Angela Ndalianis: The Horror Sensorium: Media and the Senses. Jefferson: McFarland & Co. Inc. 2012.

Abstract

In The Horror Sensorium, Ndalianis shows how horror in different media forms engages our senses.The book analyzes a variety of engagements with media such as in movies, theme park rides, television series, novels, video games, and transmedia horror experiences such as ARGs (alternate reality games) in which the user is a VUP (viewer/user/player) participating in real life (marketing) stories.Her term "the sensorium" refers to "the sensory mechanics of the human body and to the intellectual and cognitive functions connected to it" (p. 1).The book concerns both perception and our making sense of such perception.Ndalianis thus avoids a dichotomy of sense versus meaning or sensory versus intellectual and regards the dualities as connected: When we perceive a disgusting monster, we are already interpreting our perception and reacting with disgust.The sensorium is "an interface" between, on the one hand, our physical and intellectual body and, on the other hand, an external world to which the media belongs.The book has an Introduction and seven chapters.The Introduction explains the sensorium, and first chapter introduces New Horror.The other six chapters examine horror experiences in different media.First, describing the sensorium, the author draws from studies on affect, cognition, and emotions with key names being Giuliana Bruno, Vivian Sobchack, Laura Marks, and Jennifer Barker.In later chapters, the well-oriented Ndalianis draws from a wide range of studies in art and new media.Now the interface between our

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