Sliced Eyeballs and Severed Ears

Abstract

This chapter brings the first half of the book’s focus on eyes and ears to a literal head, though its analysis anticipates forthcoming sections by tackling some of the racist and speciesist assumptions of the which bodies “count” in horror films. It starts by noting a troubling tendency apparent in classic and contemporary examples of the genre, which see comic potential in the endlessly exploited presence of animals—be they creatures of the wild or domesticated pets whose physical pain or outright destruction is sometimes intended as a joke. Even though audiences are frequently reminded that “no animals were harmed” during the making of most horror films, there is still something unnerving (potentially traumatic) about witnessing fictional acts of violence directed against nonhumans. This is partly due to the fact that the makeup and special effects teams tasked with making fake animals and flying fur seem so believable succeed at prompting spectators to question what they are seeing. Animals are typically granted only second-class status vis-à-vis the human characters in horror film, a genre that is practically unmatched in finding narrative excuses for their mistreatment. Setting up the second half of the book, the chapter concludes by looking at how looking itself not only can be achieved through sensorial means other than sight, but can also make it synaesthesitically possible for audiences to “hear” things in a horror film that might otherwise go unseen.