Analysis Of Anxiety: Challenge By Another Name, By Stephen King

In a society where watching horror movies is considered a social norm, it is less than surprising that the horror industry makes approximately 500 million dollars with the haunted attractions and 400 million dollars at the box office each year, according to Sonya Chudgar’s article “Blood Money: How the Horror Industry Makes a Killing.” Stephen King, a best-selling writer, screenwriter, columnist, producer and director, who is also well-known as a writer of horror fiction, describes the role that horror movies play in the world. He refers to this role as a “dirty job” (King), and suggests that the job is favorable in that horror movies expose us to malevolence and immorality or tense situations in order to suppress our primal instincts of demanding

immediate gratification and furnish us with new experiences. King’s suggestion is not necessarily false. Simply put, horror movies teach us morals. After close analyses of three sources presented in the following paragraphs, I found that there is evidence to argue that: horror movies contain the evil inside of us, potentially provide a promising future, and limit our desires because they showcase unpleasant feelings, essentially put us into demanding environments, and unnerve us.
The short story “The Tell-Tale Heart” by Edgar Allan Poe contains and confines the evil inside of us by showcasing unpleasant feelings. After murdering, disfiguring and hiding the old man beneath the floorboards, the narrator expresses a sense of uneasiness and guilt, commenting that “[he] paced the floor to and fro with heavy strides, as if excited to fury by the men, but the noise steadily increased” (Poe). The narrator frantically rambles about how he believes the officers are already cognizant of his deed and the ever-increasing heartbeat of the old man. Overwhelmed by excruciating and throbbing guilt, he eventually confesses his crime. The confession shows that he is taking responsibility for his actions, controlling the “gators” (King) inside of him and is therefore making the right decision. The narrator’s capability to acknowledge his wrongdoing with the help of guilt is remarkable because he was able to restrain his instinct to protect himself from facing the repercussions and thus was able to restore his integrity. Comparable to a horror movie, Poe’s “The Tell-Tale Heart” builds up suspense and deters us from wreaking havoc. The short story also engages the readers to empathize with the protagonist. King mentions in his essay that “we’re all mentally ill.” The protagonist, our narrator, is no exception. He desperately tries to prove his sanity by saying “[we] should have seen how wisely [he] proceeded—with what caution—with what foresight, with what dissimulation, [he] went to work” (Poe). This only serves to confirm his physical and mental illness. He uses dissimulation as justification for his sanity, but his explanation is less than convincing because of his concealment of his actual motives. In other words, he seems to have lost touch with reality. As the readers, we are able to stay sane and keep the evil from making an appearance by learning from the narrator’s story.
Horror movies can potentially provide a rosy future because they place us into anxiety-inducing environments.

Similar to a horror movie, James Lincoln Collier’s article “Anxiety: Challenge by Another Name” suggests that a certain amount of fear and anxiety is beneficial. Collier mentions that “[t]he thought of graduate school wasn’t what depressed [him]. It was giving up on what deep in [his] gut [he] really wanted to do. Right then, [he] learned another lesson. To avoid that kind of depression meant, inevitably, having to endure a certain amount of worry and concern.” In order to pursue his dream, Collier realized that the fear would help him. He claims that “[t]he great Danish philosopher S¬øren Kierkegaard believed that anxiety always arises when we confront the possibility of our own development. It seems to be a rule of life that you can’t advance without getting that old, familiar, jittery feeling” (Collier). Like the fears and anxieties we face in the real world, such as “stage fright, butterflies in the stomach, a case of nerves—the feelings we have at a job interview, when we’re giving a big party, when we have to make an important presentation at the office” (Collier), the fears and anxieties we face from watching horror movies furnishes us with new experiences and new knowledge, albeit indirect. The new profound knowledge makes us for the better, helping us become well-aware of issues in the world around us. That is, horror movies educate us, teaching us to be virtuous and preventing us from committing heinous

acts.
Horror movies can limit our desires because of their unnerving aspects that cause us to become hesitant and less devoted in our wants. Recently, I watched a Korean horror film known as Black Hand, which revolves around a neurosurgeon named Jung-Woo and his lover Yoo-Gyeong, who is also a doctor. Jung-Woo, wanting to make a name for himself as an accomplished biological engineer, takes advantage of the situation when Yoo-Gyeong loses one of her hands in an accident for unknown reasons. It turns out that Jung-Woo cut off both his ex-wife’s and his current lover Yoo-Gyeong’s hand and switched them in order to experiment and possibly find a solution to problems related to life sciences and produce biotechnology. Initially, Yoo-Gyeong was unaware of how she lost her hand, but upon realization, she worked together with a fellow doctor to plot her revenge against Jung-Woo. Watching Jung-Woo’s blood-curdling death in the movie discouraged me from merely imagining the consequences of using deceit or executing wicked deeds. His pitiful downfall questioned my desire to chiefly become an accomplished veterinarian because of the disturbing image it instilled in my mind. Eventually, I became disinterested in the idea of being renowned. To sum up, horror movies help us grow and develop into high-principled people by limiting our egotistical desires.
Horror movies continue to influence our actions and thoughts today. As King suggests, horror movies can help us become better people because of the “dirty job” that they carry out. Poe’s short story “The Tell-Tale Heart” teaches us to be moral because it plays a similar, if not same, role as a horror movie in that horror movies satiate our instincts and fantasies in our place. Collier’s short story “Anxiety: Challenge by Another Name” teaches us to be moral because it plays a similar, if not same, role as a horror movie in that horror movies can educate, promote growth and prevent destructive behavior. Black Hand, directed by Park Jae-Sik, teaches us to be moral because of the unnerving qualities that frighten us from becoming rapacious. While it is true that horror movies can better the minds of people, it is also important to keep in mind that horror movies are not the only sources that contribute to the advancement of ethics and the maintenance of sanity. When we walk into a movie theater, we enter as an individual and leave as a group with the other viewers because of the shared experience. Watching a movie, whether it is horror or action, creates a sense of belonging because the experience is shared among a group. As film director Wes Craven once said, “[Horror movies are] like boot camp[s] for the psyche. In real life, human beings are packaged in the flimsiest of packages, threatened by real and sometimes horrifying dangers, events like Columbine. But the narrative form puts these fears into a manageable series of events. It gives us a way of thinking rationally about our fears.”