美国疫情灾难片中的恐怖叙事与瘟疫隐喻

Horror Narrative and Plague Metaphor in American Plague Films

美国疫情灾难片中的恐怖叙事以瘟疫爆发前的人际接触、爆发后的城市破败与感染者死亡的场景为主要构成,在电影中建构了大自然惩罚人类、现代性困境,以及丑陋人性的瘟疫隐喻,引发了观众对当下现实的思考。以《致命接触》《灭顶之灾》《传染病》等电影为代表,美国疫情灾难片表现出两重面相:既传达了对抗瘟疫的英雄情怀与人道主义,也潜藏着外来威胁论与族裔偏见等美国意识形态。

The horror narrative in American plague films is mainly composed of the interpersonal contact before the outbreak of the plague,the scenes of the decaying cities and the dying infected people after the outbreak.It constructs the plague metaphors of nature punishing human beings,the modernity dilemma and the ugliness of human nature and urges the audience to think about their real lives.Taking Fatal Contact,Bird Flu in America,The Happening and Contagion as examples,the American plague films convey the double aspects of the heroism and humanitarianism of fighting against the plague on the one hand,and the undercurrent American ideologies such as external threat and ethnic prejudice on the other.