I can be
horrified by it (Cavell 1999, 418).
Introduction
The horror film, as a genre, holds a particular fascination for both audiences and scholars. The content of the horror film is often explicit, brutal and intimate; both repulsive and captivating. Yet the genre often serves as a blanket term to denote any film that contains gruesome violence or causes fear and terror. It is, therefore, necessary to differentiate between films that merely deal with violence and terror and ‘true’ horror films. As Varma (1966) indicates, horror and terror are not synonymous:
The difference between Terror and Horror is the difference between awful apprehension and sickening realisation: between the smell of death and stumbling against a corpse. Horror [as] a genre of film and fiction…relies on horrifying images and situations to tell stories and prompt reactions in [its] audiences. In these films, the moment of horrifying revelation is usually preceded by a terrifying build-up.