Category: Unit 06

The first article that I read relating to enjoying horror was an article by Leslie Fink titled “Horror Movies: Why People Love Them.”  This article discusses what it is exactly that makes horror films so appealing to people.  One of the reasons that Fink gives for why people enjoy horror is because of the desired effects it gives us and because being scared, “calls up primal behavior” (Fink).  Another reason that this article discusses is that people enjoy horror because they enjoy the suspense that comes along with it.  Even without gory and bloody images, people still enjoy the rush they get while suspense builds in a movie.  Third reason Fink gives is because of your brain.  She says that, “fear is not merely a biological reaction, but an emotion derived from both deep-seeded evolutionary factors as well as newly learned cautions” (Fink).  Fink talks about how this emotion can be trigged while watching a movie, which many people enjoy.

These reasons are all different from the reasons that Noel Carroll gives in her article, “Why Horror?”  In Carroll’s article she states that, “horror thrives above all as a narrative form” (pg. 278 Carroll).  All of Fink’s reasons relate more to why we enjoy horror in a psychological way, whereas Carroll’s reasons discuss why the narrative of horror is appealing to an audience.  There is a connection between Fink’s reason about suspense and about Carroll’s reason about narration.  Many things contribute to the aesthetic of horror, and how the narrative is put together is why we find horror movies scary.  Horror films achieve a successful narrative, “by putting off the conclusive information that the monster exists for quite a while” (pg. 278 Carroll).  Of course not all horror films have some sort of monster, many horror films are scary for other reasons.  Despite what form the bad guy of a scary movie comes in, suspense is being built by putting off information regarding the character.  This suspense is very appealing to the audience as Fink says.  Although there are a lot of differences in the two articles, both in some way describe how suspense is a huge aspect of why people find horror enjoyable.

The second article that I researched was the article by Margarita Tartakovsky called “Why Some People Love Horror Movies While Others Hate Them.”  In this article Tartakovsky also discusses many reasons why people enjoy horror.  One of the reasons she gives is because of the way you feel after watching the movie.  She says that, “when people watch frightening films, their heart rate, blood pressure and respiration increases.  After the film is over, this physiological arousal lingers” (Tartakovsky).  This causes positive emotions that you feel to be intensified.  This can also cause the opposite reaction, so any negative emotions you feel can also be intensified, so those who have a good time after seeing a movie may want to watch more scary movies in the future, while those who have a bad time after may not.  Another reason that some people like horror is because, “Some people are simply wired to enjoy high levels of physiological arousal” (Tartakovsky).  The third reason that Tartakovsky describes is the novelty.  Many of the things that take place in horror films are not things that you see every day, so watching a horror film might make someone curious about what happens in the film.  The visual effects of the films can also be very appealing to some people and add to the novelty.

In Carroll’s article she talks about the skepticism that comes along with horror films.  One of the main things she talks about in scary movies is monsters.  Obviously monsters do not actually exist and as she says are, “putatively inexplicable or highly unusual vis-à-vis our standing cultural categories” (pg. 281 Carroll).  This causes both skepticism and curiosity.  This curiosity relates to the curiosity that Tartakovsky discussed in her article that is caused by the novelty of movies.  Although Carroll does not clearly discuss the novelty of horror films, she does discuss how horror narratives involve a desire to know.  This desire is caused by things in horror movies that do not exist in real life.  Some people have a natural urge to explore the unknown, and horror narratives target this group of people by creating events and characters that make the audience skeptical and curious.  All of these factors contribute to what makes horror appealing to some and unappealing to others.

Carroll, N. (2002). Why Horror?. In Neill, A. & Riley, A. (Eds.) Arguing About Art: Contemporary Philosophical Debates (2nd ed., pp. 275-294). New York, NY: Routledge.

Fink, L. (2009, November 6). Horror Movies: Why People Love Them. LiveScience. Retrieved May 12, 2014,

http://www.livescience.com/7949-horror-movies-people-love.html

Tartakovsky, M. (n.d.). » Why Some People Love Horror Movies While Others Hate Them – World of Psychology. Psych Central.com. Retrieved May 12, 2014, http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2012/10/31/why-some-people-love-horror-movies-while-others-hate-them/

Towards the beginning of the Buffy episode you hear an example of mise en scene.  The episode begins with a woman talking and you can immediately tell she must be a professor teaching a class.  I chose this example because it is the very beginning of the story and therefore sets the scene for the episode.  It is an example of mise en scene because it does a good job representing production design.  You can immediately imagine the set and props being used, and imagine what the students’ and teacher’s costumes might look like.  This example of mise en scene contributes to the aesthetic of horror by building a small amount of suspense.  During the scene Buffy has an intense dream, which gives the audience a hint that something scary may happen in the future.

A little less than half way into the episode there is a great example of diegetic sound.  This example is while two men are talking.  I chose this example because it reveals something about the characters and also gives an excellent example of diegetic sound.  From the beginning of the scene you immediately hear the voices of the characters, you can also hear their footsteps so you know they are walking.  This example contributes to the aesthetic of horror because of the things you hear the characters say.  While they are talking you hear that they have a secret that they can’t tell, which causes the audience to be curious about what it is.

The third example represents non-diegetic sound.  This example takes place about thirteen minutes into the episode and begins with soft background music that begins to deepen, and make the mood more intense.  The music sounds very dark and scary.  I chose this example because it really starts to make this episode seem more dark, which is a switch from how the beginning is and you start to understand why this show is seen a horror show.  This example represents non-diegetic sound because it is not sound that is actually being made by what’s going on, but is instead just background music.  I think this definitely contributes to the aesthetic of horror because it makes the sounds make the mood very dark and scary, and also build suspense as if something bad is going to happen.