The neurothriller

Abstract

This paper argues that if one compares the classic Hitchcockian suspense thriller to the ways in which suspense works in contemporary cinema, there has been a remarkable shift. From a narrative technique that leads to feelings of suspense, suspense is now primarily an affective technique that only gradually settles on a story. Principles from affective neuroscience are drawn in to enable an assessment of this primacy of the affective in what can be called the neurothriller.11. This paper is based on a chapter in The Neuro-Image, in which cinema in the digital age is read in close connection to principles of cognitive neuroscience. ‘The neuro-image’ is conceived as a third type of image, after the movement-image and the time-image, as developed by Gilles Deleuze (1986 Deleuze, Gilles. 1986. Cinema 1: The Movement-image, Trans. Hugh Tomlinson and Barbara Habberjam. London: Athlone Press. [Google Scholar], 1989 Deleuze, Gilles. 1989. Cinema 2: The Time-image, Trans. Hugh Tomlinson and Robert Galeta. London: Athlone Press. [Google Scholar]). The neuro-image is characterized by a new temporal organization (based in the future), by the real powers of illusionary perception, and by the primary powers of affect. In this sense of the primacy of affect, Red Road is a neuro-image (Pisters 2012 Pisters, Patricia. 2012. The Neuro-image. A Film-philosophy of Digital Screen Culture. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press. [Google Scholar]).

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