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Abstract
“Don’t breathe,” “Open your eyes,” “Exit,” and “Hush” are only few examples of some texts that can be found or read in thriller films. Under the umbrella of “Empathy,” the motor physiognomy for some words, actions verbs, and some names induces a different experience and provides a bodily attitude and synesthetic preparation to complete the structure of the image, the lived experience, and the phenomenology of place. Depending on the theory of the phenomenology of the text, this article addresses the power of words in preparing the body of the dread scenes’ viewer and transferring it into a new situation according to Merleau-Ponty’s phenomenology of perception and Gray's art of using paratexts in media studies. The main aim, thus, is to consider “text” as a qualitative atmospheric corporeal “quasi-thing” that has the potential to enhance the experience of dread in films and to increase the embodiment for the viewer’s consciousness and corporeality.