The Amityville Horror, written by Jay Anson was without doubt a great piece of American literature. It has inspired many to write bestselling books, and others to create many excellent movies. Perhaps the most surprising thing about The Amityville Horror is its staying power. There are many possible explanations as to why The Amityville Horror was so popular during the 1970’s and it is no surprise that it is still in print today. The most shocking part of this books history is that it was based on a true story. The story behind the story began on November 13, 1974, when six members of an Amityville, New York, family were killed. This was one of America’s most shocking events during 1974. This is one possible explanation of the popularity of this book. America was changing drastically from 1960-1970 and people were beginning to open their minds to new ideas. One cause of people opening their minds to new things could possibly be explained because of the increased rate of drug usage during this time period. Ther can be many explanations as to why The Amityville Horror was so popular, but the two main causes of the high popularity of this film can only be explained because of what was currently going on in America. The two events in history that may have had the largest impact on this book are the creation of the movie, The Exorcist, and the Vietnam War.
In order to fully understand how popular The Amityville Horror was, a brief history of the story and book must be revealed. This book has sold nearly ten million copies from the time it was written in 1977 until present day. This is an extraordinary number and it continues to rise today. According to Benjamin Radford, a film critique, this book has caused the spawning of many different movie versions and has at least seven different spin-offs from the original story. Just a few of these stories have been continued in a series of books by John G. Jones. These are The Amityville Horror Part II (1982), Amityville - The Final Chapter (1985), Amityville - The Evil Escapes (1988) and Amityville - The Horror Returns (1989). In 1991, Amityville - The Nightmare Continues, by Robin Karl, was published. The original movie made nearly $402,500,000 worldwide.
To begin with, some people would say they enjoy a horror movie that gets them scared out of their wits. They go see these movies once a month on average, for fun, each time choosing a newer sequel like “Final Destination” or “The evil Dead”. King says “When we pay our four or five bucks and seat ourselves at tenth-row center in a theater showing a horror movie we are daring the nightmare” (405). As a writer of best-sel...
House of Horrors goes into gruesome details by the survivor of a rape and almost a twelfth murder by Anthony Sowell. She gives the details of how the night went about before she was attacked by the serial killer. Also, this book has notes from the author written to Anthony Sowell as also there are letters written back to the author from Anthony Sowell while he is serving the death penalty in the Ohio State Penitentiary in Youngstown, Ohio
For centuries, authors have placed human features on their fears allowing their public to confront a concrete creature rather than an abstract idea. The fear of death resulted in stories regarding vampires and mummies, fears of the unknown resulted in stories about creatures invading the Earth, fears of reincarnation resulted in stories of mad scientists creating life from death. With the invention of the motion picture in the late nineteenth century, these fears were able to be seen using human actors and actual “monsters” making both the fears and the fulfillment greater. As more of these films were created, audiences grew more tolerant of the once frightening monsters forcing directors to go even farther. To continue this trend, filmmakers soon were creating more fear than they were relieving creating another psychological void that needed to be filled. Sensing that the realm of horror films and many other genres of film were saturating the film industry, Mel Brooks wrote and directed two films in 1974: Blazing Saddles and Young Frankenstein. Th...
... genre would have evoked immense terror whereas at present the novel will not have the same effect as horror is popular in this civilization.
For this paper I chose to explore Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho because it has remained the only horror movie I’ve seen to date. I went into a couple others but immediately left; let’s just say horror is not my favorite genre of film. People may or may not always call Psycho a horror film, it may be more of a thriller to people nowadays, but I still believe the correct genre analysis is horror because it should always refer to the genre at the time the film was created and released. I chose Psycho because I spent multiple weeks in high school studying Hitchcock, and Psycho specifically, so I feel comfortable writing on it. I also thoroughly enjoy the film, its backstory, and the character development. Plus, it’s been roughly adapted into one of my favorite shows: Bates Motel, which I will also briefly explore.
The genre of horror films is one that is vast and continually growing. So many different elements have been known to appear in horror films that it is often times difficult to define what is explicitly a horror film and what is not. Due to this ambiguous definition of horror the genre is often times divided into subgenres. Each subgenre of horror has a more readily identifiable list of classifications that make it easier to cast a film to a subgenre, rather than the entire horror genre. One such subgenre that is particularly interesting is that of the stalker film. The stalker film can be categorized as a member of the horror genre in two ways. First, the stalker film can be identified within the horror genre due to its connection with the easily recognizable subgenre of horror, the slasher film. Though many elements of the stalker film differ from those of the slasher film, the use of non-mechanical weapons and obvious sexual plot points can be used to categorize the stalker film as a subgenre of the slasher film. Secondly, the stalker film can be considered a member of the horror genre using Robin Wood’s discussion regarding horror as that which society represses. The films Fatal Attraction, The Fan, and The Crush will be discussed in support of this argument. (Need some connector sentence here to finish out the intro)
...new technology back then. Movies have now been mandated by the movie making industry to take on new twists, however. The Exorcist Beginning, being the prequel to the first of the series, had to pull something new to get the viewers it needed for success. Therefore, Harlin put in the notorious love story to add a special little twist to our emotion. This in conjunction with the development of Merrin, puts the actual exorcism out of the spot light. Thus, showing how movies have been changed over time with the change in wants from society. As their wants for a good movie change, so must the actual film to acquire success. The Exorcist and The Exorcist Beginning both followed the expectations of society for their respective filming eras to become very successful movies, having their success fueled by the mixed views and conceptions of both the church and society.
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.
Stephen King believes that we are naturally attracted to the horror genre because we can identify with it to some degree and it is also considered a challenge by some to be able to withstand horror. I find it slightly unsettling that to some degree we are all insane according to King, however, I find this to be very believable.
A man starting from nothing with only the urge to write becoming so much more. The King of Horror is a member of many guilds, writer of some of the best horror novels, and has even made a couple movies. Although, with a current net worth of 400 million dollars, Stephen King was not always the King of Horror.
King chooses to compare the minds of a child and an adult to see the different resilience levels when exposed to the horror genre. He describes his findings as a paradox, “Children, who are physically quite weak, lift the weight of unbelief with ease” (PP 118). King assumes because the mind of an adult is mature it can handle the horrific depictions within the horror variety yet children seem too be able to withstand the pressure. King backed his theory by analyzing Walt Disney’s movies and their impact on a child’s imagination. Walt Disney’s movie Bambi is what Stephen King pinpointed when comparing the toll of horrific events in children and adult minds. King questioned adults about what was most terrifying about a movie when they were younger and they stated, “Bambi’s father shot by the hunter, or Bambi and his mother running before the forest fire” (PP 119). Another aspect King unveiled was the Doppler Effect and that, “A part of ‘growing up’ is the fact that everything has a scare potential for the child under eight” (PP 119). The cognitive imagination does not stop developing it just suppresses certain mental functions to draw a line between what is real and what is not. Horror novelist mask the tension with comedy yet with one swift motion it, “Knocks the adult props out from under us and tumbles us back down the slide into childhood” (PP
During the late 1800’s there were two extremely short silent films that began the addiction of gothic horror. The earlier of the two was an eighteen second long film entitled The Execution of Mary Stuart which was produced by Thomas Edison in 1895. There much debate over the matter of this film actually classifying as the first horror movie because of its short duration. (Trick Films) The second horro...
Nowadays, people are still enticed by fear, they have a curiosity for the supernatural, evil and frightening. Although modern day society is supposedly politically correct, we are still an immoral society and many of us would treat a creature like Frankenstein’s creation or a vampire like Dracula like a monster. In this way, the novels still have social significance.
a dull grey colour as if it had lost the will to live and stopped
The horror film has the honor of being one of the few genres aside from the Christmas film to own an entire month out of the year. The moment it becomes October, in the United States especially, the haunting themes of Halloween begin to take over. Anyone can guarantee that if an individual goes out of their house during the October month, they will come into direct contact with pumpkin spice flavored items from coffee to Oreos, Halloween candy in all shapes and forms, and the horror movie. Whether it is the film that started it all, The Haunted Castle, released in 1896 and directed by Georges Méliès or to the recent string of repetitive horror of the Paranormal Activity or Insidious franchises, the horror film is a long-lasting genre with one