Horror movies are an art form, and are both powerful and misunderstood. Horror movies, in my opinion, are the misunderstood brilliance of the movie industry, and while it may not take much to make a horror film, it may not take much to make a good horror film either. Or does it? And even more importantly, why do we enjoy these blood-stained images of gratuitous violence? As far as I’m concerned, it’s because that’s just entertaining for some people, myself included, who don’t mind a good decapitation or disembowelment every once in awhile. This raises the question though, what makes me different from someone who can’t stand these movies?First, I thought that the most important question was, why do people watch horror movies? Many people do …show more content…
“ The scare we crave… is a safe one. We know that, in an hour or two, we’re going to walk out whole” (Begley 2). People can allow themselves to feel fear as long as they know that they will be unharmed when it’s all over. This can be a difficult task though, as some horror movies may have a plot that would directly affect you if it was real, and couple that with good acting and special effects, and you could be shivering with fear whenever you are alone or in the dark. “ If we have a relatively calm, uneventful lifestyle, we seek out something that’s going to be exciting for us, because our nervous system requires periodic revving, just like a good muscular engine” (Begley 2). Horror movies act almost like a workout for the nervous system, giving it something to feel so that it doesn’t go without being used for a while, if you live an uneventful life. Everyone needs something to keep the going, to make them feel something. Horror movies can help to give people feeling again. If someone is so bored in their everyday life that they have nothing to look forward to, a good scare could help them …show more content…
“When people watch horrific images, their heartbeat increases as much as 15 beats per minute, their palms sweat, their skin temperature drops several degrees, their muscles tense, and their blood pressure spikes” (Sine 2). Horror movies can cause and actual response from the body, where you could experience the same type of fear that the characters on screen feel. This means that horror movies, when executed properly, actually affect the person watching it. You could be just as sweaty and exhausted as a character on screen running from a chainsaw-wielding psychopath. “ In surveys of her students, Cantor found that nearly 60% reported that something they had watched before age 14 had caused disturbances in their sleep or waking life. Cantor has collected hundreds of essays by students who became afraid of water or clowns, who had obsessive thoughts of horrible images, or who became disturbed at the mention of movies such as E.T. or Nightmare on Elm Street. More than a quarter said they were still fearful” (Sine 4). Horror movies can be stuck in your brain, everyone has things that they are afraid of for a long time, and horror movies, especially characters like Freddy Krueger and Chucky, can become one of those things. This could deeply affect a person in their daily life, and even I occasionally check everywhere in a room to see if someone (or
In human nature there exists a morbid desire to explore the darker realms of life. As sensitive beings we make every effort to deny our curiosity in the things that frighten us, and will calmly reassure our children that there aren't any creatures under their beds each night, but deep down we secretly thrive on that cool rush of fear. Despite our efforts to maintain a balance of respectable emotions, we are a society of people who slow down to look at traffic accidents and find excitement in the macabre. We turn off the lights when watching scary movies, and when it's time to go to bed, we secretly make sure the closet doors are shut. Fear keeps our hearts pumping and endorphins rushing, for it is an emotion that reminds us of our
Horror films are alluring to viewers for many reasons. Horror movies have longed to serve a purpose which is to scare and also provide stories about the dark scary side of life. People watch horror movies to get scared, for the thrill and most of all plain old entertainment. Three main characteristics of horror films are according to Maggie McCutcheon is scaring people into creating morals, Stephen King differs and says that horror films are made to let people’s emotion and fears rein free, and Tim Dirks feels that a film must have certain characteristics for a horror film to be considered “good”.
The liking for horror movies lies in the excitement and danger they pose. People enjoy being scared because it pushes a surge of adrenaline.
What is fear? “Fear is an unpleasant emotion that occurs in response to an immediate and identifiable threat, usually of an external nature. It includes physiological elements such as increased heart rate and muscular tension, behaviors such as running or hiding, and hormonal changes such as the release of epinephrine” (Gramlich). In other words, fear is not something that can be built instantly it is usually a bad past experience in most cases it’s from childhood. According to Lars Svendsen author of A Philosophy of fear, states fear is like drugs, the chemical reaction in your brain creates inquisitiveness which in important to survive because it keeps your brain functioning well. That is the reason why Svendsen think Action and Horror genres are most popular in the entertaining world because this genres story is based on taking risk and risk without fear is like desert without sand. Transformer, Fast and Furious and The Walking Dead are some of the examples of the most grossing movies and shows in entertaining world. According the list published by Forbes 8 out top 10 most grossing movies in the world falls under Action and Horror genre. Going back to Svendsen, he states “Reading takes by Edger Allan Poe and H.P. Lovecraft was a great strain on my nerves as a child – I thought it was so sinister that I hardly dared read another page, yet I could not stop myself from reading on even so”(74). Is one of the many personal experience that he mentioned in his book. So, no matter how hard individual tries to avoid fear while entertaining themselves, he/she will always end up falling in love with Horror or Action, movie or show. There is no treatment for fear because at the end of the day being afraid means healthy brain.
Horror films are designed to invoke our hidden worst fears. They deal without most primal nature and its fears: out nightmares, vulnerability, the fear of the unknown, loss of identity etc. Over the years, horror movies have developed out of wide variations.
The horror genre has been around for over a century and horror novels have been around for awhile longer. Many people try to comprehend why people subject themselves to onscreen terrors considering people get get scared by a good amount of movies with pop out scenes or are left wanting to triple check lock and sprint out of the dark. The reason people watch horror movies is because they want to experience firsthand fear and become more physically aware without being in danger. Every person is different though, my reasoning for watching and loving horror films is based off of personal experiences, other peoples could be because of the different sub genres in horror or or more psychological because it triggers a memory for them, there is also
When a natural impulse is repressed, silenced, and kept in the shadows, it could easily break out at any given moment (Conger 84). People need to keep feeding these impulses so that they can stay in control. This is where horror movies have their major role in society: they make it easier for people to cope with these impulses, allowing them an access to images of blood, violence, and sex. In this way, our impulses can be managed from a safe place and they can be controlled more easily. All those monsters and murderers in the horror movies represent the people's shadows, their repressed behaviors and feelings. As people watch horror movies, they unconsciously identify themselves with the monsters and murderers that appear on them. As a result, these movies allow them to release that "repressed energy",
Imagine you are at cinema. There is a lot of suspense and the scene, which you are watching, is quite intense. It is a monster silently stalking his next victim. It approaches closer and closer until it takes the victim with it’s claws and rips apart, ripping pones and spewing blood everywhere. That is a rather common description of one of the most popular film genres today: Horror. Beginning roughly 100 years ago, early horror films were based off of the writings of famous Gothic writers such as Edgar Allen Poe, Bram Stoker and Marry Shelly. However, it was later when the German Expressionism in the form of film dominated the industry, horror films started to develop stronger and stronger. Horror movies are film genre, which typically relates to two patterns as supernatural, massacre, violence and zombies. Each movie genre has different special influences on the auditors and that influence, in a situation of horror genre, is fear. This kind of film can simply understand as movies that try to get a negative emotional reaction from the audience. Horror movies affect our society and culture by the way they expose to audiences, how they influence other entertainment genres, and how they can be used to portray the worst in society.
As a person who does not get frightened easily I find that some aspects of certain horror movies enables them to be scarier than others. I’ve found, through my seventeen years of horror movie experience that whenever a filmmaker decides to place entirely plausible scenarios into their films, or they play with their audiences irrational psychological fears their film becomes a masterpiece. Contrarily if there is no plot line, unnecessary gore, and too much sex appeal the movie becomes boring and unwatchable.
Why are horror movies fun to watch? To explain why we crave horror films, it’s the experience of the adrenaline rush, the emotional content, and the fact that it isn’t reality is nice to face our fears. Stephen King mentions that“ we are all mentally ill,” and argues that our “sick jokes” prove our insanity and and our need to release insanity. ( King, “Why We Crave Horror” 1) Stephen King veraciously claims that humans crave horror to face our fears, to re-establish our feelings of normality, and to experience an abnormal type of fun, basically all the emotions of the human condition.
Nevertheless, there are more opponents of horror films among the psychologists. They call horror movies the most harmful invention of mankind and recommend not to watch at all or at least to refrain from daily watching. Scientists consider these films inspire people that cruelty and violence are routine norms, and people can become more aggressive because of them. Besides, some “masterpieces” can cause people to feel afraid, anxious, or nervous. As a result of the research, which has been carried out by the University of Michigan, it becomes clear that more than 90 % of the students of these institutions in the childhood were strongly frightened of any film
I don’t think watching a scary movie will prevent me from madness, but I do agree with King that the action serves as a sort of psychic relief. Even though these movies “may allow our emotions a free reign” (King 1), I do not believe they will prevent the killer from killing or the crazy from being crazy. However, the thrill these movies provide will at least do their job at reminding us of emotions we forgot existed. For example, I am not frightened easily, so the only way for me to feel fear is by attending a scary movie. I firmly believe
The first reason that People crave horror is because we are trying to prove that we are not afraid that we can get through it. For example, when we ride a roller coaster we are scared at first, but at the end, we are good there are also sometimes through it you might get scared. Just like amusement parks horror movies there are some times that we get scared and we do not want to watch it, but towards the end you are like to let watching it again because it was not that scary. Also, people are scared because they think that it will happen in real life so they let that go in their thoughts and then they don't want to watch it. People also scare others so then they do not want to watch it.
A horror movie is a film that looks to inspire a physiological response, for instance, an elevated heartbeat, using dread and shocking one's audiences. In the start, authors like Bram Stoker, Mary Shelley, and Edgar Allan Poe have inspired horror films to exist as a genre for over a century through their literary work. These films frequently intend to encourage nightmares, aversions, and fears of viewers. Common elements in the horror film incorporate phantoms, vampires, devils, torment, malicious witches, zombies, horrible creatures, beasts, insane people and serial killers. According to Horror Film Wikipedia, emphasizes that “A horror film is a movie that seeks to elicit a physiological reaction, such as an elevated heartbeat, through the use of fear and shocking one’s audiences”. There has been a great diversity of views from people regarding the horror films. According to Stephen King, the most successful writers, says, that “And horror movies, like roller coasters, have always been the special province of the young” (King 39). Some people enjoy watching horror films as they claim that these horror films are like a roller coaster and more like an adventure. It’s fun watching them and they are deemed an essential way for regaining feelings of crucial normality. However, some sensitive people dislike horror movies a lot. It is due to some bad experience in the past for which fantasy seems real to them. Many psychologists have affirmed the diversity in the reviews of horror
As the hit show The Walking Dead is serving as background noise in the house of my best friend Morgan, we discuss the different degrees of fear we encounter when watching different horror movies. Bringing up the topic about horror movies or just the genre “horror” brings chills to Morgan and makes her squirm in her seat. It’s strange to acknowledge the fact that horror movies can have one of two effects on people. They either enjoy the thrill, or despise the feeling of being terrified. Based off Morgan’s reaction when I mentioned that we would be discussing horror movies, it was clear that she wasn’t the biggest fan of these films with her simple statement of “Horror movies? Hate them.” I was very curious to get a better understanding on