To see or not to see: Historical trauma and the production of fear in contemporary South Korean horror cinema.

This article examines how contemporary South Korean horror films depict historical trauma through distinct cinematic techniques, focusing on two case studies: *Gidam* (Epitaph, 2007) and *Gonjiam: Haunted Asylum* (2018). *Epitaph* employs a Gothic horror style with subjective flashbacks and ambiguous narration to visualize trauma from the Japanese colonial period, creating fear through uncertainty about what is real and emphasizing the lingering psychological effects of colonial violence. In contrast, *Gonjiam*, a found-footage horror film set in the present, uses diegetic cameras to limit viewers' visual access, generating fear from what remains unseen and reflecting the ongoing social impact of political repression during South Korea's Yusin era (1972–1979). The article argues that these differing approaches shape distinct audience engagements with historical trauma, highlighting how narrative and stylistic choices in horror films influence the articulation and experience of repressed histories.