Halloween : A Little Boy

Stephen King's claim explains that horror makes people feeling better about themselves when being compared to mass murderers or psychopaths. Throughout most of the story the narrator is someone to relate to. Throughout most of the story the main character seems normal, going to school like any other regular person. Then, the murders start happening and the rumors of a strawberry spring. As the narrator gets older, married, and even when his wife thought he was having an affair is normal or relatable to on some level. Although he was just like any other person, a mass murder isn’t something we expect to happen at our school right? This is the part where it makes people feel better about themselves, and their life. Ultimately people know that no matter how bad their life gets “[they] are still light-years from true ugliness” or for example, it won’t come close to becoming Springheel Jack (King, “Why We Crave” 1).

A fair claim can be made on human nature that humans tend to crave the unknown, even if they are afraid of it. People still watch to the end of horror movies even though they know they will regret it shortly after. Often times these films or even TV shows leave a lasting impact on a person emotionally, an impact that can stay with someone way after the two hour movie is complete. Us as humans like to believe that we are stronger than the film and it is simply just acting but often times that is not the case. In films similar to Nightmare on Elm Street, Child’s Play, Cabin in the Wood, and The Exorcist, the audience is suppose to receive a reaction that is almost suppose to haunt them. It is no surprise that horror movies are not meant to watch alone because it can and will patronize a person. Viewer’s discretion is often advised and should be taken into consideration before pressing play on any frightful motion picture. A person can be truly be effected by a movie to the point of insanity and great fear.

Michael watches his sister over sexualize herself, which leads him to kill his sister. During the 1970 's movies concentrated on

Throughout cinema, there has always been space in our hearts for the gore and intrigue that come from horror films. Though they come with different plots, there remains “the monster”, the character that brings along disgust, horror, suspense, and even sympathy. In Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho (1960), our monster is Norman Bates, the boy next door. This was one of the first times in American cinema that the killer was brought home, paving the way for the future of horror movies. According to Robin Wood in “An Introduction to the America Horror Film” (183-208), Bates follows the formula of the Monster being a human psychotic. This is conveyed through his normal façade portrayed with his introduction, the audience’s ambivalence, the use of

Wes Craven’s horror movie “Scream”, inspired the gruesome murder of Gina Castillo. Castillo’s sixteen year old son and his fifteen year old cousin killed Gina Castillo. Why would anyone wish to watch the petrifying film, “Scream”? What would trigger a person to take inspiration from the horror movie, “Scream”. Stephen King describes horror as a piece of the human condition. Author of several horror novels, Stephen King wrote an essay titled “Why We Crave Horror.” In this paper he thoroughly explains why the human species craves horror and how it makes humans feel. In this essay, Stephen King precisely claims that humans desire, horror because horror pushes them to face their fears, renew their feelings of normality, and to expose

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 is a genre that is often overlooked due to a plethora of reasons. Readers tend to think of vampires or werewolves, but it is much more in depth. Horror is a genre that if dissected properly, can help the reader understand the correspondence to society. The Horror genre has been around since the 1890’s, when Georges Méliès was credited for creating the first horror film, emphasizing the idea that horror films have a cavernous meaning. In Georges Méliès famous short film, Le Manoir du Diable, the main character confronts Satan and has nowhere to run. This represents conflict within oneself, coinciding with the idea of a deeper meaning being prevalent throughout Shirley Jackson's work. In the novel, The Haunting of Hill House, by Shirley

Horror movies are based on humanity’s disturbing, inner thoughts that are kept hidden by sophisticated and civilized facades. The fact that people pay money to go watch their own race be slaughtered shows that civilization has two sides. There are many theories as to why humans act the way they do, such as Steven King’s “beast within” and “potential lyncher” theories and Stanley Solomon’s “exploration” and “romantic isolationism” theories. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre Part 2 does a fantastic job of displaying these theories about the horror genre if one knows what they are looking for. Learning about why humans react the way they do to horror films based on the theories of well-known psychologists and horror writers can teach humans a

Horror films have been around for over 100 years, petrifying people and bringing their worst fears to life but still they can’t get enough of this sick and gory genre that is unbelievably entertaining and captivating to the audience. Horror comes with many sub-genres from your bloody slashers like Friday the 13th to your Supernatural-Horrors like The Exorcist, but in the end they all seem to do their job by scaring you and leaving you with nightmares for weeks on end. Usually Horror’s films have the same character stereotypes such as the nerd, the jock, the slut, the virgin, the junky, the tough hero, the unlikely hero and last but not least the masked murderer, but yet they all play their own part in the making of these horrors movies whether it is the extremely slow walk the killer does but almost always catches the victim, or the unwise decision to split up and investigate where the unusual noise is coming from.

What makes something horrific or consternating lies largely in perspective. However, there are traits common amongst all works that are classified as horror, which are summarized or expanded upon by the philosopher Noe ̈l Carroll who wrote that horror can be seen as a want or need to know, and that horror can be subdivided into three parts: Overreacher Plot vs. Discovery Plot, introduction of a monster that challenges the conceptual schema, and the desire to overcome and learn about the monster at hand. Carroll’s concept of what eerily accommodates the horror genre can be seen universally, but, more specifically, her third idea on the want to know/expose a monster can be seen perfectly in the Duffer Brother’s Netflix series Stranger Things.

Setting conventions play a huge part within the horror genre. Since horror first existed it has been set in ghostly abandoned castles with spooky dark dungeons, gloomy forests and spine-chilling secret passageways. Since these, settings in the horror genre has evolved into a more terrifying definition of scary. In horror movies today we mainly see old, haunted, broken down houses set in isolated forests exactly like the new house the family moves into in ‘The Conjuring’ or like in the horror movie ‘Halloween’, set in a neighbourhood during the night time. Horror has moved into these more sophisticated ideas of creepy and scary as the setting is more relatable to everyday life, and takes a toll on the audience's psychological mind set to start

Michael watches his sister over sexualize herself which leads him to kill his sister. During the 1970 's movies concentrated on punishing women who sexualized themselves by killing and

Overall, horror has been a universal theme that has captivated various audiences. Horror films have long served various purposes. They deliver thrills and chills, as well as tell stories of the dark, forbidden side of life and death. They also provide a revealing mirror image of the anxieties of their time. For instance, Nosferatu (1922) was not simply a tale of vampirism but offered a distressing image of a town besieged by premature and random deaths, which echoes the Great War. Therefore, horror films between the 1920s-1970s have reflected societal fears during their release and demonstrate important historical significance. The various films analyzed in this paper have represented what was happening throughout each decade beginning with

Horror is designed to scare, cause alarm and dread, while also entertaining the audience at the same time in a cathartic experience (Dirk, 2016). Horror films are meant for a specific type of audience that enjoy scary films. Dirks (Tim, 2016) approach to genre horror, is that films went back as 100 years ago, from the earliest days our vivid imagination in seeing ghosts in the shadows to be connected emotionally of the unknown, and fear things that are improbable. You watch a horror film, it makes you aware of the scary surroundings, the essence of fear itself, without actually being in any sorts of danger. Dirks argues that there is a fun and thrill factor in being frightened, or watching something disturbing. It gives you that feeling of an adrenaline rush, as well as having that feeling someone is actually next to you lurking in the dark (Dirk, 2016).

The horror movies of the past ten years of so have tended to be more violently graphic and visceral - a reflection of modern times, perhaps. Think of the blood and gore, of the violent deaths at regular intervals in such movies as the Friday the Thirteenth series, I Know