The article that I researched talked about the reasons that we as a society re-watch scary movies. The writer of Horror Movies: Why People Love Them, Leslie Fink went into detail about the top reasons we like to see these scary movies. She explains that the rush of adrenaline, the distraction from everyday activities, human instinct to follow social norms, and the ability to experience danger from a safe distance are the reasons we are so attracted to watching movies like paranormal activity and the Blair witch project. Fink goes on to describe how human’s sense of fear is far more developed than other animals. One example in humans is that, “Conversations between the brain’s primitive amygdala and the more recently acquired cortex allow humans to interpret an environmental event and respond with an emotion such as fear”(fink). This basically means that we don’t only use primitive habits to promote fear but rather we use a rather newly developed brain function that elicits fear from sources that have been recently exposed to individuals during their lifetime. fink also goes on to say that people who have a well developed imagination, also hold the ability to create fear by simply thinking about a frightening occurrence. Fink had a point that we are attracted to horror films because we are actually safe when confronted with scary monsters and creatures. In the class reading “Why Horror” by Carroll there is a passage that talks about how we feel safe from these monsters because we don’t have to think about ways to deal or escape them in reality. Carroll describes that we would become petrified in fear too paralyzed to even move if were actually face to face with scary movie characters. When we watch these scary movies, “the audience is only reacting to the thought that such and such an impure being might exist”(Carroll). A thought in respect to scariness is obviously much less distressful compared to real life scenarios, which is why when we watch scary movies there is time to become fascinated with scary creatures from the lack of time we are really scared.
Fink, Leslie. “Horror Movies: Why People Love Them.” LiveScience.com. N.p., 9 Nov. 2009. Web. 10 Nov. 2013. <http://www.livescience.com/7949-horror-movies-people-love.html>.
In Stuart Fischoff’s article, Why Are Some People More Attracted to Scary Movies Than Others Are? He explains the trait differences between people that like scary movies and people that do not by grouping these traits into five categories. The section of the article entitled Lifestyle factors explains that people who have somewhat calm and uneventful lives are more likely to seek thrill by exposing themselves to horror movies because these movies take viewers out of their element and stimulate the nervous system in a unique way. “If we have a relatively calm, uneventful lifestyle, we seek out something that’s going to be exciting for us because our nervous system requires periodic revving, just like a good muscular engine” (Fischoff). This is saying that someone who gets external stimulation to the nervous system would not necessarily find scary movies as enticing because they might not need the revving that someone who is not as active. In the article, Why Horror? Author Noel Carroll describes this stimulation by stating, “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). This basically describes the plot as a revealing of a problem, the build up of suspense and then the resolution of the evil or bad guy being eliminated. I think both authors are describing a stimulation of the nervous system that is unique to the genre of horror films. Other genres such as comedy, drama, action, and romance films may give viewers several elements of stimulation, but not nearly as much as horror films, notorious for their gut wrenching, heart beating, scream inducing capabilities.
Fischoff, Stuart. “Why Are Some People More Attracted To Scary Movies Than Others Are?” Science and Religion Today. N.p., 8 Oct. 2011. Web. 10 Nov. 2013. <http://www.scienceandreligiontoday.com/2011/10/28/why-are-some-people-more-attracted-to-scary-movies-than-others-are/>.