined, our perception of horror in the modern world has been under a continued state of reassessment. This text seeks to determine precisely why our technologies are a source of fear.

Focusing on the major technologies that have evolved the American Dream, from the advent of electricity to the modern cellular telephone, The Spark of Fear is an examination of technology as a perceived antidote of having to become a victim to the horrific realization of everyday life. In technology, humanity has sought to conquer fears of the unknown that previous modes of horror established as the essence of human fears. But, as the safety found in society has eroded amid the isolationist tendencies that modern technologies afford, the horror film has become the central location in which the new concept of horror has been established, one that exploits our reliance on technology and connection as the very source of our modern notion of horror.