O’Brien, L. (2013, September 9). The Curious Appeal of Horror Movies: Why do we like to feel scared? IGN, Retrieved from http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/09/09/the-curious-appeal-of-horror-movies
Lucy O’Brien begins her article questioning how horror films continue to succeed at the box office. She writes mostly about the recent horror film, The Conjuring, which, despite opening at the same time as major blockbuster, Man of Steel, grossed over $240 million worldwide. She quickly refutes the idea that it is based on story line, citing that its plot is “not historically abnormal” (O’Brien, 2013). However, she then analyzes reasons in which horror does have unique mass appeal.
For O’Brien, horror is a way for people to confront the unusual. She believes that horror films allow us to feel catharsis at having “survived a brief brush with something dark and unexpected” (O’Brien, 2013). However, she makes sure to identify what makes horror films more appealing than non-fictional danger: they are inherently safe. In the readings for this chapter, Carroll discusses the curiosity of the audience, wondering “whether [the existence of monsters] will be confirmed in the story” (2002, 278). What O’Brien has to say about the viewer exploring fictional danger seems to be a product of Carroll’s ideas on curiosity. We watch horror films to experience the dark underbelly of our world, and prove to ourselves that we can endure that darkness.
Quoting Warren Ellis, O’Brien explains “fiction is how we both study and de-fang our monsters” (O’Brien, 2013). This idea suggests that we need horror films to deal with real world horrors that we are forced to deal with every day. Horror then is a coping mechanism for us to survive, and if we can survive two hours of the evilest of monsters at the theatre or in a book, then we feel better prepared to survive real horrors.
Begley, S. (2011, October 25). Why Our Brains Love Horror Movies. The Daily Beast. Retrieved from http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2011/10/25/why-our-brains-love-horror-movies-fear-catharsis-a-sense-of-doom.html
Like Lucy O’Brien, Sharon Begley writes her article to explore the success of horror movies, especially horror movies with small budgets like Paranormal Activity, at the box office. She discusses why teenagers seem to seek thrills from horror films more than older generations, explaining that they “feel that real life is scary enough” (Begley, 2011). Begley touches on the idea of a cathartic experience, but argues that there seems to be much more at play than just the feelings of emotional catharsis, but rather a venue for young people to manage their terror. She mentions that horror films tend to abide by a strict Victorian code, where teenage sex is almost always met with by death, and endings are normally happy.
Begley believes that, ultimately, horror films play on our knowledge of our impending doom. We all know we are going to die, but horror films dangle that fact, one that nobody likes to think about, in audiences’ faces. But Begley, like O’Brien, points out that audiences can be confronted with death, knowing that they will leave the theatre without “any holes in our head, and our hearts will still be in our bodies” (Begley, 2011).
The article also suggests that perhaps horror is appealing because it “traffics in ‘thoughts and feelings that have been repressed by the ego’” (Begley, 2011). In the History on Horror presentation, one of the things that are described as possibly appealing is horror’s ability to help the viewer “discover the possibility of something creepy within [themselves]” (2009). There is something eerie and invigorating about exploring our darkest thoughts and feelings, and horror provides us the vehicle to do so.