Seeing Is Hearing Is Believing by David Scott Diffrient
How contradictory sensory experiences of horror films appeal to audiences.
Diffrient's strikingly original work mounts an intersensorial critique of the horror film, bringing disability studies, affect theory, and phenomenology together to evaluate how assistive technologies, such as audio description and subtitles for deaf and hard-of-hearing audiences, become sites for interrogating embodied experiences of cinematic spectatorship. Exploring a broad range of case studies, from Carnival of Souls (1962) to Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977) and Scream VI (2023), this book questions how audiovisual features unique to the motion picture medium implicate perceptions of touch, taste, and smell and serve as a principal way for people to establish belief in otherwise unbelievable phenomena. Longtime horror fans as well as newcomers to the genre will find much to savor in this eye-opening—and ear-opening—intervention in contemporary media culture.
David Scott Diffrient is professor of film and media studies at Colorado State University. He has written many books, including Body Genre: Anatomy of the Horror Film and Comic Drunks, Crazy Cults, and Lovable Monsters: Bad Behavior on American Television. In 2021, he served as Fulbright Distinguished Scholar at Yonsei University in South Korea.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9780814351871 |
| ISBN 10 | 0814351875 |
| Title | Seeing Is Hearing Is Believing |
| Author | David Scott Diffrient |
| Series | Contemporary Approaches To Film And Media |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Hardback |
| Publisher | Wayne State University Press |
| Year published | 2026-11-03 |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |