The Impact Of Horror Movies On Adults

Watching frightening films such as “It,” Stephen King’s masterpiece, which is engrossing its monumental audience, is a favorite pastime of many young people. This industry is vast and creates a large amount of wealth for many of the people behind it. However, parents should diligently research these films’ psychological effects on minors before allowing their children to engage in this form of entertainment. After all, “‘Given that very young children may not yet know what types of stimuli frighten them most, nor do they enjoy the power to choose which media the family will view, they are in special need of protection from exposure to such scary stimuli before coping strategies are necessary’” (“Scary”). This shows that parents must carefully consider the content they allow their children to see. People watch horror movies for myriad reasons, as shown in Stephen King’s essay “Why We Crave Horror Movies,” and watching these films have both positive and negative effects that parents should be aware of, which are displayed in Stephen King’s essay “Why We Crave Horror Movies” and in the USA Today article “Scary Movies and TV Programs Have Long-Lasting Effects.”

Horror movies defy the norm when looking at media theories and arguments. It doesn’t follow mood management theory because no one would possibly watch a movie because they’d like to make their mood darker and sadistic along with the movies plot. One argument that works with horror movies is the idea that they can desensitize the viewer to specific things such as violence in general, or even more specifically violence toward women, especially women who are sexualized in some way. Desensitization is the idea that a person becomes detached to a specific thing such as violence toward women, or begins to believe that something is the norm due to over exposure to something that is down played or glorified.

There are many different types of horror. These types of horror can cause aggression. Aggression is hostile or violent behavior or attitudes toward another. This happens because of the violence they experience in horror films. In the online text” Scary movies can have lasting effects on children and teens,

Horror movies can have negative psychological effects. Although some people enjoy the thrill and nastiness of horror movies, I, for one, do not. Watching horror films give me nightmares, and make me extra paranoid. Rather than my inner psyche feeling “satisfied,” I feel disturbed. Watching horror films can also cause heightened stress and anxiety. Under more serious conditions, horror films can even cause PTSD, or Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. A woman named Caroline appeared on the Dr. Phil show, who after watching a horror film called Psycho,

In an interview with The Los Angeles Times, Michael Fanselow, a behavioral neuroscientist at UCLA, says that horror movies, despite being unrealistic, teach us to have proper responses to actual threats, especially when we’re young. "The brain changes physically when we learn, and young adulthood is when the parts of our brain that provoke and control our fears need experiences in order to learn and come into balance," Fanselow says.

When we watch horror movies we let our diabolical inner self free for a brief moment in time, which in return, lets us live our lives as “normal”

In Stephen King’s "Why We Crave Horror Films", King provides his own interpretation on why we covet horror movies. He initially provides superficial reasons, detailing that we're mainly in it for the thrill ride, metaphorically comparing it to a roller coaster ride where at certain points, "we may scream when the roller coaster [makes] a complete 360 or plows through a lake at the bottom of the drop." As the article goes on, he delves into an analysis of the different levels of sanity and describes two types of insane individuals: the ones sent to the “funny farm” or the asylum, would tend to “carve up women like Jack the Ripper or the Cleveland Torso Murderer”, and the other who walk among us just “talk to [themselves]” or “pick [their] nose on the morning bus”, ultimately humoring the fact that they inevitably won’t be “invited to the best parties”. To reiterate, King’s topic for his article was to explore and interpret why we crave horror films. King's purpose for writing this article was not only to provide his own answer to the question of said

Horror movies are widely known to both scare you and practically give you a heart attack. It gives you goosebumps and cold sweats. While these seem like negative effects of watching them, many still watch them religiously. The new movie IT grossed approximately $189, 400, 000 worldwide on its opening weekend (“IT”). When you divide this by the average ticket price of about $8.00, you find that about 21,895,954 people bought tickets and watched the horror remake over the course of the first three days it was out in theaters. This many people flocked to movie theatres to be terrified. This seems like a crazy notion, but the “negative’ effects most people believe in are actually positive. The rush of adrenaline you get while watching it is a good stress reliever. The dopamine that floods your brain during a jump scare has multiple health benefits. Scary movies can even boost your immune system. By confronting our fears on the big screen instead of face-to-face, we can also recognize dangers that are advantageous to keeping ourselves safe. It is far more beneficial both psychologically and physically to watch horror movies than to not watch them.

T. S. Kord, in a 2016 article for Cultural Dynamics, stated that he had a new theory for why our culture enjoys horror films in that “horror films primarily seek to elicit not fear, but guilt” (69). He said this because he felt that horror films acted as a way for people to feel the guilt that they should be feeling about various issues in life but are not. Kord also felt that violence was a vehicle through which this genre caused people to wrestle with the guilt they should be feeling. While this may be the case for the horror genre, it may be different for a newer genre that, although normally categorized in the science fiction class of movies, takes some cues from horror. This genre is that of the dystopian future, a normally violent, somber

According to a study of children interviewed by Huesmann and Eron found that increasing rates of aggression for both boys and girls who watch more violent television even when controlling for initial agressoveness and many other backgroundfactors. For exmple ,children who watch violent scene in middle childhood 11% of the males had been convicted of a crime .42% had pushed,grabbed ,shoved their spouse ,69%had shoved a person while angry. For female,39%of the high violence viewers had thrown something at their spouse 17% had pushed bitten or choked (Violence on Telivision and films).Media violence is a threat to public health .Research shows fictional television and film violence contribute to an increase in aggression and violence. Therefore,this movie content lot of violence .Even though,there is little blood and no real gore,violence is discussed openly and research shows that media violence contributes aggressive behavior and short term and long term aggression in young

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.

“How do you people watch this?!?! ” and “Why do everyone in this room have this intense love for horror movies was two phrases that I heard one night at my friend’s house while we watched Jason killed his 3rd victim on Friday the 13th. “Horror is defined as being a strong aversion mingled with dread” stated by Patrick Johnson in his paper, “The Importance of Horror”. Just like Graff’s essay on “Hidden Intellectualism”, there is a hidden value in horror films and books. Horror has played a large part in the human race and it has existed ever since the 1700s. From the Devil’s Castle in 1896 to Ouija: Origin of Evil in 2016, horror films have been around for a long period time and they are not going to go away no time soon. Furthermore, Graff states that “nor do we consider one of the major reasons why schools and colleges overlook the intellectual potential of street smarts” (957). In a like manner, we could say that people overlook the value of horror films and books. First, finding the value of horror flicks and books. Second, why do people value horror flicks and books? Last, how do horror films and books have value. When you analyze horror movies from the past and compare them to the ones, they all have one common trait, which is that they have some type of value to people.

The media has a way of influencing people of all ages. Specifically, violence and horror in the media are the most debated. Why do people go to watch violent movies or horror movies? They go for entertainment without realizing the physical or mental effects. Kathy Benjamin’s “5 Scientific Ways Watching Movies Effects You” and Bernie DeGroat’s “Scary Movies Can Have Lasting Effects on Children and Teens” both mention the negative effects of movies, especially horror movies, with research or studies. However, only one of the essays, “5 Scientific Ways Watching Movies Effects You,” mentions some positive effects. Statistics have shown that watching these type movies can have short and long term repercussions.

The audience becomes immersed and experiences what the character is as well. One genre of film that audiences seem to put themselves in the position of the character is horror. Cynthia M. King and Nora Hourani (2007) state, “acts of mayhem and horror may create sensory delight, aesthetic enjoyment of destruction, novelty, fascination at the violation of social norms and/or thrills that appeal to sensation seekers… Other theorists suggest that vicariously sharing the horror experienced by film characters allows viewers to cathartically purge or validate their own fear” (474). People have different motivations for why they watch horror films. Due to this, the endings of horror films have an influence on the film enjoyment among the viewers (King and Hourani, 477). They identify two watcher types of horror films. Thrill-watchers enjoy being scared by horror via their empathy for the protagonist, while gore-watchers enjoy the destructiveness of horror (King and Hourani, 477). Thrill-watchers seem to be emotionally involved and like the feeling of excitement or terror while watching horror films. Gore-watchers like watching horror films because of the vicious, graphic acts and the blood, torture, and death that is being shown. Horror movies usually attract an audience because of the plot and the villain that is being present, but horror films mostly need special effects

Horror films have been one the most popular films in society especially during Halloween time. These films make us get excited, scared, and lets the adrenaline rush through our body. Scary movies are used and are seen as entertainment, but what do horror films say about us? According to “The Devil In Disguise: Modern Monster and Their Metaphor” Emma Louise Backe states “Monsters have for centuries been manifestations of society’s fears and anxieties”. (Backe) Monsters change throughout time depending on the new generations. Monsters like the demon have evolved and critique our new generation. Today’s horror films represent the milleninals many fear and anxieties in which critique our generation inner demon or evil around us.