Article 1:

When looking at Medical Daily, a medical heath website, I read and enjoyed a evaluation similar to the one we read about horror. The article Why Do We Watch Horror Films? Some Want To Understand Archetypal Fears While Others Crave The Psychological Ride by Anthony Rivas, addressed what it seemed to: why we find enjoyment in horror. Within its bounds the article mentioned the oxymoron that is finding enjoyment of watching what, in person, would make people uncomfortable. This is very similar to the reading Why Horror by Noel Carroll in objective.  “Why are horror audience attracted by what, typically (in everyday life), should (and would) repel them?” (Carroll 1). I may times have wondered this question and the articles make some extremely interesting points as to why.

Anthony Rivas’ article details two main theories on why this is phenomenon is true in society. The first is the idea that in horror movies people “address their archetypal fears”. The concept is that many people “want to understand what our population fears as a whole” (Rivas). With this understanding people are able to more easily identify with the rest of society and this is something people long to do. The second idea is that other viewers are there for the “psychological ride.” Here we find a more scientific reaction to the on screen or in word action. “People who seek higher levels of arousal thoroughly enjoy the response [in horror] — their bodies have to intense experiences” (Rivas).  Rivas talks about how these are typically people who have larger reactions to dopamine and enjoy things like skydiving or bungee jumping. I think this reaction has more traction but Anthony has missed one critical idea that Carroll brings in her article.

The author of the horror has as much to do with the love for excitement in horror as the consumer. The author creates a situation where concluding the unknown is important to the viewer. “It is not that we crave disgust, but that disgust is a predictable concomitant of disclosing the unknown, whose disclosure is a desire the narrative instills in the audience and then goes to gladden” (Carroll 10).

Article 2:

In an article on Live Science, Horror Movies: Why People Love Them, Leslie Fink takes another view of how people seem to continue watching and in fact enjoy watching movies that make them cringe. The Article starts by talking about how the Halloween holiday brings them out more than any other time, and the movies seem to continue on from then. The article then goes into one of its three subsections about why people enjoy the horror and thriller genre. The parts are as follows: the Desired Effect, Just Plain Suspense, and In Your Brain.

The first two take a more social approach and try to use forms of psychology to explain people’s actions when it comes to horror. The latter takes a more medical approach in describing the effects that end up making our decisions. The main philosophies of the first two sections are mostly centered on the ideals of “suspense, adrenaline rush, being distracted from mundane life, vicariously thumbing our noses at social norms” (Fink). A release from the status quo being almost an all-encompassing group for why people might enjoy horror, from a social standpoint. Really the main point Fink makes in the first two sections is that people want to believe for even a small amount of time that their life is more exciting than it really is, even if that is in a negative way. The most interesting point about almost any report about horror that I read is that no one actually believes that we enjoy it because the actual content is appealing. Carroll exclaims this when she says that “it is not the tragic event itself that imparts pleasure, but rather the way it is worked into the plot” (Carroll 3). From a social position we do not really enjoy the ugliness of horror but instead the other aspects surrounding the ugliness.

In the final section Fink brings in a point about the medical and emotional aspects of horror’s affect on us. Fink tells that “fear is not a biological reaction, but an emotion derived from both deep-seeded evolutionary factors” and that because of that “once an emotion is aroused, it is so hard for us to turn it off” (Fink). We start the emotion of fear and that makes us want it to happen again.

-Rivas, A., (2013). ‘Why Do We Watch Horror Films? Some Want To Understand Archetypal Fears While Others Crave The Psychological Ride’, Medical Daily. Retrieved February 16th, 2014, from http://www.medicaldaily.com/why-do-we-watch-horror-films-some-want-understand-archetypal-fears-while-others-crave-psychological.

-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.

-Fink, L. (2009). Horror Movies: Why People Love Them. On Live Science. Retrieved February 16th, 2014, from http://www.livescience.com/7949-horror-movies-people-love.html

At 13:22 through 14:44 in the Hush episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer is the focus of the article.

Mise-En-Scene

-This point in the movie actually has an example for each of the three criticism terms all wrapped into one scene. As for the example of mise-en-scene, the lighting all of the sudden turns to darker areas as it signifies that something mischievous is happening. The man who enters on the screen, only his arms can be seen but they are decrepit and seem to not have been taken care of for years. These costume choices give an impression that extends beyond the normal person on the show. He comes in and is trust into the “bad guy” role simply by the lighting, what you see of him, and the framing of the shot that does not allow the audience to see the rest of his body until his horrendously creepy face is revealed. The mise-en-scene aspects add extra personality to the character that will set him up for the rest of the episode.

Non-Diegetic Sound

-To start the scene the music begins to swell and increases until the music screams when the man’s face is revealed. The music is not intended to be a result of the actions on screen but instead a helping effort to enhance the importance of the moment. The music draws the viewer in to the action, exclaiming that something is happening. This scene is one of the first times that the director uses a non-diegetic and this makes it much more important as to the effect on the episode.

Diegetic Sound

-Throughout the episode what seem to be the souls of the many slip out of the mouths of the people at night and fly toward a box that was opened by the man. These “souls” or “whispers” have a quiet wind sound as if they are actually physically moving through the air. They also have whispering voices that slightly make a noise as they fly to the box. The diegetic sound is clearly coming from the “souls” or “whispers” and a sound that is coming from something on screen. The sounds coming from this gives the objects more life as to that this not just an unnoticeable occurrence. To the contrary, this would be viewable to anyone had they been awake.

The reason I chose this scene as the example for all three of the criticism terms is because not often do all of the terms work together in such harmony.