Horror is a favorite genre to many people, especially my roommate. Horror is just so appealing to some people to the point of where they do not even get terrified, but only laugh at the scary scenes. Lately, national television is filled with horror shows and movies, such as The Walking Dead which consists of zombies and Insidious. These horror films are so gruesome; I still do not understand why it brings joy to some people. From some of the resources I have found, may explain why this happens.

From wisegeek.com, I found an article “Why Do People Like to Watch Scary Movies?” I figured, this was exactly what I was looking for to answer my question about why people like horror films so much. The most quote in the article that stuck out to me most argued that horror movies are appealing because they “represent the decay of society, show the value of staying within social norms, and allow people to feel fear within a controlled setting” (WiseGeek). What this means is that they’re saying that the decay of society proposition makes it seem like there is a dark side to the norms of society and the genre of horror depicts our dark side. The horror genre now compared to the horror back in Greek mythology and biblical times is considered modern. Back then, “Even the earliest societies had their “monsters” or stories of gods, men and beasts that committed unspeakable horrors” (Wise Geek). Most of horror movies show the benefits of staying within social norms because innocence will prevail. Overall, horror movies actually help us appreciate normality. Also, the part of which horror makes it enjoyable to people is because it has ‘controlled scare’. This is the same as riding a rollercoaster because it increases our heart rate and gets our adrenaline flowing. The people who enjoy this most is because they see that the fear comes fictional, meaning that there poses no threat to us.

The other source is from livescience.com and it is titled “Bloodlust or Bloodless? Horror Film Love Runs Deep” written by Stephanie Pappas. There is a theory in this article which relates to me so much because it because people are upset, but they’re busy anticipating when the moment horror scenes will be over. This is what always happens to me, because I cannot take the tension and suspense of the horror scenes because I wouldn’t know when they would start. But when I think the scary scene is over, it isn’t and the film catches me unaware! Also, this article tells us about thrills and chills that people experience. “High sensation-seekers enjoy morbid curiosity in general and horror movies in particular” (LiveScience). This means that high sensation seekers have a higher level of arousal when it comes to thrills. For those who have low levels of arousal, they tend to dislike getting chills. Usually youth and men are the ones who are high sensation seekers. Hence the people who enjoy horror movies that seek excitement and adventure are aware that the scenes and characters are fictional and are only watching a movie.

In comparision, these two articles were very similar because they both argued why people enjoyed watching horror films which also connects to “Why Horror?” by Noel Carroll. He states that “Monsters, are the natural subjects of curiosity” (Carroll) which relates the idea in WiseGeek about having a dark side of society. Both of the articles I found argued that people who love watching horror movies, know that everything is fictional and that they are only watching a movie so that there are no threats. For example, when I watch a scary movie, the movie constantly consists of questions to the audience to make them curious and wonder what’s going to happen next. This connects to Carroll’s saying about curiousity.

Click here for the link to the WiseGeek article and click here for the LiveScience article.

Sources:

Carroll, N. (2002). Why Horror?. In Neill, A. & Riley, A. (eds.) Arguing About Art: Contemporary Philosophical Debates (2nd ed., Chap. 17). New York, NY: Routledge.

Ellis-Christensen. (2013). Why Do People Like to Watch Scary Movies?. Retrieved on May 11,  2013 from http://www.wisegeek.org/why-do-people-like-to-watch-scary-movies.htm

Pappas, S. (2010). Bloodlust  of Bloodless? Horror Film Love Runs Deep. Retrieved on May 11, 2013 from http://www.livescience.com/8859-bloodlust-bloodless-horror-film-love-runs-deep.html

Within the first five minutes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, there is a showing of non-diegetic, diegetic and mise en scene. I’m not much of a fan who likes horror movies or shows because I get scared really easily from the suspenseful music or by visual popups and sound effects that go with it (diegetic).

Mise en scene was presented in this episode while the girl was having a bad nightmare. The nightmare consisted of a dark scene where it was kind of hard to see until the vampire showed up and the picture quality cleared to see the scariness of the vampire. The little girl singing before the vampire showed up was a distraction, until the man appeared and scared viewers and the girl. This was a smart choice of the directors to put this sort of mise en scene in this episode because it was definitely a surprise.

Next was diegetic sounds which are sounds whose source is visible on the screen. In the same scene, the girl’s singing got louder and louder as the other girl came closer to her. This voice nonetheless sounded creepy like in other horror movies. The diegetic sounds from her voice gave such suspense. The little girl was just standing there, sweet and innocently so viewers would assume that something bad would happen at that point, thus giving off suspense.

Lastly, the non-diegetic sounds occurred when the vampire popped up out of nowhere. You would think that the boy behind her would just tell the girl that she is safe, but nope. The man turned into a vampire somehow and scares viewers who are watching this. Before the vampire showed up, there was such suspenseful music rising with a stronger tone as the scene progressed. It harmonized the little girl’s singing at the same time, building such suspense so viewers would not know when something bad happens. But once the vampire appeared, the music all of a sudden got scary and loud, the opposite of the suspenseful music.