Horror Movies and the Cognitive Ecology of Primary Metaphors

Abstract

Horror movies consistently reflect metaphorical associations between verticality and affect, as well as between brightness and affect. For example, bad events happen when movie characters are going downwards, or when lights go off. Monsters and villains emerge from below and from the darkness. And protagonists get lost and stuck in dark underground caves, dungeons, tunnels, mines, bunkers or sewers. Even movies that are primarily set above ground or in bright light have the most suspenseful scenes happening beneath the ground and in the dark. An analysis of several horror movies highlights the striking consistency with which the two metaphors “EVIL IS DOWN” and “EVIL IS DARK” are used within this genre. I will argue that these metaphors help in creating fear. Moreover, I will outline how cinematic manifestations of metaphor elaborate and extend metaphorical concepts and ultimately may have a formative role in keeping metaphors alive within a culture.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The author would like to thank Clive Winter, Charles Forceville, Teenie Matlock, and the organizers and attendees of the Caves & Cognition Workshop at UC Merced for helpful comments and suggestions.

Notes

¹ Note that for some of these movies, the narrative is upwards-oriented. However, consistent with “EVIL IS DOWN,” the characters generally want to go up (e.g., in Eden Log), and they usually don’t want to go down.

² Some other movies with underground themes include: The Crypt, Graveyard Shift, Alligator II: The Mutation, Mimic 2, The Burrowers, Death Tunnel, Rats—Notte di terrore.

³ There is an additional element of verticality when the group is standing on an elevated position with alien clowns swarming from all directions. This is another trope consistent with “EVIL IS DOWN” that is seen in other movies as well (e.g., La horde).

⁴ http://www.boxofficemojo.com (retrieved March 3, 2014).