Hold space in your Fall 2025 schedule for

CTCS 464: Asian Horror

Taught by SCA Professor Lan Duong

Wednesdays from 10:00 a.m. - 1:50 p.m.
Norris Cinema Theater at the Frank Sintara Hall

All USC Students are eligible to enroll!!!
NO D-CLEARANCE NEEDED. 4 UNITS.

Find CTCS-464 on the USC Schedule of Classes:
https://classes.usc.edu/term-20253/classes/ctcs-464

This course focuses on the genre of horror within Asian cinemas.  In this class, we will explore Asian-specific notions of the supernatural and examine the figuration of ghosts and spirits in filmic works from Hong Kong, Thailand, Japan, Singapore, Laos, and South Korea.  Studying this genre across multiple regions allows us to probe how disability, gender, sexuality, and class often function in relation to the construction of the Other in horror films. Through the readings, we will draw from different theoretical lenses (feminist film theory, disability studies, sound studies) that will help to structure our discussions of the horrific in film and shape the ways that we, as spectators, feel about this film genre. Another layer of looking will involve contextualizing these films as cultural products of the national cinemas, film industries, and film cultures from which they hail. Our discussion of the films, when placed against the backdrop of Asian transnational histories, will be framed by the contexts of colonialism, war, globalization, and displacement that have occurred within these regions and across them. Finally, while we seek to draw parallels across the national cinemas, we will also be attentive to the specificities of the cultural traditions and attitudes toward the dead that mark each region’s varying apprehensions of the spiritual world.  

Contact Information

Name: JD Connor
Email: jconnor@cinema.usc.edu