This is a television show that I actually enjoy watching. I would say that it is within the horror genre because it deals with creatures within the paranormal realm. Other than this show, I rarely watch anything in the horror genre.
Objectives: There were 3 different criteria that were put in place for us to incorporate within our blog posts and responses for this unit. They are the following:
- Explore the psychological curiosity for and impact of horror art on individuals and society
- Analyze the unique aesthetic qualities of horror art
- Understand and utilize some basic principles of film and television analysis
Artifact(s):
1) ‘Enjoying Horror’ Blog Post
2) ‘Enjoying Horror Essay’ Blog Post
Reflection: After reviewing all of the blog posts and responses for this unit ‘The Aesthetics of Horror’, I was glad to see that I was able to incorporate all three of the unit objectives within my personal blog posts; ‘Enjoying Horror’ blog post and ‘Enjoying Horror Essay’ blog post. I thought that this unit was very interesting because personally, I’m not a fan of horror films. However, I did enjoy the Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode that we were required to watch. In fact, after watching that episode I went and watched a couple of other episodes.
In the first objective for this unit, we were asked to explore the curiosity for horror for individuals and society as well as the impact that horror art causes. I was able to incorporate this objective in my ‘Enjoying Horror Essay’ blog post. In this post I talked about my personal thoughts towards horror films, which is negative because I prefer not to watch them like most people since this genre grosses less money than other mainstream genres (Evan 2012). However, since this genre is still around, one could assume that there are people who do enjoy watching horror films. With that said I provided a quote by Steven King which stated, “We are drawn to things that stimulate out emotions and particularly stimulate them without any adverse consequences to us” (Evans 2012). I used this to explain that people, not like me, are curious about the paranormal realm. I also made a connection that Carroll made in the unit reading that individuals are usually attracted to things that we do not know of or things that society leads us to believe aren’t true. Also, in the unit reading Carroll explains that pleasures may arise from watching horror films for some people (2002). The people may enjoy the experience and emotions that horror films evoke from them.
The second objective required us to analyze the aesthetics of horror films. This was easily met for all of the AAD 250 students, if they completed the ‘Enjoying Horror’ blog post. This assignment required us to watch a Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode that Professor Huette provided for us. After watching this episode we were asked to identify one example for each of the three aesthetic qualities of horror art that we went over in this unit. These aesthetic qualities included non-diegetic sound, diegetic sound, and mise en scene. I was able to identify 4 examples of aesthetic qualities; 1 non-diegetic, 1 diegetic, and 2 mise en scene. For example, I talked about the lighting throughout the episode. Even though the lighting during the day was nice, most of the episode took place during the night where it was dark. This darkness gave off a scary and unknown feeling, which is common in all horror films. This was one of my examples for mise en scene.
The last objective was to understand and utilize the basic principles of film and television analysis. This was incorporated in both my ‘Enjoying Horror’ blog post and ‘Enjoying Horror Essay’ blog post. Like I mentioned before, in the ‘Enjoying Horror’ blog post I was required to watch the Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode then identify different aesthetic qualities of horror art. In order to identify these aesthetic qualities, I had to use some basic principles of television analysis. On the other hand, in my ‘Enjoying Horror Essay’ blog post I mentioned some theories of film analysis that may cause people to enjoy horror films. For example, I talked about how watching a horror film or any film is an experience. For some people the experience of watching a horror films is pleasurable whereas others it is the opposite. It is said that those who receive pleasure from watching horror films, tend to be curious about the paranormal realm or things that are believe to not exist.
Future Goals: I am not one to enjoy horror films or television shows but this unit was pretty interesting. I was able to better understand some underlying reasons or theories of why people may enjoy watching horror films and shows. I also actually enjoyed watching the Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode that we were required to watch. Moreover, since I was able to meet all of this unit’s objectives I would not change the content that I wrote in my posts. However, in the future I would want to go more in depth of what I talked about.
References:
Carroll, N. (2002). Why Horror?. In Neill, A. & Riley, A. (Eds.) Arguing About Art: Contemporary Philosophical Debates (2nd ed., pp. 275-294). New York, NY: Routledge.
Evans, Whitney, (Oct. 25 2012). Why do we watch scary movies?. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.deseretnews.com/article/765613770/Why-do-we-watch-scary-movies.html. [Last Accessed May 6, 2014].
Ndalianis, A. (2012). The Horror Sensorium: Media and the Senses. Retrieved May 9, 2014, from http://reader.eblib.com.libproxy.uoregon.edu/(S(gq4l4k5lufrahxxe5oyqh5qq))/Reader.aspx?p=1034991&o=1338&u=ScbbvwZ%2fU0nhOxo25VSQ1A%3d%3d&t=1399663404&h=C98CD1E12EBE3E846CCB55FACD972A8D198573D3&s=23115803&ut=4509&pg=1&r=img&c=872&pat=n&cms=2#