Hess, John P., (2009). ‘The Psychology of Scary Movies’. Filmmaker IQ. Retrieved February 11th, 2014, from http://filmmakeriq.com/lessons/the-psychology-of-scary-movies/.
This article by John Hess states that horror movies do not actually activate areas of the brain associated with fear, instead they activate “the part of the brain associated with planning, attention, and problem solving” (1), which would also imply that the areas of the brain (such as the hypothalamus) that are associated with pleasure are not activated by horror movies. John Hess cites psychologist Glenn Walters who believes that tension, relevance and unrealism is what draws viewers to watch horror movies. The article considers that ideas of philosophers such as Aristotle would suggest that audiences watch scary and violent movies because of the catharsis felt through “purging their negative emotions” (Hess, 3), this is pleasurable due to the fact that society does not allow many ways of releasing these emotions such as aggression. Hess disagrees with this theory because he believes that scary and violent movies lead viewers to be more aggressive not less aggressive. Another theory discussed in this article was Excitation Transfer theory that states that the negative feelings that build during the scary movie actually intensify the positive feelings the viewers feel when the hero succeeds at the end, which would imply this theory only makes sense if the hero actually does triumph at the end of the film.
The article by John Hess and the chapter for this week by Noël Carroll both discuss the idea that viewers watch horror movies because of the “interest that the plot has engendered in how certain forces, once put in motion, will work themselves out” (Carroll 276). Hess discusses this idea in his Excitation Transfer theory where it is discussed that “the negative feelings created by horror moves actually intensify the positive feelings when the hero triumphs at the end” (4), both of these ideas and theories suggest that the viewers interest in how the film will end accounts for why audiences choose to watch horror movies. Carroll believes “the disclosure of the existence of the horrific being and its properties is the central source of pleasure in the genre” (282), meaning that knowing that the source of terror exists and will ultimately be confronted is what causes the audience to experience pleasure while watching horror movies.
Another shared concept in the articles discussed is the fact that horror movie’s popularity is “driven by curiosity. It engages its audience by being involved in processes of disclosure, discovery, proof, explanation, hypothesis, and confirmation” (Carroll 279), meaning that the audience becomes invested in the storyline of the horror movie through being involved in the discovery of the ‘monster’ and source of horror as the storyline progresses. Hess however believes curiosity impacts the popularity due to the fact that “horror exists outside of the everyday existence of normal behavior” (3), meaning that audience members are intrigued by horror films because the events and acts seen in the film are not normally seen or experienced.
Begley, Sharon, (2011). ‘Why Our Brains Love Horror Movies’. The Daily Beast. Retrieved February 11th, 2014, from http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2011/10/25/why-our-brains-love-horror-movies-fear-catharsis-a-sense-of-doom.html.
This article by Sharon Begley discusses why viewers and their brains derive pleasure from horror movies through scientific explanations. Begley argues that although audience members crave the feeling of being scared, they crave being safe while being scared, meaning the audience members know that they are safe while watching the events taking place on the screen. This article cites multiple articles that attempt to quantitatively account for why certain people crave and enjoy horror films while others do not derive pleasure from the experience of watching a scary movie. Begley hypothesizes that this need for excitement could account for why the horror genre is so popular among teenagers and twenty years olds, since the desire for intense experiences is predicted to decrease with age. John Edward Campbell believes that middle-aged viewers experience enough horror from their everyday life and do not feel the need to go out of their way to experience the feeling of fear. Begley also believes that the pleasure derived from a horror film is from the catharsis experienced throughout the experience of the scary film.
Both articles discuss theories about what drives certain people to watch scary movies. Begley cites a study performed by Fischoff that states that people with “relatively calm, uneventful lifestyles…seek out something that’s going to excite them, because their nervous system requires periodic revving” (2), meaning that people who live relatively boring lives are the people more likely to regularly view horror movies. While Carroll argues that people may choose horror films because they “savor the revulsion in art-horror-but not for the sake of fascination- are metaresponding to their own revulsion” (291), this response could be due to the satisfaction of withstanding the shock and fear of the film much like an endurance test.
Begley states that “the stronger the negative emotions (fear, worry, anxiety) a person reports experiencing during horror films, the more likely he or she is to enjoy the genre” (Begley 5), meaning that a scarier film will be perceived better by the audience than a film that fails to scare. Carroll believes that “the pleasures derived from art-horror are a function of fascination, which fascination compensates for the negative emotions engendered by the fiction” (291), meaning that without the fascination that is created during a horror film, the negative emotions generated would cause the viewer to not enjoy the experience of watching the horror movie.
Both articles discuss the idea that audience members enjoy horror films because the films represent the unusual or things that have been repressed by society. Carroll states this when she says, “one wants to gaze upon the unusual even when it is simultaneously repelling” (286), meaning that a person is enthralled by the images shown in horror films even though they are uncommon and not commonly seen. Begley mentions Freud’s idea that people find horror appealing because they represent and show “thoughts and feelings that have been repressed by the ego but which seen vaguely familiar” (5), although this could be true in some cases Begley believes that this psychoanalytic explanation for why some people enjoy horror films is outdated. Begley believes that a common moral code accounts for the appeal of horror films, “horror films thus appeal to people who like predictability and neat ends, hold the ethical relativism” (6), meaning a person who appears ‘evil’ is going to face an unfortunate end while the ‘hero’ or innocent character will most likely prevail.
Carroll, Noël. (2002). Why Horror?. In Neill, A & Riley, A. (eds.) Arguing About Art: Contemporary Philosophical Debates (2nd ed,. Chap.17). New York, NY: Routledge.