This week’s material is brings up one central question: Why horror? Why horror has always been an intriguing topic to me because I’ve never really understood the excitement around horror films. Given I’ve never really understood the hype, this assignment was beneficial as I got to research more about why people enjoy horror films. I found two sources, science daily and live science, that discuss points as to why people might love horror movies. Noel Carroll also discussed some of these points in “Why Horror?” which was our assigned reading for the week. Before comparing the points between the two sources and Carroll’s piece it is important to summarize the sources in order to create a base for comparison.
My first source is from science daily, which is a website for the latest research news. The source discusses the question of what attracts people to violent movies? The point of these scientists’ study is to discover, “whether these serious, contemplative, and truth-seeking motivations for exposure to violent portrayals are more than just an intellectual pleasure.” They conducted an experiment where they gathered 482 participants, ranging in age from 18-82, to watch film trailers featuring different levels of gore and meaningfulness. The participants then rated each film of their perceptions of the film and how likely they would watch the full movie. The source includes results from earlier studies, which state that audiences are drawn to violent content because they anticipate other benefits, such as thrill and suspense. The findings suggested that hedonistic pleasures are only part of the reason as to why people expose themselves to violence and gore. According to this source, depictions of violence that are perceived as meaningful and thought-provoking can foster empathy with victims, admiration for acts of courage and moral beauty in the face of violence.” Although this is good reasoning for why horror, it seems conducting more studies on this topic would be beneficial.
The first source’s main point is that people are drawn to horror movies for reasons other than just to watch something scary, which is similar to a point Carroll discusses in his piece. Carroll explains that there are other factors that create pleasure for the audience, “It is not the tragic event in itself that imparts pleasure, but rather, the way it is worked into the plot” (Carroll 277). This quote highlights that feelings of curiosity and suspense are present during a horror film, which add to the overall appeal. The way events are worked into the plot creates suspense and a sense of discovery. This idea is very similar to the point made in my first source and it is also prevalent in the Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode we saw. The writer for that episode used certain events in a certain order in order to evoke emotions, such as suspense and thrill. Also, the way they used music to create a heightened sense of horror really increased the aesthetics of the episode, which results in the capturing the audience’s attention. Personally, I’m a very curious person, but for some reason watching a horror movie doesn’t feed my curiosity.
My second source is an article on live science titled “Horror Movies: Why People Love Them?” This article highlights reasons as to why people enjoy horror films. Desired effect stuck out to me as a reason why people enjoy horror because the article states, “You choose your entertainment because you want it to affect you.” This notion made me consider what entertainment I enjoy and how it affects me, which resulted in hypothesizing that I don’t watch horror films because I don’t find them pleasurable. The article touches on other reasons such as enjoying the adrenaline rush, being distracted from mundane life or just plain suspense. After reading the article, there were many similarities between the article and Carroll’s piece.
Both of the sources I found are very connected and interrelated to this week’s assigned material. The strongest comparison between the second source and Carroll’s piece is that they both discuss multiple contributing factors as to why horror is enjoyable. In the assigned reading, Carroll explains the factors that contribute to the horror story, “It engages its audience by being involved in processes of disclosure, discovery, proof, explanation, hypothesis, and confirmation” (Carroll 279). Some of these processes are driven by curiosity, which is something both sources and the reading discuss. Additionally, these processes, such as discovery, can function as a distraction from a viewer’s non-eventful life. After comparing multiple sources, it is clear that there is a significant amount of value and pleasure that a viewer can gain from engaging with a horror story, but in my opinion it takes a special kind of thrill seeking person to truly enjoy it.
Bibliography
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.
International Communication Association. (2013, March 28). What attracts people to violent movies?. ScienceDaily. Retrieved May 10, 2015 from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/03/130328091750.htm
Fink, L. (2009, November 6). Horror Movies: Why People Love Them. Retrieved May 10 2015, from http://www.livescience.com/7949-horror-movies-people-love.html