Erik Ehn. Photo: Kagami.

At the blog for his Soulographie: Our Genocides project, dramatist Erik Ehn discusses fear and anxiety in horror films, theatre and American culture generally:

People would rather be anxious than afraid; fear is productive and explores a change of heart; anxiety is static. Or, people would rather be afraid, but then are both compressed into anxiety and made addicted to it, media among the means. The long-range mission of force is domination; force, internalized is anxiety in the sense of useless feeling. In a state of anxiety, emotions are positioned hopelessly either by one’s choice or the strong appearance of inevitability. Fear is a dilation — preparation for a change — the utter opening of contradictory options. The real dread in a lot of conventional horror movies is not in fact fear (which is in Poe, Lovecraft), but in a tipping into immobility — the sense that nothing can be done … Your scream will not impact the action; action is closing in, closing down, causing endings. Fear is the ceaseless hunt for more life; it can have a spiritual use.

The full post can be found here. For more on the cycle of plays itself, which is scheduled to be staged at La MaMa later this year, visit the project’s About page.