The first article that I chose is “Why Some People Love Horror Movies While Others Hate Them” that was written by Margarita Tartakovsky. This article mainly introduced the reasons why some people love horror and why some people hate horror movies. According to the article, there are main four factors that could affect people’s attitude to horror movies. The first one is the excitation transfer process which means how you feel after the movie. The second one is different wiring which means people have different wiring so they have different reaction to the horror movies. The third one is novelty which means the novelty of horror movie can attract some people but sometimes some people’s negative emotions can exceed the novelty. The fourth one is the gender socialization which means male and female have different attitude to horror movies.

Tartakovsky’s article pointed out the dual character of horror movies, some people like it but some people dislike it. Carroll’s article also mentioned this problem, as he argued, “It obviously attracts consumers; but it seems to do so by means of the expressly repulsive. Furthermore, the horror genre gives every evidence of being pleasurable to its audience, but it does so by means of trafficking in the very sorts of things that cause disquiet, distress, and displeasure” (Carroll, 275).

Tartakovsky mentioned there are more men enjoy the horror movies than women. She thinks it “might be because men are socialized to be brave and enjoy threatening things… Men may derive social gratification from not letting a scary film bother them” and men usually like to choose horror movies as date movies because “women are more likely to seek physical closeness when they’re scared, and men can show off their strength and bravery” (Tartakovsky, 2012). I am a girl and I asked my boyfriend and he answered men indeed would choose horror movies as date movies to attract girls.

The second article is “The Curious Appeal of Horror Movies” that was posted by Lucy O’Brien. This article mainly discussed current development of horror movies and why people love horror movies. O’Brien mainly introduced two reasons. Firstly, people like to watch the novel things because of human’s curiosity. Secondly, people can increase the relationship with lover through watching the horror movies. During her article, she also mentioned the excitation transfer process that be mentioned in the first article.

In this article, O’Brien said, “We want to see things we wouldn’t usually see in our daily lives, of course. Curiosity is a powerful emotion” (O’Brien, 2013). This argument is really similar with Carroll’s argument that is “the horror story is driven explicitly by curiosity. It engages its audience by being involved in processes of disclosure, discovery, proof, explanation, hypothesis, and confirmation” (Carroll 279). As we all can feel that each person has curiosity so we always be attracted by novel things. The second reason is relative to the gender socialization that be mentioned in the first article. O’Brien explained that people would shake when they watching the horror movies so it is a good opportunity for man to hug lover so it is the reason why “horror movies are frequently considered to be great for first dates” (O’Brien, 2013).

Overall, I feel very interesting to research the horror and I understand some reason why people love horror movies. I really like horror movies and I will put some horror art consideration when I look the horror movies in the future.

 

References:

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.

O’Brien, L. (2013, September 9). The Curious Appeal of Horror Movies – IGN. IGN. Retrieved August 4, 2014, from http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/09/09/the-curious-appeal-of-horror-movies

Tartakovsky, M. (2012, October 31). » Why Some People Love Horror Movies While Others Hate Them – World of Psychology. Psych Central.com. Retrieved August 4, 2014, from http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2012/10/31/why-some-people-love-horror-movies-while-others-hate-them/