ABSTRACT

It is increasingly common for scholars and journalists to make claims of horror cinema’s potential to engage with socio-political realities and, in so doing, identify grave social injustices. This article argues that, if one is to make a true assessment of the extent to which horror films might effect social change, one needs to look towards activist communities within which filmmakers are using the genre as part of a broader effort to do precisely that. In so doing, the article theorizes ‘Activist Horror Film’ in relation to a British short film, The Herd, a work cultivated as part of the vegan-feminist protest movement. The article begins by situating The Herd within the context of scholarship about socially charged horror films, before considering the film’s broader activist context and that of its production, the crowd-funding campaign that led to its completion, the film’s content, its presence at festivals and online and its afterlife within circles of vegan/animal welfare activism. This article contends that The Herd is easily distinguished from other socially aware horror films of the contemporary moment, for the activism of its makers is what drives it and is the context that birthed it and within which it continues to be shown.

摘要

越来越多的学者和记者声称恐怖电影有可能与社会政治现实互动，并由此识别出严重的社会不公正现象。本文认为，如果要对恐怖电影可能影响社会变革的程度做出真正的评估，就需要关注电影制作人正在使用该类型作为更广泛努力的一部分的激进社区。在这样做的过程中，这篇文章将“激进恐怖片”与一部英国短片The Herd联系起来，这部短片是素食主义女权主义抗议运动的一部分。文章首先将The Herd 定位在关于社会恐怖电影的学术背景下，在考虑电影更广泛的活动背景及其制作、导致其完成的众筹活动、电影的内容、它在节日和网络上的存在以及它在圈子中的来世之前素食主义者/动物福利活动。本文认为，《牛群》很容易与当代其他具有社会意识的恐怖电影区分开来，因为其制作者的激进主义是它的驱动力，也是它诞生并继续展示的背景。