Who believes in the Cyborg Manifesto anyway....?

Premiere: 05th of August 2008; 8 p.m. at Moviemento in Berlin, Kreuzberg.

Trailer and Info: www.ScienceOfHorror.de

Synopsis:
Horror films are pornographic and eroticise the abject. Yet, they relieve, they are humorous and challenge cultural taboos. “Science Of Horror” is the first documentary to analyze horror film from the perspective of feminist film critique. Carol Clover discovers the "final girl" in “Texas Chainsaw Masscare”, an androgynous but clearly feminine hero. Therewith, Clover delivers an essential formula of the genre and the foundation for further assumptions. Women are horror’s favourite victims but also its heroes. The phallus, indicator of social power, becomes a flexible object in horror: The chainsaw in the "final girl’s" hands allows a different look on the cultural norms of Western societies – the genre undermines heterosexual attribution. It is with that theory in mind, that Judith Halberstam develops a queer reading of the genre and illustrates along the “Chucky” series how explicitly sexuality runs through horror and which sexual vicissitudes the genre offers. Those theoretic assumptions are proven with citations from well-known horror films and confronted with statements of renowned filmmakers. Thus, the documentary is the first to lead a discourse between film theory and film practice. Wes Craven, John Carpenter and Tom Savini comment on their films and their fans. Bruce Campbell explains why he depicts a male victim in the “Evil Dead” movies. Joe Hill criticizes "torture porn" because of its shallowness, whereas Neil Marshall elucidates why “The Descent” consciously plays with audience’s expectations. The documentary concludes that there is more to the genre than the sum of its effects. Horror is utterly unique.

Director`s Comment:

With the arrival of literary works such as Carol Clover’s „Men, Women and Chain Saws“ (1992) as well as Linda William’s „Hard Core“ (1989), feminist film theory took a new look at the so called „low body genres“. Until then, genres such as horror and pornography had been mainly condemned by feminist writings, as it was regarded as a cinema, which was solely made for a male audience, often serving to fulfil sadistic pleasures.
“Men, Women and Chain Saws” and “Hard Core” also gained critical acclaim, as it emerged from an acknowledged academic background, with both authors being scholars at the University of California, Berkeley. Although never denying the misogynistic subtexts in those genres, the authors opened the door and gave way for a feminist reading, which went beyond the established and often negative attitudes towards these genres.

“Science Of Horror” tries to capture those newer cycles of ideas. It quite consciously opens with the recurring famous topics of horror, such as “censorship” and “catharsis”, but develops into a discourse, which more and more finds a focus on the gender related approaches. By doing this, it likes to provide a broad scientific look at the genre, while incorporating issues, which have not been discussed in film before.
The almost equal appearances of filmmakers and theorists within the film, is a means to explore the genre from different perspectives. In addition, it is a comment on the often neglected influence, which the two disciplines, filmmaking and film criticism, have on each other. (Katharina Klewinghaus, January 2008)