Are you a fan or horror? Or are you the one that hides under a blanket during a movie? Intense scenes, a little blood and gore mixed with creepy characters and monsters, is what makes a good horror movie, television show or even a book. Many of us wonder why we are attracted so much to these horror elements like foreshadowing, suspense, mystery and imagination within a book, movie and or tv show. There are actual characteristics of this horror related theme that gets our attention, and makes us want to crave more of the story. But the fear, obsession and power is what sets the tone for the monster realm, in both fictional and nonfictional people and characters. Fear is the unpleasant emotion caused by the belief that someone or something …show more content…
Obsession is an idea or thought that continually preoccupies or intrudes on a person's mind the state of being obsessed with someone or something. In the famous horror film The Chainsaw Massacre, the character Bubba is attacked and craves for the skin off of his victims, just like the true killer Ed Gein, who killed and body snatcher bodies. Why are we captivated to this? Some like the move, just because the different scenes that will make you jumps and the suspense of movies, or even some find it chilling to see how people are being tourchered. But that doesn’t make us a killer. Some may be intrigued to the ways one kills another but as long you're not the one making the killing or any short of form of a living thing such as an animal or a person or are showing other traits or had suffered psychological abuse during childhood, sexually stressful events during childhood, bed wetting, growing up lonely, creating fantasies, and doing physical abuse towards others. Then just enjoy those movies, or criminal …show more content…
Fear, for killers it’s the high of knowing target victims are scared of being targeted next, but for citizens that just like watching horror movies it’s the suspense throughout the movie. Obsession for murders would be either their certain target of victims or the obsession of what is left from the killing. and Power, is the feel they get when they can lure their victims into their fantasy. There are actual characteristics of this horror related theme that gets our attention, and makes us want to crave more of the story. But the fear, obsession and power is what sets the tone for the monster realm, in both fictional and nonfictional people that are either in a tv show or movie, but they are also the ones the linger among
I have provided a clear evaluation of his essay in an organized way using the appropriate standards of evaluation. In understanding why humans “Crave Horror Movies” even when some people get nightmares after watching them we find the importance of our emotions and fears. We find those emotions and fears form a body of their own which needs to be maintained properly in order to remain healthy. We see how emotions can be controlled though viewing horror movies. Stephen King’s “Why We Crave Horror Movies” is a well written essay with convincing analogies, comparisons, and urban humor.
In order to scare us, books, movies, and television shows will take the most ordinary things and make it into a monster. For instance, the movie IT takes a clown and turns it into
Many horror movies display a restriction on creativity. The media is continuously repeating the same cliched narrative, stereotypical character base and themes, using the same soundtracks and special effects. Tim Burton’s Sleepy Hollow is no exception to this. In the opening scene a violin track is used to create suspense, going quickly from loud to quite, intense to subtle throughout the scene. Along with creating suspense, this technique also indicates to the viewer when a jump scare may occur, as well as following the character’s heartbeat as the scene gets more dramatic. Thus engaging the audience further. However, this method is overused and therefore it depends on the individual audience member and their experience with horror movies, how heavily they become engaged in the movie.
The article Why We Crave Horror Movies by Stephen King distinguishes why we truly do crave horror movies. Stephen King goes into depth on the many reasons on why we, as humans, find horror movies intriguing and how we all have some sort of insanity within us. He does this by using different rhetorical techniques and appealing to the audience through ways such as experience, emotion and logic. Apart from that he also relates a numerous amount of aspects on why we crave horror movies to our lives. Throughout this essay I will be evaluating the authors arguments and points on why society finds horror movies so desirable and captivating.
The Importance of Aesthetic Distance in American Horror Movies What then do we make of American horror movies? In the canon of horror pictures they almost always come second in respect to foreign horror movies and any American horror film that is considered to be artful is the one with the most aesthetic distance. Upscale slashers like Johnathan Demme's The Silence of the Lambs (1991) or David Fincher's Seven (1995) are both gruesome and bloody borrowing many of the same shock techniques as their lower budget counterparts (for example, Russell Mulchahy's Sevenish thriller Resurrection (1999)), both focus on the body and its violation, either through sexual means or violent means, and both feature villains who fit easily into Carol Clover's
People are addicted to the synthetic feeling of being terrified. Modern day horror films are very different from the first horror films which date back to the late nineteenth century, but the goal of shocking the audience is still the same. Over the course of its existence, the horror industry has had to innovate new ways to keep its viewers on the edge of their seats. Horror films are frightening films created solely to ignite anxiety and panic within the viewers. Dread and alarm summon deep fears by captivating the audience with a shocking, terrifying, and unpredictable finale that leaves the viewer stunned.
Throughout the latter half of the second millennium, horror fiction, or horror fantasy, began to emerge as an overwhelmingly popular literary tool utilized by various authors across the globe. In the late 18th, 19th and 20th century specifically, gothic horror and horror literature manifested themselves as one of the most desired literary genres, representing some of the most well-known authors and works of the time. The works of Edgar Allen Poe and others were extremely popular among 19th century readers as they brought horror literature to the mainstream and exposed the world to a unique and re-defined form of entertainment. It is safe to say that the “scary story” era blossomed in the 19th and perhaps early 20th century as children, teens, and adults alike searched for a reliable source of entertainment prior to the technological revolution. While one could easily argue that the introduction of television, motion pictures, and the internet has significantly diminished the demand for horror literature if not literature as a whole, a few authors continue to remind us that the genre is anything but dead and horror fiction still retains its status as a staple in American society. Stephen King once again re-invented the genre to accommodate for a rapidly changing, fast-paced lifestyle of the American people. He also inputted not only horror into his novels, but morals as well. What King and other authors have proven, is that the only thing readers love more than a scary story, is a scary story with a lesson. Readers tend to naturally gravitate more towards novels which entertain and inform simultaneously as opposed to ones that solely exhibit one of the two attr...
Item 1.8 demonstrates that the type of horror including vampires, zombies and werewolves have the highest percentage of 10% than any other category. This is important because for someone people they like horror when the movies involve 18-20th century characters which have been written been some of the greatest writers. Therefore the ‘monsters’ or villains are still as ...
In any good horror story line you have to have certain aspects or traits to be categorized as a good horror story. What do the readers look for in a horror story you may ask. Well the primary ingredients for making a fearsome, shuddery, monstrous story are foreshadowing, fear, suspense, mystery/surprise and imagination of course. Without every single one of these elements, the reader would not be involved and wouldn 't even continue to finish reading the full story. Nathaniel Hawthorne, Phillip K. Dick and Edgar Allen Poe are only some of the great representations of who have constructed frightening yet delightful stories for us to read.
Horror films are designed to frighten the audience and engage them in their worst fears, while captivating and entertaining at the same time. Horror films often center on the darker side of life, on what is forbidden and strange. These films play with society’s fears, its nightmare’s and vulnerability, the terror of the unknown, the fear of death, the loss of identity, and the fear of sexuality. Horror films are generally set in spooky old mansions, fog-ridden areas, or dark locales with unknown human, supernatural or grotesque creatures lurking about. These creatures can range from vampires, madmen, devils, unfriendly ghosts, monsters, mad scientists, demons, zombies, evil spirits, satanic villains, the possessed, werewolves and freaks to the unseen and even the mere presence of evil.
It’s no secret that monsters have always been incredibly popular in fiction. The question one must then ask is “Why are monsters so scary”? The answer is more scientific than social. Monsters are terrifying because our brains tell us that they are. Evolution has hardwired our brains to ...
In this course, I’ve learned about the three sub-genres of horror. These three sub-genres are moral allegory, psychological horror, and the fantastic. The first sub-genre of horror, moral allegory, revolves around a rule being broken and the punishments for breaking the rule. There’s commonly a focus on the battle between good and evil, and there is often a supernatural evil involved. Commentary on our society is also common. The next sub-genre, psychological horror, capitalizes on deviant or abnormal human psychology. This abnormal creature creates the horror, whether through their actions or just by existing. The “monster” of the story is often a representation of an aspect of ourselves. This “monster” is not
Julia Kristeva’s concept of the abject as notes in her essay Powers of Horror focuses on that which ‘does not respect borders, positions, rules. The in-between, the ambiguous, the composite’, with a distinct focus on that the abject refers to the human reaction to a threatened breakdown in meaning caused by the loss of the distinction between subject and object or between self and other . William Burroughs’ Naked Lunch and Angela Carter’s collection of re-worked fairy tales in The Bloody Chamber, both exude the notion of the abject forcing the reader to question their own reaction . These texts focus on the abject notion of sex, that which is non-consensual, violent and invites a sense of moral judgement. There is a distinct portrayal of the liminal state between self and other and life and death in the two texts specifically in the destruction of identity through the excretion and exchange of bodily fluids, that which forces a reader to feel embarrassment or disgust for the characters. The concept of addiction features largely as an aspect of the abject, disregarding the borders of identity in gambling with people’s lives and the disrespect for positions in society in the drug culture of Naked Lunch. The notion of the abject is created in these two texts through carefully constructed imagery and language that forces the reader to assess their own moral compass and react accordingly with a suggestion from the author through narration as to how they should react.
Hollywood has been using the genre Horror for centuries to scare and frighten the audience. Horror is by far the most popular genre due to the fact that it provides a descent thrill and gives the audience a rush so this make this a popular genre for teenagers a young adults. In my essay I will be exploring and researching into the genre Horror and also all the sub genres such as Drama horror, Slasher, Comedy horror etc. This will hopefully give you all insight into the genre and all its sub genres.
Lin, C. A., & Xu, Z. (2017). Watching TV Series with Horror Content: Audience Attributes, Motivations, Involvement and Enjoyment. Journal Of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, 61(4), 638-657. doi:10.1080/08838151.2017.1375503