Wheeler Winston Dixon
Wheeler Winston Dixon is a noted American film maker and scholar and is regarded a expert on film history, theory and criticism. He is well known for films such as 'UFO exclusive' (1978) and 'Amazing world of ghosts' (1978).
Believed men and women were sites of activity rather the situation than characters.
as level of graphics specifically continues to rise in the horror film
the contemporary horror film must "horrify" the spectator
He believes that classic horror characters like Dracula and Frankenstein's monster no longer suffice and no longer hold the audiences attention as the overall pace and graphic focus on violence has increased.
also believes that horror films make the assumption that violence, degradation and ritual torture are inescapable facts of contemporary existence.
"Under the general demand for-slackening and for appeasement we can hear the mutterings of the desire for a return of terror, for the realisation of the fantasy to seize reality. the answer is: let us wage a war on totality; let us be witnesses to the unpresentable..."
Part of Dixon's theory is that horror films are getting increasingly more violent and graphic resulting in older horror characters who once gripped there audiences,now feel extremely tame with characters like Frankenstein's monster and dracular now failing to grip there audience, meaning that older horror films now only entertain a small group of hardcore horror fans. This contradicts our horror idea as we are focusing on the phycological side of horror as we plan not include any graphical content like blood or guts, instead we try to grasp the audiences attention with various sounds and other indications that an evil presences is around and that there is an obvious danger. For example in our sequence we never see the danger but instead take all the indications from the emotions of the characters.
Another part of Dixon's theory is that the reason people enjoy horror films relates back to pre civilisation where people lived in the wild and there were constant threats and dangers all around and that now all of those dangers have been taken away but our natural instinct of danger is still there and needs attention. One way in which people feed this natural instinct is by watching horror films as they enjoy the feeling of being scared. this relates well with our idea as like back pre-civilisation times in our film we have the danger constantly lurking so the audience copy the characters emotions and are constantly fearful of coming under attack (CB)
Believed men and women were sites of activity rather the situation than characters.
as level of graphics specifically continues to rise in the horror film
the contemporary horror film must "horrify" the spectator
He believes that classic horror characters like Dracula and Frankenstein's monster no longer suffice and no longer hold the audiences attention as the overall pace and graphic focus on violence has increased.
also believes that horror films make the assumption that violence, degradation and ritual torture are inescapable facts of contemporary existence.
"Under the general demand for-slackening and for appeasement we can hear the mutterings of the desire for a return of terror, for the realisation of the fantasy to seize reality. the answer is: let us wage a war on totality; let us be witnesses to the unpresentable..."
Part of Dixon's theory is that horror films are getting increasingly more violent and graphic resulting in older horror characters who once gripped there audiences,now feel extremely tame with characters like Frankenstein's monster and dracular now failing to grip there audience, meaning that older horror films now only entertain a small group of hardcore horror fans. This contradicts our horror idea as we are focusing on the phycological side of horror as we plan not include any graphical content like blood or guts, instead we try to grasp the audiences attention with various sounds and other indications that an evil presences is around and that there is an obvious danger. For example in our sequence we never see the danger but instead take all the indications from the emotions of the characters.
Another part of Dixon's theory is that the reason people enjoy horror films relates back to pre civilisation where people lived in the wild and there were constant threats and dangers all around and that now all of those dangers have been taken away but our natural instinct of danger is still there and needs attention. One way in which people feed this natural instinct is by watching horror films as they enjoy the feeling of being scared. this relates well with our idea as like back pre-civilisation times in our film we have the danger constantly lurking so the audience copy the characters emotions and are constantly fearful of coming under attack (CB)