Author/Authors :
bin yusof, ahmad muhyiddin universiti kebagsaan malaysia - fakulti sains sosial dan kemanusiaan, Malaysia , hashim, ruzy suliza universiti kebangsaan malaysia - fakulti sains sosial dan kemanusiaan, Malaysia , yusof, noraini md universiti kebangsaan malaysia - institut pengajian malaysia dan antarabangsa (ikmas), Malaysia , satkunananthan, anita harris universiti kebangsaan malaysia - fakulti sains sosial dan kemanusiaan, Malaysia
Abstract :
The main intention of this paper is to interrogate the strategies of fear deployed in Malaysian and American haunted house films. Haunted houses have been known to exist in real life which trigger the impulses of fear in the viewers when they watch such horror films. There are a few elements which constitute a haunted house that is also related to its motif and technical aspects. This paper also delves deeper into the meaning of the uncanny to determine its effects on classical and contemporary haunted house films by applying a theoretical approach that focuses on the relation of the word uncanny to haunted house films in both Malaysia and America. Based on Sigmund Freud’s work on the Uncanny, Andrew Bennett and Nicholas Royle have drawn up a list of thirteen forms that the Uncanny can take. This paper utilises these thirteen forms to formulate a framework that examines how these components affect the inhabitants of the haunted house. The contention is that most of these features have been coopted in the makings of many haunted house films. The outcome of this discussion will show a correlation between the strategies of fear and the Uncanny which may be applied to the analysis of both American and Malaysian haunted house films.
Keywords :
Haunted houses , Films , Uncanny , Strategies of Fear , Haunted Objects
