Artifact Five: Aesthetics of Horror
Objective:
- Explore the psychological and emotional curiosity for and impact of horror art on individuals and society.
- Analyze the unique aesthetic qualities of horror art.
- Understand and utilize some basic principles of film and television analysis.
Original Post:
We studied “why horror” in this week. Through the article and weekly videos, I learned that how to identify diegetic sound and non-diegetic sound in many videos and films. Besides our course reading, I find an article online named “Why Horror is Good for You (and Even Better for Your Kids)” (Ruth, 2014). This article is different from course reading, it mainly explains that why horror is good, especially for children. There are six reasons to support it. First of all, the writer thinks that the childhood is scary. “childhood was not a skip-hop through a candy-cane field of butterflies and sharing and sunshine, that is was in fact a terrifying ordeal he felt compelled to help kids survive” (Ruth, 2014). He or she explains that childhood is not always sweet, there might be many difficulties in their life. Hence, it is necessary that to teach children how to survive. Second, “power to the powerless” (Ruth, 2014). The writer thinks that horror can give children a playground to show their power. In the horror movies or books, people can learn many survival principles which can use in our daily life. Third reason is that horror is ancient and also can teach people too much. This is almost same with second reason, she or he thinks that there are many ancient culture retain in horror stories. For instance, zombie, vampire and werewolf and so on. Many of them are come from different religions. Therefore, people can study ancient culture through these horror stories. Fourthly, author illustrates that horror can verify secret truths. “The end result, for me, at least was a great sense of trust in scary movies I never got from my parents, who tried to comfort me by telling me ghosts weren’t real. Horror told me they were, but it also taught me how to face them” (Ruth, 2014). The author wants to express that horror can tell some truth which others cannot tell. There are two more reasons in the article. One is that horror can let people together. It is easy to understand this opinion. Children always want to watch horror together because they can feel that they are not alone. The final one is that the facts of life are same as horror. All in all, these six reasons can support that horror is good for children and adults.
The second article is “Horror Movies: Why People Love Them” (Fink, 2009). This article primarily talks about why people love watch horror movies. First of all, people have desired effect. People accumulate many pressure in their daily life, they wants to see blood and monsters. Normally, horror has huge attraction for male because they are easier attracted by violence scenes. The writer also explains that entertainment can affect people in many ways. Second is that horror always has suspense. People usual want to know and discover the plain suspense. The final reason is that horror is a behavior of human brain. Human brain can image the different scenes about horror. The author states that how the neuron works in human’s brain, and he describes the idea that the fear for the horror movie is not only a biological reaction, but also an emotion such as fear. He explains why we scared about the horror films, and interested with it.
These two article are differ from course reading and weekly videos. The first article is focus on what are benefits of horror, especially for children, because some people think horror is terrible for their children. The author uses six reasons to support his or her ideas. “childhood was not a skip-hop through a candy-cane field of butterflies and sharing and sunshine, that is was in fact a terrifying ordeal he felt compelled to help kids survive” (Ruth, 2014). This is different from course reading because the course reading doesn’t mention the benefit for horror. In the second article, the author wants to explain the reason why people like horror. And the supports of his or her view are scientific, not like the course reading. The course reading mainly introduces that elements of the horror and some history of horror. “Horror thrives above all as a narrative form” said by Carroll in 2002. The course reading explains more the art form and horror principles. In the second article, the author use a question to open the topic. “The question is: Why? If our best selves find the horrific so repulsive, why do we pay good money to watch it again and again? “(Fink, 2009). All these two article are illustrate different things from course reading.
Reflection:
Future Goal:
Fink, L. (2009). Horror Movies: Why people Love Them.http://www.livescience.com/7949-horror-movies-people-love.html
Ruth, G. (2014). Why Horror is Good For You (and Even Better for Your Kids). http://www.tor.com/blogs/2014/05/why-horror-is-good-for-you-and-even-better-for-your-kids