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Argumentative Essay About Watching Horror Movies

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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

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