How Horror Works in Books and Film cover art

How Horror Works in Books and Film

 Preview
Free with 30-day trial
A 30-day trial plus your first audiobook free.
1 credit/month after trial—to buy any title you like, yours to keep.
Listen all you want to a selection of thousands of Audible Originals, audiobooks and podcasts.
$16.45 a month after 30 day trial. Cancel anytime.

How Horror Works in Books and Film

By: Shannon Scott, The Great Courses
Narrated by: Shannon Scott
Free with 30-day trial

$16.45/month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy Now for $16.99

Buy Now for $16.99

About this listen

Why are we scared of ghosts, zombies, vampires, demons, and monsters, when we know they are not real? Why do dark attics give us the creeps? How do writers and directors know exactly what anxieties to tap into, so that we break out in goosebumps, cover our eyes, and cringe?

Shannon Scott invites you into the spooky, creepy, and sometimes surprising world of the horror genre to examine how popular scary movies and books manipulate our collective and individual fears—not only to frighten us, but also to address taboo subjects, and to reflect and comment on the state of our society. More important, she examines what lessons we can learn from these fears.

Throughout this series, she will introduce you to the many facets of fear—the traditional monsters you are familiar with, as well as examples of apocalyptic and social horror, psychological horror, and ecohorror. Using well-known characters and settings, Shannon will show you how each case can—and does—reveal a lot about our personal fears and our cultural anxieties.

The things that go bump in the night are not always in your head, but it’s your head that makes you afraid of them.

©2022 Audible Originals LLC (P)2022 Audible Originals LLC Horror
All stars
Most relevant  
The narration and the examples from modern cinema just adds another layer.
Good content.
A must.

Truly amazing

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Explains the need for horror that mankind’s had since the birth of history in contemporary terms.

Well done

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Really interesting book with a clear reader. Great for anyone with literature interests or who likes horror movies. Would recommend.

Very interesting

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I thought it would explain what makes horror so scary. instead it just categorised the different types of horror. it was ok, glad I didn't pay money for it.

just ok

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I like lecture series usually I just felt like for this one you needed to see the referenced films

Just ok

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Overall good, but less an analysis of the horror genre and more an advertisement for many good horror texts along with, unfortunately, their summaries and twists. I’ve written down a lot of movies/books to check out next, but I also had to skip some sections to avoid the many spoilers. Performance itself is riddled with, the “Christopher Walken comma”, a comma that, separates phrases based on, seemingly word count rather than, the structure of the sentence itself. Trivial but very distracting when listening at higher speeds.

A showcase of synopses and spoilers

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
In the spirit of reconciliation, Audible acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respect to their elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.