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Menacing Environments: Ecohorror in Contemporary Nordic Cinema
Known for their progressive environmental policies and nature-loving citizens, Nordic countries also produce what may seem a counterintuitive film ecohorror, where distinctions between humans and nature are blurred in unsettling ways. From slashers to arthouse thrillers, transnational Nordic ecohorror films such as Antichrist (dir. Lars von Trier, 2009) and Midsommar (dir. Ari Aster, 2019) have garnered commercial and critical attention, revealing an undercurrent of ecophobia in Nordic culture that belies the region's reputation for environmental friendliness.
In Menacing Environments, Benjamin Bigelow examines how ecohorror rings some of the same alarm bells that climate activists have sounded, suggesting that the proper response to the ongoing climate catastrophe is not optimism and a market-friendly focus on sustainable development, but rather fear and dread. Bigelow argues that ecohorror destabilizes the two pillars of Nordic society―the autonomous individual and the sovereign state. He illustrates how doing away with any clean separation of the domains of human culture from a wild, untamed realm of nature reminds viewers of the complex and often threatening material entanglements between humans and their environments.
Through Bigelow's analysis, ecohorror proves to be a potent vehicle not only for generating a strong affective response in audiences but also for taking on the revered institutions, unquestioned ideological orthodoxies, and claims of cultural exceptionalism in contemporary Nordic societies.
Menacing Environments is freely available in an open access edition thanks to TOME (Toward an Open Monograph Ecosystem) and the generous support of the University of Minnesota.
DOI 10.6069/9780295751658
In Menacing Environments, Benjamin Bigelow examines how ecohorror rings some of the same alarm bells that climate activists have sounded, suggesting that the proper response to the ongoing climate catastrophe is not optimism and a market-friendly focus on sustainable development, but rather fear and dread. Bigelow argues that ecohorror destabilizes the two pillars of Nordic society―the autonomous individual and the sovereign state. He illustrates how doing away with any clean separation of the domains of human culture from a wild, untamed realm of nature reminds viewers of the complex and often threatening material entanglements between humans and their environments.
Through Bigelow's analysis, ecohorror proves to be a potent vehicle not only for generating a strong affective response in audiences but also for taking on the revered institutions, unquestioned ideological orthodoxies, and claims of cultural exceptionalism in contemporary Nordic societies.
Menacing Environments is freely available in an open access edition thanks to TOME (Toward an Open Monograph Ecosystem) and the generous support of the University of Minnesota.
DOI 10.6069/9780295751658
220 pages, Hardcover
Published August 21, 2023
15 people want to read
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September 26, 2024
I came across this book while looking for resources with which to write a chapter on the Finnish horror film Sauna. There's no focus on that film here, but the book was so interesting I found myself reading it anyway! And in doing so, have added a few more horror films to my want-to-see list.
I find ecohorror fascinating anyway, but I've never really considered it in nationalist (or, in this case, regionalist) contexts before, bar some rather shallow observations on the genre in question. I certainly hadn't considered it in a Scandinavian setting, which is unsurprising as - apart from a brief summer picking strawberries in Denmark - I've never been there. I live on the other side of the world, actually, but even so the cultural presentation of the Nordic countries as outdoorsy, environmentally-friendly communities has percolated its way through my brain anyway. Bigelow takes this apparently widespread belief and explores how Nordic ecohorror films undermine that perspective in various ways. Occasionally he does wander a little too far into eye-glazing theory for my taste - as in the discussion of mesh and meld in Midsommar - but the lucidity of the chapters on Reykjavik Whale Watching Massacre and Shelley, especially, make up for it.
I find ecohorror fascinating anyway, but I've never really considered it in nationalist (or, in this case, regionalist) contexts before, bar some rather shallow observations on the genre in question. I certainly hadn't considered it in a Scandinavian setting, which is unsurprising as - apart from a brief summer picking strawberries in Denmark - I've never been there. I live on the other side of the world, actually, but even so the cultural presentation of the Nordic countries as outdoorsy, environmentally-friendly communities has percolated its way through my brain anyway. Bigelow takes this apparently widespread belief and explores how Nordic ecohorror films undermine that perspective in various ways. Occasionally he does wander a little too far into eye-glazing theory for my taste - as in the discussion of mesh and meld in Midsommar - but the lucidity of the chapters on Reykjavik Whale Watching Massacre and Shelley, especially, make up for it.
Displaying 1 of 1 review