Objectives:
• Explore the psychological and emotional 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.
Original post:
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.
Reflection:
This assignment really helped me build a little more courage into watching horror movies or shows since I learned about diagetic sounds, non-diegetic sounds and mise en scene. Now that I know these terms and their definitions, I can just pay attention to look for these purposes in horror movies so that I would get distracted enough to not get terrified by popup scenes. I would know that these things would be expected and that it is coming.
Overall, horror is in some sense artistic because producers would have to make it so that every scene has a mise en scene to it that goes with their diagetic or non-diagetic sound. It’s actually impressive that some good horror movies are mainly built up on the suspense based on the diagetic and non-diagetic sounds. It takes a lot of work for producers to make these things up. Although, I’m not sure how people seem to enjoy horror films so much and not having to be afraid of the scenes. I think it’s because they know that things are coming based on previous horror films. The pictures that I have attached are not very scary pictures, mainly because I still am not brave enough to look through the gruesome images of zombies and other non-fictional characters. The picture right above represents mise en scene sarcastically because the background and scene of the scary figure do not go together; the background is happy and the focal point is horrific.
Goals:
* To enjoy horror more
* Understand the different components of horror
* Analyze horror scenes more so that things will appear less scary
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