OBJECTIVES:
Discover what exactly it is about horror films that makes them so enticing.
Discover why horror films are my favorite genre of films.
Original Why do we watch horror films?
REFLECTION
“Little pigs, little pigs let me in!” It’s almost as creepy as the coined phrase, “Here’s Johnny!” I chose this clip because The Shining is my favorite horror film of all time. There really isn’t anything scary in the first minute of the clip aside from Jack Nicholson looking like a psycho, and oh yeah, the music. I’ve seen that movie countless times, and I cannot even begin to explain how much it freaks me out. Get out the window lady! I actually started biting my nails again just watching the clip. So why do we enjoy scary movies? According to James B. Weaver in his article on WebMD, watching scary movies is like a tribal rite of passage for many people. For example, he talks about how males have a motivation to master threatening situations. But I’m not a male. So why do I enjoy them so much? In the reading, Why Horror? by Noel Carroll, she says, “The horror is driven explicitly by curiosity. It engages its audience by being involved in processes of disclosure, discovery, proof, explanation, hypothesis and confirmation” (Carroll, 279). So, when the damsel in distress, or little boy in The Shining who wanders aimlessly through a frozen maze finally finds his way out to his mother, I would say I’m relieved. It’s my innate curiosity to have to know what happens.
The course objective that this artifact achieves is from Week Six: Explore the psychological and emotional curiosity for and impact of horror art on individuals and society. While WebMD may say that it’s a way to prove masculinity, I completely disagree. I wouldn’t say females (who also enjoy scary movies by the way) are trying to prove their masculinity. It’s because of our innate human characteristic of curiosity. We are constantly striving for an explanation to everything. My belief is that there is so much in this world that is unknown and that can never be explained. To me, scary movies serve as a medicine of calming that ache and yearn to know.