Violent Images In Horror Films

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.

From the time we are born, we are immediately introduced to influences that will shape and develop our character for the rest of our lives. Our character can be affected in a positive or a negative way by various influences that we encounter on a daily basis. We need to be aware of how much we absorb and let those influences change our behavior. External influences, such as video games, movies, and television shows impact our everyday lives, even when we are not conscious of them.

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,

Arguments about the excess of violence in movies often happen between parents and adults. Some people believe it has a major affected on children but others believe it has no effect on them at all. The two arguments provided in the article state their points of view while providing evidence that backs themselves up. Overall there is one argument that is better-supported by facts and more persuasive which is the Point argument. The point article argues "Violence in Hollywood movies has become excessive and is putting our youth and our entire society at risk for violent behaviors"(Point 1).

In Brad Bushman’s and Rowell Huesmann’s Article Short-term and Long-term Effects of Violent Media on Aggression in Children and Adults from the Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine journal, they believe the violent media in video games, tv shows, music, and movies, are affecting behavior in children and adults. Bushman and Huesmann believe that all the violence that has made a more popular appearance in today’s culture is causing for adults and children to be more prone to aggression. They hypothesized that the long-term effects would be greater in children and the short-term effects would be greater in adults, and discovered their hypotheses to be correct. Other articles, such as Beth Stein’s If Violent Video Games are Harmless Fun,

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.

Have you ever wondered if a game or a movie can actually influence you to be angry? What changes in our mind when we watch violence? Imagine that you are playing a game of Mortal Kombat or watching a movie like The Punisher in your room on your beanbag chair and when you wake up in the morning and you go to the kitchen to talk to your sister and you yell at her all of a sudden for no reason. The research paper that you are about to read is going to tell you how and why it is affecting young children’s brain waves. My thesis is that violence in movies, shows, and games do influence children to change their behavior from happy to angry.

Although these zombie shows intrigue Americans, the opposing viewpoints say that violent films can increase hostile behavior. Many studies have been conducted on how media and hostile behavior are connected. Dale Archer points out that, “the results of a study done also indicated that aggressive behavior didn’t

How many TV shows a day depict gruesome deaths? How many video games are coming this year where the main goal is to kill? Chances are, a lot. Violence is everywhere in today’s society, and it is ever prevalent in the lives of most adolescents. The book What Are They Thinking by Aaron M. White and Scott Swartzwelder describes how this violence, whether virtual or in real-life, affects the changing adolescent brain. The book is about teenage psychology and brain science, and was released in 2013. In the Violence chapter of the book many studies about how violence affects and desensitizes children and adolescents were referenced. However, nearly all of them were were supporting the bias that any type of violence, including simulated, causes both grade school children and teens to become more violent. More importantly, not everyone is the same, and therefore are not affected the same by violence.

In the blog "Representation of Women in Horror Films" Deborah Howell discusses the traditional roles taken by women in horror films. Stereotypically women in horror films are attacked by killers for committing a sinful act, which is usually sexually orientated. According to Howell “Horror films, and the slasher subgenre, are famous for portraying women as hypersexual damsels in distress” and these women are killed within the first five minutes of the film. On the other side of the spectrum men are portrayed as either the villain or the heroine. If there are any women protagonist or antagonist they are portrayed as being masculine in some form. For example in the movie “Scream” when Gale saves Sidney she is positioned very dominantly while wearing

The house is dark, and you think you’re all alone until you hear a small creak. You hear the steps get closer and closer, and you pray that they wont find you. The doorknob turns and the door slams open to reveal… What? Imagine exactly what you would see. Does your heart race? Has your breathing quickened? Are your senses heightened? Perhaps you are even intrigued as to what will happen next. Horror film is a popular genre, but shouldn’t seem to have any real appeal. Horror lures its audience by lingering on the fears of man, manipulating emotions, affecting one’s mind.

How does violence in motion pictures affect teen violence? This was the question that my research decodes. For 2 weeks, a 7 question survey was held up about whether violence in movies affects how one reacts to violence—does one think about doing a violent action, or does one do a violent action? Most of the respondents said no, but some said yes, and these respondents that did say “yes” are the teens that make the headlines of news shows: “So and So gunman killed and wounded a number of people.” The Matrix, according to ABC News, inspired the columbine shooting and 2 other shootings, one of the shooters writing on the jail cell, “Free yourself from the matrix.” In addition, I counted exactly 44 instances of violence in The Matrix with one

Regardless of this limitation, one of the many strengths of this study was that at the end of the study knowing that their hypothesis wasn’t right they agree and went more deep to support the results. “…but rather with the need for a more general conceptualization of the effects of exposure to TV violence, one that takes into account personality differences, ethnic

Horror is a genre often disliked for how gruesome and unsettling some of the imagery and topics can be. On the other hand, it’s these exact things that make some people unconditionally love the genre. For most lovers of the genre, horror affords distance and control from violent acts through an enticing narrative and presentation. As a matter of fact, Stephen King has written on the topic, citing that horror movies allow for controlled doses of violence to balance other emotions. Furthermore, according to an expert in social psychology, the genre of horror provides individuals with the ability to control emotional impact.

In our age we are seeing a change in the type of movies we view at the theater. It seems as if a different breed of horror has emerged from the depths of the minds of directors. We now see even more horror movies featuring blood, guts, and gore. Not just a simple “stab”, but scenes upon scenes of excessive blood and violence. This bring us to a now relevant question, are horror movies too gory?