Noel Carroll, an American philosopher, is considered to be one of the leading figures in contemporary art philosophy. When discussing the attraction to Horror, Noel raises a few questions about why we seek out something that normally gives us terror rather then pleasure. Noel writes that, “once a tragic, unsettling event is housed in an aesthetic context, with a momentum of its own, the predominant feeling response, in terms of pleasure and interest, attaches to the presentation as a function of the overall, narrative structure. That is, ostensibly “subordinate passion,” but the one keyed to the structure, becomes predominant.” (Carroll). The passion that is generated through witnessing something so extreme or devastating creates emotions in the eye of the beholder that know other medium can produce. Terror gives us passion. That is why the genre of horror can continue to thrive within the masses. In correlation to Noel Carroll’s ideas about horror and why people enjoy it I have found two additional sources that attempt to answer the question of why people enjoy the genre of Horror. My first analysis comes from the Pacific Standard. In an article titled, “The Psychology of a Horror Movie Fan” Pacific Standard identifies scientifically why people are attracted to scary things. In a 2005 study by Cynthia A. Hoffner and Kenneth J. Levine 35 different journal articles are studied to find the correlation between viewer enjoyment and scary movies. From their findings they came up with four different common theories that aid in answering the question why people like scary things. The first theory comes from Zillman, which states, “fearful apprehension about deplorable events that threaten liked protagonists also then experience heightened enjoyment when those threats are satisfyingly resolved”(PS). This logic makes sense, but most horror movies do not end in this fashion so this brings us to our second theory: less empathy creates more enjoyment within the genre of horror. People who lack the trait of empathy make like horror movies more. Third creates a classification for individuals that like horror. They share three common traits: sensation seeking, above average aggression, and maleness. The last theory is simply stated as schadenfreude. What this means essentially is that pleasure can be derived from the misfortunes of others. In my opinion the last theory that comes from the article from Pacific Stanard makes the most sense. Individuals love to see others in pain or agony. I believe it triggers something in our brains that is hard to explain on paper. My second source comes from the online website WebMD. In an article titled, “Why We Love Scary Movies” we hear yet more reasons why individuals love horror movies. Most people like to experience pleasant emotions but there are many who find something powerful within horror movies and for that reason they watch, yet it still is not logical. The addiction to fear may be one answer, because the fear that is present in our bodies when being attacked by an intruder is no different then the fear of an axe murder on the big screen. Our heart rates jump in the same way and our mind is impacted in the same way. If the physical attributes of fear were the same in real life as they are when being experienced from the big screen, why would an individual willingly partake in such an event? An additional theory presented by WebMD presents the idea that people truly have morbid fascinations. In retrospect children appeal to scary movies because they are told not to watch them, however adults are playing out morbid curiosities. At the same time adults may be seeking out violent entertainment as a mechanism to cope with actual fears of violence. Our cruel or aggressive impulses can be captured in a movie and tamed through this medium. Overall horror and the reasons why people enjoy it are ambiguous. Some will like it for one reason and others will like it for another. It’s a medium of art and some people will enjoy this medium while others will despise it.
Citation:
“The Pyschology of a Horror Movie Fan.” Pacific Standard, n.d. Web. 11 May 2015.
“Why We Love Scary Movies.” WebMD. WebMD, n.d. Web. 11 May 2015.