Horror (1998) is a film screened in a loop on a large screen in a gallery or museum space. As the title indicates, it is a horror film – like the others – with a group of students, a serial killer and a sheriff, chases and murders, a little bit of love and a lot of blood. But the film does not show any images. The screen presents a succession of title cards containing words and phrases in black letters on a white ground, separated by fade-outs, always at the same pace. These describe the film we do not see, but very generally and without any apparent order (the cards are arranged in alphabetical order): 'Chase Scene in the Wood', 'Close Up', 'Dissolve', 'Extremely Long Killing Scene', 'Flash Back', 'Everyone Dies Except the Hero and His Girl', 'Interior Scene. Hospital. Day/Night', 'Mood Music', 'Nudity', 'Over the Shoulder Shot', 'Overacting', 'Sheriff Solves the Murder in the Last 5 Minutes of the Film', 'Slow Motion/Dialogue', etc. Similarly, there are no dialogues on the soundtrack; the sound effects, background atmosphere and music serve to create, if not a story, at least a certain presence and dramatic tension: a storm, disturbing music, a creaking door, footsteps, a window breaking, a woman's scream, a police siren, etc.

This iconoclastic setup empties the screen of its images and the sound track of its dialogues, blithely putting them out of phase and out of order so as to reduce the film to bits of narrative and a few effects. The traditional film is thus pared down to its most simple generality, that of genre. This installation brings out the decisive role of the imagination in the film experience and the importance of sound, which becomes the most effective means of creating immersion and empathy. But the work is essentially parodic because here, the remake, the genre remake, provides the opportunity for a critical analysis of mainstream fiction films, their stereotypes, their rhetorical conventions and their ideology. 

Olivier Asselin

Translation Miriam Rosen