Spectralizing the White Terror: Horror, Trauma, and the Ghost-Island Narrative in Detention

Abstract

Abstract This article treats the Detention franchise as a cultural phenomenon from three interrelated angles. First, this article examines the historical significance and political reconstruction of the White Terror in response to the development and adaptation of Detention, while taking into account its multi-layered source material in history, cult culture, literature, and cinema. Historically bound, Detention blends foreign and local horror, fostering the gamers’ and viewers’ imagination of darkness embedded in the realm of the unknown and the dead. Second, this article brings into focus the mix of historical pain and horror genre with respect to the ghostly youth and monstrous past in Detention. The digital and cinematic remakes of the White Terror mediate the unaccountable trauma via the techno-enhanced immersive horror across screens. This unique strategy speaks to the gamers and spectators alike, especially the young generation, with profundity in the new age of entertainment. Third, this article identifies Detention as a political allegory in relation to the socio-cultural anxieties shared by the majority of the Taiwanese subjects in the contemporary era. In a political light, it not only echoes the ongoing campaign of transitional justice as promoted by the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) on the island, but also points to the universal pursuit of freedom and democracy against any totalitarian regime in the twenty-first century.