Spectatorship, Embodiment and Physicality in the Contemporary Mutilation Film

Focusing on the representation of mutilation on the screen and the physical responses this evokes - what the author defines as ''physical spectatorship'' - this book is organised around the study of a series of dynamic engagements that reconfigure the film-viewer relationship; these include: corporeal mimicry and the cinematic visualisations of mutilation; generalised anxiety and experimental use of sound; and the nausea generated by audio-visual techniques that both signify and locate the filmic gut in the viewer''s body.

Combining close textual analyses with theoretical approaches, and traversing a number of national cinemas, Wilson draws upon psychoanalytic, phenomenological and feminist theories of film and spectatorship to explore specific aspects of this often overlooked group of films, aspects such as the assault narrative sequence, the use of extreme frequencies, and haptic sounds and images.