preview

Essay Why We Crave Horror Movies by Stephen King

Decent Essays

Stephen King wrote a very brief essay titled "Why we Crave Horror Movies", in which he explained some of the reasons that people choose to go to horror movies to be entertained. In his essay, King goes on to explain that we as a people need horror movies as a sort of release; to feed the darker elements within all of us without having to sacrifice our humanity (also, civility). King does this by comparing people based on their levels of sanity whereas some societal "eccentricities" are completely acceptable, while some will get you thrown right into the loony bin. It’s summed up pretty well in this quote: "The mythic horror movie, like the sick joke, has a dirty job to do. It deliberately appeals to all that is worst in us. It is …show more content…

Well first of all, this is entertainment, not school so the History Channel is out for now ( I do dabble once in a while, but who doesn’t?) but the point is that I could be devoting my time to films that are uplifting, inspiration, and informative and yet I choose personally to see bloody titties. Does that make me a complete social reject? Well hell no it doesn’t, and that’s because enough of you sick bastards out there are on the Gondola ride to hell right next to me (Shotgun!). So say my personal tastes in movies make me a sick bastard just because of the subject matter portrayed in the narrative. Ok, well that isn’t exactly about what Stephen King was saying. King tells us that the horror movie does a dirty job of satiating our urges and letting our instincts run free, which in turn means that most people have something deep and dark inside them, merely a hairpin away from freaking out and murdering adorable puppies for no good reason (and there are plenty of good reasons, stop lying to yourself). I don’t know about you, but I don’t feel anything deep and evil inside of me that must be satiated so I don’t go on a weekly blood rampage so I feel like that isn’t the reason. Even at a very young age, my parents let me watch a number of films that may not have necessarily been appropriate for my tiny viewing eyes. What got me through all the scary movies and monsters in the closet were my parents telling me that none of it was

Get Access