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INTRODUCTION
As with other feminist writers on horror films, I will begin by confessing my guilty secret, I am a fan of the genre. Carol Clover, Isabel Cristina Pinedo, and Cynthia Freeland, all admit to having a guilty conscience in taking pleasure from viewing films regarded as both violent and misogynistic. I, too, have felt a "traitor to the cause." Yet, like the others, I believe that different people will experience, read and interpret these films in varying ways. Importantly, they may contain subversive potential and encourage critical analysis. This is not to dismiss the less than honorable aspects of horror films, but to acknowledge their complexities and contradictions.
Nowhere was this made more evident to me than in listening to six young women talk about their own experience, viewing and producing a horror film. In contrast to scholarly accounts, these adolescents demonstrated no remorse in their enjoyment of horror. Rather, they celebrated their own abilities to recognize that the films contained elements of both social critique and social order. They took enjoyment in identifying the conventions, irony, reflexivity, limitations, and strengths of the movies they saw. Just as important, they used films as an opportunity to socialize with friends. Whether at the cinema or in front of the television, viewing horror films was typically done in the company of others their own age and gender. In producing a short horror film and their own trailers, the teenagers carried these abilities and experiences further and gained a strong sense of pride in their achievements.
What disturbed them most were the adults who they felt continually underestimated their intelligence. This group included not only authority figures, such as teachers and parents, but filmmakers and producers, as well. They felt they were being "talked at" or "down to" by adults who do not bother engaging them in discussions or assessments of horror films, despite the fact that adolescents comprise a large part of the audience. The teenagers interpreted this as an adult fear of adolescents, who represent the lost past as well as the future. As one girl commented, "maybe they don't bother asking what we think because they're afraid of what we might say." The purpose of this article is to begin listening to young...