RTF 370 Modern Horror

Unique No. 07580

Faculty: Schatz

Class Time: TTH 3:30-5

Room: UTC 4.134

Screening Time: W 7:30-10

Room: BUR 106

Writing Comp: No

Comm/Culture Req: No

Closing Limit: 60

Cross-listed: No

Prerequisites

Must be an RTF major with a UT GPA of at least a 2.25 and have upper-division standing. The following coursework with a grade of at least C in each course: RTF 305, either 314 or 316, and 6 additional semester hours of lower-division coursework in RTF.

Consent requirements

This course does not require consent. Registration is open via the online registration system to all RTF majors.

First class day policy

Students must attend the first class day or make prior arrangements with the instructor.

Course description

This course will examine the development of the horror genre in American cinema since 1960, with PSYCHO marking the definitive birth of modern horror—although we will spend some time early in the term considering the genre’s “classical” roots. While the structure of the course will be historical (and chronological), our main focus will be “critical” and analytical, with special emphasis on genre, authorship and film style, gender and sexuality, and textual analysis. We also will consider the development of the horror genre in relation to changes in the movie industry at large, and also to changes in American society and culture.

Key readings will include American Nightmare, Robin Wood; The Dread of Difference, ed. Barry Grant; and Men, Women, and Chainsaws, Carol Clover. Weekly screenings will range from canonized works of modern horror like THE EXORCIST and HALLOWEEN, to sci-fi/ horror hybrids like ALIEN and THE THING, to highbrow and art-film horror like THE HUNGER and THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS, to more recent (postmodern?) remakes and knockoffs like BRAM STOKER’S DRACULA, THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE, and DAWN OF THE DEAD. The key ongoing theme, finally, will be the genre’s own “undead” status. Despite being the most despised and aggressively repugnant film form, and despite being continually written off by critics, the horror genre has for the past half-century displayed a remarkable capacity for regeneration—as a recent film like 28 DAYS LATER attests.