The Study Of American Horror Movie

The word "horror", is not new to people in this world. This law of frightening darkness has been following us perhaps since we are in the womb of the time being. Movies that based on horror theme and scaring elements have had and will always be one of the most popular genres in the movie production industry. The box office performance of horror movies certainly has its ups and downs.Yet,it earns welcomes and recognitions from the audience with one after another releases of the high-quality horror movies in America. Horror movie’s audience base and influence has thus been expanding during the recent years.This popularity and recognition, however, are not corresponding with the attitude from academia scholars. Researchers pay little attention for horror movies, nor does the connotative content behind the movie being analyzed enough. The genre of horror movie, therefore, is akin to an explorer, who is persistent in his journey for continued growth and improvement. Not until the depute of The Silence of the Lambs in 1991, did horror movie genre gained researchers attention. Jonathan Demme, the director, broke the long-time marginalization of horror/suspension movie genre with this film release, and won five awards in the Oscar Ceremony. The harvest of Silence at Oscar ceremony surprised many industry movie professionals, and heralded a new open path for horror movie industry.In fact, if compared to other types of movies, the American horror film also has its uniqueness. These Oscar-winning or nominated American horror movies contains their own narrative or artistic features. They also possess different social/cultural values and public influence which set standards for other scary-themed movies.It can be said that with a good understanding of the award-winning/nominated American horror movies, one can gain better understanding of the artistic expression of horror-themed films. The influence of American Oscar-winning/ nominated horror movies can be extended to two folders: on one hand, it boosts the world horror movie development and set new models for the cinematography; on the other hand, it provides an effective reference to the development of the mainland Chinese horror film.To summarize, contemporary horror-movie genre needs to ensure the productions are social value bearers, providing important artistic value, as well as being audience-oriented and transforming over time. The new horizons and innovative paths for horror movies can be found, if the researching and learning of Oscar-awarded horror movies is opened in this thesis, as well as continued in the future.