Titles of Interest – Primal Roots of Horror Cinema: Evolutionary Psychology and Narratives of Fear
This looks like an interesting volume. I’ve drawn attention to a similar one previously, Why Horror Seduces, that seeks to understand horror through evolutionary social psychology. See my prior interview with the author below, Carrol Fry, on his book Cinema of the Occult.
Primal Roots of Horror Cinema: Evolutionary Psychology and Narratives of Fear
Carrol L. Fry
McFarland, 2019Why is horror in film and literature so popular? Why do viewers and readers enjoy feeling fearful? Experts in the fields of sociobiology and evolutionary psychology posit that behaviors from our ancestors that favored survival and adaptation still influence our actions, decisions and thoughts today.
The author, with input from a new generation of Darwinists, explores six primal narratives that recur in the horror genre. They are territoriality, tribalism, fear of genetic assimilation, mating rituals, fear of the predator, and distrust or fear of the Other.
