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Monsters In Horror

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Monsters in Horror Horror as a genre has been around for centuries, installing itself into diverse and new areas of our entertainment to keep itself relevant. The horror genre as a whole feeds off our fears and our imagination, which often leads us to be hyper-vigilant of our surroundings. The entirety of the horror genre is a multimillion-dollar industry, with horror films accumulating about 5% in market shares over the past 15 years. Films such as World War Z (2013) grossed approximately $202,000,000, with other popular films such as What Lies Beneath (2000) grossing $155,000,000, and Gremlins (1984) grossing $148,000,000 (Top-US-Grossing Horror Films). Even popular horror monsters, such as those in the Slasher subgenre, are found to be …show more content…

It has come into question as to why as a culture we gravitate towards such a taboo genre where things such as torture, supernatural beings, and psychic phenomenon abound? Stephen King (2014) poses that since horror is so violent and insane, that it appeals to the worst in us all, bringing out or inner insanity. However, others have posited that there are functional reasons as to why we love horror such as fears and scary stories having evolutionary qualities, releasing emotions through catharsis and even providing a fictional space to master stressors in …show more content…

Catharsis was theorized by the Greek philosopher Aristotle, in which he believed we purge our negative emotions and thoughts via the portrayal of other situations and circumstances (Walters, 2004). By viewing violent and graphic footage, which is often what horror films consist of, it is believed that the person will purge their violent tendencies and thoughts while watching a horror film, resulting in a lower likelihood of acting on violent tendencies. However, it has equally been posited that such graphic images will increase the aggressive tendencies in the viewer (Walters, 2004). So, although catharsis is a theory of why we watch horror films, there is no way to discern whether there is a correlation or not between watching horror films and lowering one's aggression or vice

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