Horror Films and Consent: When We Choose TER

When we watch a horror film in the cinema, or online, we are prepared to embark on an emotional journey. In fact, that is usually the point of watching the show. We have seen the trailer. By switching the film on we are inviting the director, actors, and writers to provoke fear in us. We are ready to respond to the experience of this fear with screams… The whole point of such experiences, like terrifying fairground rides, is the interplay between our incoming emotional stimulation radar that prevents falling for obvious attempts to stoke our feelings of fear, disgust, sadness or enjoyment and the artist behind the experience who is trying to trick us into unanticipated emotional reactions.

Source: Spectacles!

As we watch a well-wrought television show we are asking to be brought along an emotional journey. The music accompanying the action, and the poignancy of the character’s journey provokes in us a roller-coaster ride of emotions. Generally speaking, we want the lead characters to succeed, despite all. As we witness their reversals and eventual successes, we feel something being conveyed into us - the Mana of the director, the actors, the screenwriters, and everyone involved in projecting it into our minds. Disinfolklore as a vehicle for tricking us into feelings that will lead us into acting against our own and our community’s interests operates using the same tools as any good Netflix show.

Source: Spectacles!

The critical difference between entertainment and Disinfolklore is consent. When we watch a horror film, we invite the TER cycle. We want to be scared. We enjoy the interplay between our emotional radar and the artist’s craft. Disinfolklore uses the same tools — the same emotional journeys, the same Mana transmission — but without our consent, and against our interests.

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