Senior Lecturer in Film, Dr Cecilia Sayad has been interviewed on Times Radio’s Breakfast show last month, discussing the topic of why people enjoy horror films. This follows Dr Sayad’s notable research on the horror genre, including published articles in academic journals, Cinema Journal and Screen, and most recently in an upcoming book project with Oxford University Press.
The interview with Aasmah Mir and Stig Abell aired on 22 February, and appeared in a segment called the Explainer. During the segment, Dr Cecilia Sayad talked about horror at the Glasgow FIlm Festival, including Frightfest.
When we asked Cecilia about her thoughts on why people enjoy horror, she explained, “Because we all need an adrenaline rush—some of us get it from roller coasters, some from radical sports, and some from horror films. Horror also offers an opportunity for us to experience fears and anxieties with live with in a way that is removed from their real causes: these films are fictional, they won’t touch us or hurt us. They also wanted to know what makes a good horror film (in my opinion, resorting to the power of suggestion rather than showing too much), and if audiences had changed in their response to special effects and gore (yes, as spectators exposed to torture porn are less affected by the kind of gore shown in films from the 1960s, for example).”