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Stephen King wrote the short story “Why We Crave Horror Films” explaining why our mind gets so excited during horror movies. He continues to make the statement “the horror film has become the modern public lynching” (paragraph 6) showing that no matter what generation a person is in the excitement of gore will always exist. King proves this statement discussing emotions and psychiatric points in his work.

If somebody asked me what my favorite type of movie is I would probably say horror. I would say horror because it provides a thrill in me that no other type of movie sparks within me. When reading Stephen King’s article I realized there is more to a horror movie than just thrill, there is anticipation, and even suspense shown. In “Why We Crave Horror Movies”, Stephen King uses a mysterious tone and pathos to successfully persuade his audience of kids and adults into watching mysterious horror movies that will let you re-establish your feelings.

Over the years, we have seen the horror genre evolve from the books and tales to the tv shows and movies we see today. Many may find the genre intimidating to start reading or watching, whilst others love the genre cannot get enough of it. Horror is a notable genre in fiction. It has been evolved from the gothic genre with help from multiple famous authors such as Stephen King and Shirley Jackson. Horror consists of literature that evokes feelings of fear, surprise and mysteriousness in the reader. The literature of horror commonly

In Stephen King’s essay, “Why We Crave Horror Movies,” the author exemplifies a present-day approach to thinking about the genre of horror. King offers three explanations for why people go to see horror films: to psychologically relieve ourselves, to exercise our fears, and to establish our feelings of essential normality. He claims that watching horror films is not just a trend, but a necessity to fulfill our need for entertainment and excitement as well as our psychological need. Furthermore, King believes that it is healthy to surrender ourselves to irrationality every once in awhile to release our darkest, evil fantasies to prohibit them from coming out.Therefore, the “dirty” job that horror movies do for its audience is allowing them to relieve their desires without physically accomplishing them. Although King does not go beyond the stage of idea, he provides his audience with a better understanding of his perspective about the causation of horror films on people socially and psychologically. I agree with Stephen King’s statement that horror movies were and still are popular today; however, I disagree that watching them can prevent people from committing violence.

Do you ever wonder why you or other people take delight in watching horror movies? What makes them so interesting? Why does the general society enjoy entertaining themselves with the horror genre? Well, Stephen King might have the answer to that. Mr. King strongly agrees with the idea that we might all have a little craving for watching such morbid scenes or reading about them, and creating our own gruesome scenario. Stephen King believes that humans crave horror for the purpose of facing our fears, to reestablish our feelings of normality, and to have an unusual type of ‘fun’, and he’s right.

These days scary movies have many things in common, including events, settings, and characters. Of course, there are just as many differences used to keep the audience interested. Two horror movies “Let the right one in” and “twilight” are taken for comparison and tried to prove that “Let the right one in” has more depth and meaning of human spirit, invokes feelings and thoughts that stay with you, long after the movie is over. These two movies have many similarities, but they also have characteristics to make them unique. Both movies are based on superficial acts, but “Let the right one in” has much better effects as compared to Twilight. “Let the right one in” is life changing in composition to “Twilight” because it shows remarkable acting

The horror genre has many lessons to teach us as an audience although being the genre most connected with that of ridiculousness. It is regularly associated with the reaction it seeks from its audience; both emotional and physical. In cinema success is measured by terrifying chills, bloody deaths and the volume of the audiences scream. The appeal of horror narrative in literature, film and theatre lies in the pleasures it associates with fear, suspense and terror; no matter what it is trying to convey to the audience. Even when writers layer the genre with academic thoughts on psychology, theology and the world in which we live in, horror remains the primary outlet to examine the notions of dread, uncertainly, mysterious and the abject.

Eyes widen as you watch from just a few feet away while a cannibalistic undead is ripping through it’s unlucky next victim. You are stuck with fear, but then remember you’re your are just watching this happen on the screen in front of you. Instilling heart pounding reactions is just one reason why society loves the horror genre. Jasef Wisener has taken an interesting stance in his article, “Why We Need Horror on Television.” He argues that society as a whole needs horror and more specifically for it to be on prime time television. While Wisener’s article is not a scholarly paper, he does make some solid points that leave you believing his

Year after year, millions of tickets are sold for movies like “Saw”, “Orphan,” or “Halloween.” The consumption of horror movies is a worldwide phenomenon and one that leaves most psychologists baffled. Many hold the belief that “people like to experience pleasant emotions,” so it is not entirely logical why so many choose to suffer through the violence and aggression displayed in most thrillers, which very rarely evoke “pleasant” emotions. For most people, the attraction to scary movies comes from the intense emotions and impact felt, the ability to face one’s fears, and to cure curiosity on things otherwise disturbing or forbidden.

For centuries, stories of monsters, demons and other unholy abominations have brought fear to the hearts of audiences in commercially convenient doses. Noel Carroll, Ph.D., in his article “The Nature of Horror”, argues that the existence of monsters and supernatural entities alone do not define a horror novel or film “for monsters inhabit all sorts of stories, such as fairy tales, myths, and odysseys, that we are not wont to identify as horror” (Carroll). One can therefore infer that the absence of such creatures in either media can absolutely still yield a work in the Horror fiction genre.

We also went over how horror involves the realization that evil exists in the world, but is largely not something that can be seen in the world, only in one’s own mind, and that while terror and horror coexist, horror can never come before an interrelated experience of terror, but terror can inspire later horror, though not simultaneously as there must be some separation in time (Wynter 8 March; Wells 11-13). We learned that horror requires thought, memory, and imagination and that it must be separated by time from whatever experience or event inspired it, even if that event was terror, in our lecture on March 8th, and in a lecture on April 5th we connected the immediate fear of terror and the more prolonged and building experience of horror to common themes and tropes used in many, if not almost all horror films today, which involves the overall change in, and usually tightening, of space in order to elicit horror, and the growing distance in time that builds the experience of horror (Wynter 8 March, 5 April; Wells

Hollywood, more than any other film industry, deserves to be attributed with the creation of the horror genre. Even though it is not responsible for the first attempts at horror movies, it certainly shaped the genre into what it is today and made it accessible to global audiences. The appearance of horror movies happens in cycles with a distinct pattern that repeats itself – a movie appears, delivers thrills to the audience, and suddenly, due to low production costs, sequels and remakes are made, or original films based on the same formula. This way, different subgenres are produced. Eventually, the market becomes saturated and the subgenre dies. “As the 1980s came to a close, the American horror film seemed locked into an endless loop of formulaic

As Stephen Price stated, “digital imaging technologies are rapidly transforming nearly all phases of contemporary film production. Film-makers today storyboard, shoot and edit their films in conjunction with the computer manipulation of images” (Price, 1996, pg.27). Since digital imaging technologies have changed the very nature of film production, it is important to understand and examine the wider effects these new modes of filmmaking have on spectators. With this in mind, the following essay argues that the realist aesthetics adopted by the verité horror subgenre not only work to entice fear among audiences by presenting the events occurring on screen as real, but in doing so, also reveal anxieties about the truthfulness of the image that have been heightened by the ubiquitous incorporation of digital imaging technology in contemporary film production. This will be demonstrated first by providing a brief history about the verité horror subgenre. Once this is completed, this essay will examine how the realist aesthetics adopted by the genre’s most notorious and commercially successful films, The Blair Witch Project (Myrick, 1999) and Paranormal Activity (Peli, 2007), reflect postmodern anxieties about the truthfulness of visual representations in film.

Horror is tricky thing, there are so many subgenres and it can come in many different forms. There are slashers, thrillers, psychological horror, gore and many more. Most people can watch one genre and not watch another. For example I can watch horror films where the bad guy is an actual person but paranormal horror is too much for me. There are aslo many different mediums that can person can express horror through. Most if these were introduced after Carroll and Guat’s time and I think their respective theories fit better for each Medium. Carroll’s fits better for films and video games but Gaut’s fits better for horror theme attractions.

From the beginning of cinema to the present day, Hollywood has had a morbid fascination with the dark, shadowy side of society. This is reflected in many films of the past, inherently most evident in the German expressionistic films of the 1920’s and 30’s. In a sense, society’s fascination with the macabre stems from their fears and anxieties. Thus, allowing filmmakers and storytellers to toy with their fears and horrify them like a terrible nightmare that comes to life. Most people in today’s society have a fear of the unknown, this can stem from natural factors like growing old and dying to such terrifying abnormal factors that may be real or not. The boogeyman is one figure that haunts our children’s minds and nightmares, this mythical