Australian director Jennifer Kent’s debut film, The Babadook, is an intense psychological horror that will leave even the most veteran of horror watchers waking up in the middle of the night. Amelia (Essie Davis), a widow and mother to the troublesome six year-old Samuel (Noah Wiseman), defends her home from the monster of a bedtime story gone ary. The Babadook, characterized as a film-noir stop-motion style creature, comes to life after Sam selects “Mister Babadook” for a bedtime story. Not only does the book scare the sleep out of little Samuel, but also causes Amelia quite a bit of discomfort, so she decides to get rid of it. But, despite her several attempts to do so, it continues to reappear mysteriously causing more anxiety. This proves
to be extremely problematic as Sam is already a handful without him insisting on sleeping in her bed and keeping her up all night. Between the constant screaming, refusing to sleep, and taking a handmade crossbow to class, Sam’s behavioral issues are enough to drive his mother to pull him out of school. As Amelia begins to lose patience with her son, the Babadook begins taking control of her life. Sam desperately tries to defend his mother from the monster but only pushes her away in the process. Once the Babadook takes over, moviegoers find themselves rooting for the previously annoying child.
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.
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
Some would say watching horror movies and being scared out of your wits is a fun way to spend their hard earned money. They go see these movies on average once a week, each time choosing a newer version of a trilogy like “Chucky” or “The evil Dead”. Film making has come a long way over the last few decades, the graphic...
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...
It can be said that this film is more like a psychological thriller than the horror film. In fact, there is no blood, no ghost or make viewers startle and scream. Perhaps, Roman Polanski wants to against the tradition of horror film and show that he can threaten the viewer without turning off a lamp- in fact, he succeeds. The film opens with some of the main
With Hoffine’s interest in the psychology of fear, the majority of his work is geared toward childhood horror. The amazing images he creates highlights many childhood fears by setting up scenes like movies with sets. He does this to show the abstract and forgotten fear the mind loses as it matures. Using children (12 and under) helps symbolize fear because they are seen as innocent and fragile human beings, which helps the viewers empathize with the child. The viewer can either share their point of view or feel vulnerable as
Howard’s writing is both witty and entertaining to read. With varying sentence structures and a large vocabulary, Howard is able to make even a tale as dark as this seem light-hearted in its own way without diluting the dark humour this genre calls for. Howard’s description of the shooting of Dennis, a sub-par excuse for a robber, is written darkly, but with the content of Howard’s sentence and word choice, the scene isn’t as grotesque as it potentially could have been. As Dennis was shot in the back, he was described as “falling, his minimal amounts of brain activity flickering down to nothing” (Howard 22). Not to mention, Howard’s language is what the novel has been complimented most for. This book is credited for its “witty adventure” (Robinson), but this book still falls into the macabre genre as this novel’s epilogue is noted as “an excellent standalone horror short story” (Watson 1). So despite Howard’s intelligent and comedic writing, he is still able to allow his story to slide into the macabre genre, as this is “the spot-on work of a talented writer” (Vidimos 1). F...
One might argue that the scariest horror films are those films which horrors portray a sense that something of that nature might actually happen in the real world. The beauty of horror films is that anything could theoretically be possible, like Freddy Krueger sticking his tongue through Nancy’s phone as he says, “I’m your boyfriend now, Nancy” or a horde of zombies stampeding through the cities of the United States wiping out humanity in its path. If one thinks about it long enough, anything we can perceive could happen. However, there is a line between the pure science fiction and those horror films which attempt to tackle a more realistic, social, cultural, psychological, or political problem in society.
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.
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)
Nightmares in Red, White, and Blue: The Evolution of American Horror Films. Dir. Joseph Maddrey. Lorber Films, 2009. DVD.
Usually, some sort of spectacle is made that terrifies the characters as well as the audience (Casciato). Also, the most horrifying part of a horror movie tends to be the monster. In the beginning, the audience believes that the intruders in the house are the monsters. However, at the end of the movie the audience learns that the mother, Grace, attempted to murder her children and committed suicide; which makes them the monsters. This is brought up when the children are captured by the intruders and the mother is forced to save them. There is a circle of the intruders holding hands at a table with an old lady at the head. The old lady begins to scream “You’re dead!” to the family over and over again. That of course, is the moment of
Many acclaimed auteurs have attempted to show the universality of darkness, from Robert Stevenson’s Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde to Cormac McCarthy’s Blood Meridian. Modern films, from Se7en to American Psycho to No Country for Old Men contain the same cynical message, displaying the prevalence of such gloomy perspective. Artists are continually fascinated with exploring the topic because it grounds a larger human worldview, founded on skepticism and uncertainty. It questions people’s inherent morality, struggling with the fundamental belief in innate societal morality and implicating an underlying depravity. If such a misanthropic view proves to be correct, then the world is indeed a twisted
There is a danger that accompanies innocence that Philip Pullman, in the work “Little Red Riding Hood”, and Angela Carter, in “The Company of Wolves”, portray through their different takes on the same classic, Little Red Riding Hood.
Since the late 1920’s until the early 40’s thrillers have just continued to increase in their success. With movies like Black Mail (1929), Number Seventeen (1932), Man Hunt (1941), and Touch of Evil (1958) they all demonstrate the versatility a thriller can possess. With the ability for thrillers to blend so well with other genres like horror, it helps thrillers in evolving to a much better genre. When blending with other genres, thrillers typically use certain themes to help them become a more entertaining movie. Themes such as, murder, crime, and suspense all help shape how diverse and unique thrillers are when mixed together with other genres like horror, drama, action, and mystery.