Preadolescence and horror films: clandestine initiation and folkloric receptions

This article draws on and is reworked from one of the chapters of my doctoral thesis. Grounded in the analysis of my surveys, it sheds light on how pre-teens appropriate horror films. It shows that this genre is the subject of a film initiation between peers. Morally condemned by adults, it is a cultural object consumed clandestinely and its reception, far from adults’ stereotypes, suggests the existence of some playful folklore culture valued by the pre-adolescents, aged ten to fourteen, whom I have surveyed.