Horror Movies: The Curious Appeal Of Horror Films

328 Words1 Page
bulb-icon

Recommended: The evolution of the horror genre

Clowns, gory scenes, and suspenseful music are all ingredients for tormenting movies in one of the most well-known genres of film made, horror films. Horror films have been purposefully created to provide a feeling of fright and panic among the people viewing them. Audience members cannot get enough of watching them for the thrill and excitement it gives them. They tend to be very popular, especially with young people. In fact, several writers have written articles and have many interesting observations about different horror films. Lucy O’Brien mentions in “The Curious Appeal of Horror Movies,” that horror is all about thrills you get from watching them. She says that horror films are often compared to rollercoasters due to thrill it gives

Show More
Related

  • Rhetorical Analysis Why We Crave Horror Movies

    1358 Words  | 3 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Use Of Horror Film Techniques In Tim Burton's Sleepy Hollow

    516 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Do We Really Crave Horror Movies

    683 Words  | 2 Pages

    Often times I wonder if people go to see horror movies for enjoyment, or is it something much more than that? I have mixed feelings about the idea that, “the horror film has become the modern version of public lynching” (King 562). Horror movies do promote violence and can influence the mindset of the audience, but sanity people is not based on the excitement we receive from watching a horror film. Instead, it is based on what is already within us, not what we witness on a movie screen, but what we experience throughout our lifetime.

    Read More

  • Horror In Stephen King's Why We Crave Horror

    819 Words  | 2 Pages

    Horror is one of many fears humans have. We all have many terrors, but horror is the one that gets the best of us. Some crave, while others resent, the feeling horror movies bring to our body and the emotions that we experience. In Stephen King’s article, “Why We Crave Horror,” he explains that it is a part of the “Human Condition,” to crave the horror. King gives many strong and accurate claims on why we crave the horror movies, such as; testing our ability to face our fears, to re-establish our feelings of normality, and to experience a peculiar sort of fun.

    Read More

  • Stephen King Why We Crave Horror Movies Essay

    1416 Words  | 3 Pages

    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...

    Read More

  • Summary Of Why We Crave Horror Movies

    702 Words  | 2 Pages

    In his essay, he explains how people need horror films to feed our dark thoughts that we have drag around without actually doing it. By saying this, he compares people based on how insane they are. King compares the adrenaline rush of rollercoasters to horror movies by saying, “To show that we can, that we are not afraid, that we can ride this roller coaster… And horror movies, like rollercoasters, have always been the special province of the young.” King then compares the feeling of doing something for the first time to doing it multiple times and being immune to what is happening. That’s where he compares youth to horror movies and says, “… by the time one turns 40 or 50, one’s appetite for double twists or 360-degree loops may be considerably depleted.” Both rollercoasters and youth relate to horror movies because of the excessive sense of thrill and adrenaline of doing anything for the first

    Read More

  • The Genre Cycle

    725 Words  | 2 Pages

    Film scholars around the world agree that all genres of film are part of the “genre cycle”. This cycle contains four different stages that a specific genre goes through. These stages are: primitive, classic, revisionist, and parody. Each stage that the genre goes through brings something different to that genre’s meaning and what the audience expects. I believe that looking at the horror genre will be the most beneficial since it has clearly gone through each stage.

    Read More

  • A Nightmare On Elm Street

    2283 Words  | 5 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • How To Survive a Horror Film

    1494 Words  | 3 Pages

    Do you find yourself constantly encountering serial killers, masked murderers, evil scientists with an unwavering bloodlust, and the like? Are your days filled with token characters, futile running, a series of flat tires, dead cell phones, or deformed, inbred mountain-dwellers who would like nothing more than to see you dead? Do you feel your life has no practical plot line, climax, or believable special effects? If these things apply to you, then you may be living inside of a horror movie. Do not be concerned about your predicament—all hope is not lost! If you follow the rules and use common sense, it can be incredibly easy to recognize, survive, and overcome being in a horror movie.

    Read More

  • The Evolution of Horror Films

    1580 Words  | 4 Pages

    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. (Horror Films)

    Read More

  • Stephen King Why We Crave Horror Movies Summary

    856 Words  | 2 Pages

    King is right when he argues that people like the sudden excitement of watching a horror film. The horror genre keeps us on the edge of our seats and has us entranced with the overstimulation that comes with them. When he says “To show that we can, that we are not afraid, that we can ride this rollercoaster” he is implying that a horror movie is similar to riding a rollercoaster (King 1). The analogy lets the reader know he is saying people revel in the emotion of a horror movie, even if it scares them. People enjoy riding roller coasters because of the excitement and the rush that comes with it, just like people enjoy horror. The

    Read More

  • Compare And Contrast Horror And Horror Movies

    727 Words  | 2 Pages

    Would you rather be horrified beyond repair or thrilled to the point of no return? In horror, the main purpose is to invoke fear and dread into the audience in the most unrealistic way. Horror movies involve supernatural entities such as ghosts, vampires, teleportation, and being completely immortal. As thriller films are grounded in realism and involve more suspense, mystery, and a sense of panic. Though both genres will frighten the audience, it will happen in two different ways. Whether the horror thrills or the thriller horrifies, a scare is always incorporated.

    Read More

  • Making A Horror Movie 'Scary' By Sam Raimi

    990 Words  | 2 Pages

    Making a Horror movie Scary The movie Army of Darkness by Sam Raimi is mainly a fantasy horror, mixed with comedy, set in medieval times. Just because it is a comedy does not mean the scenes will be less scary, but it challenges the director to use every element to achieve the horror. The fantasy genre opens the doors to different monsters who will let the story become horror easily and we can focus on the way this are portrayed. I will be analyzing how the director exaggerates the horrors and what he uses to make a scene scarier.

    Read More

  • New Criticism Of Horror Film

    527 Words  | 2 Pages

    Rotten Tomatoes 2.0 We as humans can analyze and form opinions over literature. Those opinions lead to many different critical approaches. Critical approaches have begun ever since literature has been present, and have since evolved with modern literature.

    Read More

  • Horror Films Research Paper

    1551 Words  | 4 Pages

    Horror films entertain audiences with grim plot lines, otherworldly figures, and cautiously planned jumpscares. These motion productions have earned themselves the slot of sixth most popular movie genre in the United States (Statica, n.d.). The perplexing part of horror films is the paradoxical effect of being scared and fearful while also enjoying the film and hoping for more. The film may bring about this effect by involving the supernatural or otherworldly. These figures seem to cause universal fear along with organisms such as spiders and snakes.

    Read More

More about Horror Movies: The Curious Appeal Of Horror Films

Open Document