Abstract：In the recent years, the horror movies have already moved into the theater screen many times along with the prosperity of horror movies. With continuous activeness in the market of horror movies, the horror movies caught people’s eyes at domestic and abroad. However, because of many reasons from history, culture and other complicated aspects, the horror movies could not find their right place. Even though accepted by most of people, the horror movies could not be accepted by people who advocate rationalism. Under this background, whether at home or abroad, comparing the raising place in the film world with the flourishing tendency, it seemed that the scholar made a relative lag about studying the horror movie.
This dissertation respectively explores the cultural differences of horror movies between China and the United States through the cultural background, representative literary works and main style characteristics as well as the aesthetic standard in Chinese and American horror movies. This article hopes to provide some beneficial enlightenment for the future producer through the research of cultural difference between the Chinese and American horror movies, so as to create more and more valuable and admirable works. And it also hopes to offer some help to the audience for understanding the horror movies.
Key words：the Chinese and American horror movie; cultural differences; literature; aesthetics
中文摘要：近年来，随着恐怖电影的浪潮不断上涨，恐怖电影已经多次搬上了电影院的荧幕。伴随着恐怖片在电影市场上的不断活跃的情况，恐怖电影在国内外都倍受注目。但由于历史、文化及其它各种复杂的原因，恐怖电影的地位显得有些尴尬，虽然它得到大部分群体的接受，但却无法受到一些崇尚理性的群体的认可。在此背景下，无论国外还是国内，与恐怖电影在世界电影舞台上日益提高的地位和渐趋繁荣的发展趋势相比，理论界对恐怖电影的研究则显得相对滞后。
本选题分别从中美文化背景、具代表性的文学作品、主要风格特征以及中美电影恐怖电影的审美观等方面探析中美恐怖电影中的文化差异。本文希望通过对中美恐怖电影中的文化差异的研究，能对今后恐怖电影制作者提供一些有益的启示，从而创造出更有价值，值得品味的恐怖电影，并希望能够为观众对恐怖影片有更深入的了解提供一些帮助。
关键词：中美恐怖电影；文化差异；文学作品；审美学
