Everyone has their favorite genres. Whether someone is reading a book or watching a movie, we all have a few genres that strike a chord in our brains that tell us, “hey I enjoyed that.” But for a few reasons, we all tend to have one thing in common and that is our universal intrigue and enjoyment of horror. There are a few people who absolutely refuse to associate with horror films, but for the rest of us, there is something about horror films that draws us back in every single time. For some of us, it might be just the sheer passion of horror cinematography and literature. The special effects and costuming that go into just about every horror film and the suspense of a page-turning horror story. For others it might be the desire to experience an emotional state that we do not often experience in our day-to-day lives. Engaging our natural fight or flight response is not something we experience every single day, so to make up for that moment of adrenaline and excitement, some of us experience horror stories and films. Whatever the reasons may be, horror is something that constantly draws in an audience even when the audience knows what is coming.
One of the key questions raised in the reading this week is straight forward and to the point; how is it that, “normally aversive events and objects can give rise to pleasure or compel our interests”? (Carroll, 276) Well as we try to answer this question, Carroll tries thinks that it, “is driven explicitly by curiosity.” (Carroll, 279). Is this true? Do we watch horror films just to experience the proverbial “monster in the closet?” In an essay written by Stephen King, which you can read here, we go to watch horror movies because it allows us to step out of the day to day and experience the fact that “we’re all mentally ill.” (King, 1). King explains that going to watch a horror movie is like going on a roller coaster; a horror movie lets out the child that exists in all of us when we are too old for roller coasters. He even explains that the murderer that exists in all of might not be that far from reality and that we go to see horror movies to satisfy that little part of us. He explains that horror films have a nasty job and that is to appeal to the worst part of all of us. But underneath what seems like a gruesome idea, that a murderer exists in all of us, is it not better that that part of us is satisfied by horror rather than reality? It’s an interesting question to think about. So what does Carroll think about this? Well the answer is in the text and I think the two are in agreement. “Moreover, it should be clear that these particular cognitive pleasures, insofar as they are set in motion by the relevant kind of unknowable beings, are especially well-served by horrific monsters.” (Carroll, 283). Using these “horrific monsters” is our way to satisfy the darkest parts of our inner being. Everyone has it, and luckily most of us exercise that part of us using horror films.
Another reason that seemed to be alluded to the reader throughout Carroll’s article is that by nature, horrifying things appeal to us and that’s just about it. We, as human beings strive to see and witness things that we know are not real, things that we understand to be fictional. We see the same things in many other genres, like fantasy or action films. We experience these things to live something that we know deep down can not every really happen. (I’m 22 and I’m still waiting for my Hogwarts letter). So, we go to horror movies to experience the gore and the theatrics because inside of us, we know that this is the only place we can experience these emotions. Carroll states that, “the pleasure derived from art-horror are a function of fascination.” (Carroll, 291). In an article written on the psychology of a horror fan, which you can read here, it explains that we go and see this horror films because they are not something we can experience anywhere else. Going to see a horror film can be something of bragging rights for a person, more like they survived watching a film more than just having watched a horror film. The article concludes by saying that we watch horror films, just to see, “someone who is hands-in-front-of-their-eyes terrified” (Heaney). And it might be as simple as that. We watch horror because it is fun, it makes us experience real fear, and it lets us experience things we know we can never experience.
Bibliography:
Hawkins, J., (2002). ‘Revisiting the Philosophy of Horror’, Film-Philosophy, vol. 6 no. 6. Retrieved October 20th, 2002, from http://www.film-philosophy.com/vol6-2002/n6hawkins.
King, S. (n.d.). Why We Crave Horror Movies. 1-3.
Heaney, K. (n.d.). The Psychology of a Horror Movie Fan. Retrieved May 11, 2015, from http://www.psmag.com/books-and-culture/psychology-horror-movie-fan-halloween-scary-cinema-93375