Interpersonal Function of Viewer’s Comments in Ari Aster’s Horror Movies

DOI

10.2991/978-2-38476-501-0_23How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Community Building; Viewer Commentary; Horror films; Mood; Online Comments; Systemic Functional Linguistics

Abstract

This study examines how fans of Ari Aster’s films Hereditary [2018] and Midsommar [2019] use language to connect and build community through online discussions. We analyzed 100 English comments from RogerEbert.com [2019–2024] using Systemic Functional Linguistics to understand how sentence structures function in horror fan conversations. The research focused on three comment types: statements, questions, and commands. Results show that horror fans predominantly use confident statements like “It sustains dread masterfully” to share reactions. These aren’t just opinions, they work as shared truths that help viewers feel emotionally connected to others with similar experiences. Questions serve a different purpose, inviting collaborative thinking rather than seeking answers. Fans ask “What was the significance of the bear?” to keep discussions alive and encourage group interpretation. Commands like “Don’t spoil the ending!” establish community guidelines and viewing practices. Language choices reveal deeper patterns of identity building. Words like “maybe” or “definitely” help fans negotiate emotional responses within the community, while “must” or “should” establish what counts as proper horror appreciation. This research demonstrates that online movie discussions create spaces where fans position themselves as knowledgeable insiders or emotionally engaged viewers. The way people phrase comments actually shapes how horror film communities form and maintain themselves digitally, showing that language choices are fundamental to building fan identity and belonging online.

Copyright

© 2025 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Ruiz J. B. Pandapotan Manurung
AU  - Winda Setiasari
AU  - Widya Andayani
PY  - 2025
DA  - 2025/12/16
TI  - Interpersonal Function of Viewer’s Comments in Ari Aster’s Horror Movies
BT  - Proceedings of the International Seminar of Languages, Arts and Literature Education (ISLALE 2025)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 254
EP  - 261
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-2-38476-501-0_23
DO  - 10.2991/978-2-38476-501-0_23
ID  - Manurung2025
ER  -