Eleventh Global Studies Conference

Abstract

Featuring supernatural figures, both zombie movies and the “Ringu” (Ring) films have enjoyed popularity with a large global resonance for the last few decades. As the subcategories of the horror film, they are primarily intended to entertain the audience in the genre’s aesthetic logic while pointing to a potent fear that stays latent in society. For instance, in the original “Night of the Living Dead” (1968), the reanimation of the newly dead is ascribed to the effect of an inadvertently unleashed extraterrestrial radiation, attesting to people’s interest in, and fear of radiation and an unexpected threat from the outer space in the sixties. More recent zombie movies tend to present zombie proliferation more like a viral contagion, and this affiliates them with the “Ringu” films that pivot on electric video transmission as a viral conduit. A comparison between the two groups of horror films will not only identify the virus as a major source of fear but also yield differences, elucidating the contrasting kinds of fear with which we have learned to live in the technologically advanced and globalized world.