Transcript presentation cine excess

Beyond the Constraints of Reality
Time, Space and Metaphysics
in Lucio Fulci’s The Beyond
Kim Toft Hansen,
Aalborg University
“Our only refuge is to remain in the world but outside time.”
Lucio Fulci
Cult consumption
Probing the boundaries of mainstream masses and
elite tastes…
“an inassimilable materiality of a film, visual or
aural, that cannot fit into the narrative snugly and
so attracts attention” (Andrew Nestingen Crime
and Fantasy in Scandinavia)
The metaphysical components of horror…
The constraints of reality
Temporal and spatial constraints of reality…
Hesitation towards supernatural explanations…
Belief in scientific realism …
Mikhail Bakhtin: horizontal and vertical time…
Conflict between horizontal and vertical time…
As time breaks down, space breaks down…
Diegetically Excessive Style
Middle region between the ’normal’ and the
paranormal…
1. Non-diegetic background music…
2. Non-diegetic music turns diegetic…
3. Diegetic ‘paranormal’ music…
Self-reflexive and excessive style (metafiction)…
Emotions of horror
Cognitive psychology and evolution…
Natural horror… Art horror…
Suspension of disbelief and religious absolutions…
From the constraints of reality into the field of
metaphysics…
Art-horror stimuli of style…
‘Used up’ horror styles…
Metaphysics of horror
Analogical and cognitive similarities with
religiousness…
A feeling of radical uncertainty…
Metaphysical horror…
Cognitive reward
Cognitive natural reward by dopamine…
Metaphysical interconnectedness…
Horror fiction produces dopamine…
The emotion of art-horror: “the idea that Dracula is a possible
being”…
The emotion of belief: ”the idea that God is a possible being”…
Analogy between horror and religion…
The true paradox of horror is that bloody transgressions actually make
us feel better!
Contact
Kim Toft Hansen
Aalborg University, Denmark
[email protected]
Thank you!