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1981
Volume 16, Issue 2
  • ISSN: 2040-3275
  • E-ISSN: 2040-3283

Abstract

This article reads Carl Theodor Dreyer’s seminal film (1932) using the concept of ambient ecohorror. By relegating the vampiric threat to off-screen space and approaching horror indirectly, relies on a technique of drawing our attention elsewhere, to the ambient, material environments in which the film’s protagonist is enmeshed. Emmanuel Levinas’s formulation of existential horror using the concept of (‘there is’) provides a philosophical template for understanding the ambient qualities of horror in . The article also uses a variety of eco-materialist approaches to understand the film’s singular importance to the history of horror and to resituate the film as a foundational work of cinematic ecohorror.

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2025-10-31
2026-04-16

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