Many films include character deaths either on or off screen. In these deaths, the viewer is confronted with the loss and subsequent removal of a character without getting a chance to analyze and cope with that absence. More recently, there has been a string of films that work to confront the theme of mortality head on, which can make the viewer subconsciously uncomfortable. This article works to examine two of those films and how they fit into the concept of “Terror Management Cinema,” a concept drawn from studies of Terror Management Theory applied to film. In these films, some key notions of Terror Management Theory, such as confrontation of death and the primality of humans, are addressed through comedy and science fiction.
About the presenterJennifer Gagliardi
I am a scholar focusing on spectatorship and the psychological implications of film. I received my BA in English Literature from St. Joseph’s College, where I wrote a thesis on Science Fiction cinema. I studied at Oxford University in the summer of 2015, applying Terror Management Theory to film. Most recently I obtained my MA in Art History and Criticism where I focused on film and media studies, and the manipulation of the moving image