Childhood Memories of Horror Films in the Home: Questions, Patterns and Contexts

Drawing on interviews conducted at the Dirt in the Gate Movies events in Bournemouth (which predominantly focus on the screening of horror films from the 1970s and 1980s), Egan considers the important roles played by past technologies, people, spaces and sensory experiences in respondent memories of horror films in the childhood domestic context and, consequently, the continued meanings and significance of these memories in the present day. Through her findings, and through relating them to key research on childhood and family audiences by David Buckingham in the 1990s, Egan also considers the potential role audience memory research could play in challenging or complicating existing dominant conceptions about horror fans and audiences, and their history of consumption practices, that circulate publicly.