Elements Of Horror Movies

Horror movies are one of the most fascinating genres of film that exists. They are unrealistic but at the same time, they are also realistic. This realism that they contain is what draws people’s interest towards them because viewers are able to associate aspects of their own lives with the film. Every horror movie, no matter how farfetched the theme or plot may be, contains an element that people can relate to. This element may not be observable to a conscious mind, but to an unconscious mind, it brings back memories of something that has been repressed earlier in our lives (Wood, 197). This recollection of suppressed memories is how horror films create a sense of fear and it is literally what Robin Wood means when he talks about “the return

of the repressed” (202). Two films that demonstrate “the return of the repressed” are Jacques Tourneur’s 1942 Cat People and David Robert Mitchell’s 2015 It Follows. Through the antagonist Irena (Cat People) and the sexually transmitted demon (It Follows), we see how people’s repressed emotions and ideologies regarding female sexuality are utilized to create a sense of fear and horror.

Men fear what they do not know.

Things that are out of the control of men is viewed as a threat to mankind (Berkowitz, 2012). Most people know that babies come from women, however, according to Berkowitz, people living in biblical times did not know why. This lack of knowledge is how female sexuality turned into something that many people repressed. Babies come from women, that much is clear, but menstrual cycles, female orgasms and sexual desires could not be understood by people in the way that male sexuality was understood. Men have many sexual desires and needs, and when they become aroused, they get erections, when men orgasm, they ejaculate. These clear indicators regarding male sexuality allowed people living in BCE to grasp onto what male sexuality is, however, there was a gap in knowledge about female sexuality. Due to people’s inability to reason why there was blood flowing from women at random times, as well as being unable to discern whether or not a woman is aroused is what created the repression of women’s sexuality. “The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown.” (Lovecraft). In relation to what I mentioned earlier, female sexuality was the “unknown” and therefore men at that time decided that the way to deal with it would be to repress and dehumanize it (Wood, 199). All throughout history, people have repressed female sexuality to the point where even in today’s progressive society, people still don’t fully accept the notion that women are or should be as sexual as men (Berkowitz, 2012). Sadly, because of patriarchy in religion, we have grown up in a world where the equality of male and female sexuality does not exist and this inequality is ingrained in our brains from infancy (Wood, 196). Religion teaches us that the pleasures and desires of sex come from the devil and if we engage in these desires, then we too are considered evil and

sinful.