60-108 Film for Non-Majors: The Horror Film

9 units, Carnegie Mellon University

What is a ghost? A memory, a curse, a soul with unfinished business? The unquiet dead appear across cultures: in religious practice, in folklore, and, of course, on screen. They haunt our homes and our national memories, complicating our understandings of ourselves and of our histories. In this course, our hunt for cinematic ghosts will span over a century and stretch across the globe. We will study how spirits challenge the boundaries between the living and the dead, reality and fiction, past and present. Together we will watch films featuring spirits comedic and frightening, and we will consider the enduring power of the ghost as a narrative figure, a spiritual metaphor, and a symbol of all that will not stay buried.

Prerequisites: none listed

Offered: Spring 2027, Spring 2026, Fall 2025

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