Enjoying Horror Essay
For this week’s research project, we were asked to find articles on horror relating to this week’s readings. The first article I chose is titled “Horror Movies: Why People Love Them”, by Leslie Fink, where she beings her article writing how “You choose your entertainment because you want it to affect you. That’s certainly true of people who go to entertainment products like horror films that have big effects. They want those effects”. The article continues by examining what is so enticing to viewers about horror movies, and her main opinion is that “people have the ability to pay attention as much or as little as they care to in order to control what effect it has on them, emotionally and otherwise.” This allows viewers to decide for themselves how frightened they want to be, as Fink states “If you have a good imagination, you can connect to your hardwired fears simply by thinking about a scary situation.” This article emphasizes that horrors are meant as entertainment filled with “big effects”, which is why people are so interested, plus the added ability to mentally build up an even more frightening scene in your mind.
The second article I found was titled “Why We Love Scary Movies”. I found this article off of WebMD, and it goes in depth on the science side of why people like scary movies. The article beings emphasizing males, saying “There’s a motivation males have in our culture to master threatening situations, it goes back to the initiation rites of our tribal ancestors, where the entrance to manhood was associated with hardship. We’ve lost that in modern society, and we may have found ways to replace it in our entertainment preferences.” Males enjoy conquering challenges (such as watching an entire scary movie without flinching, etc.). This plays a large role into society and how, especially amongst kids, there is a unspoken challenge for who has watched the most morbid/gory movies. Another theory mentioned in this article is that people enjoy them because it is a means of coping with their own actual fears. This articles DOES not take the stance that horror movies are good for us though. The article found that “60% reported that something they had watched before age 14 had caused disturbances in their sleep or waking life”. The brain stored memories that lingered when similar settings occurred (such as alone at night in bed, etc). The end of the article had a fascinating quote, writing “The further films go today, the more likely it will be that people will decide that the costs outweigh the benefits. Then they’ll say, ‘I don’t want to see that anymore.” The article is predicting a lowered interest in horror films in coming years.
These readings all tie into each other, for the obvious first reason that these are surrounded by the topic of horror. More specifically, as Carroll’s text is titled “Why Horror?”. Carroll emphasizes that the actual horror is not the main interest, it is how it is worked into the plot. Something Carroll brought up that was not mentioned in the other articles was the processes that attract viewers to these types of movies, such as “disclosure, discovery, proof, explanation, hypothesis, and confirmation” (pg. 279). Carroll also goes a new direction when she begins talking about art-horror, and our fasciation as a species of “anomalies”.
The quote that ties these articles together is when Carroll writes “One wants to gave upon the unusual, even when it is simultaneously repelling” (pg. 286). All three texts discuss the attraction or interest, and whether they argue that it is healthy or not, the fact remains that we find something intriguing about horror and frighting objects/sounds/videos. Also, the idea that the brain and mind creates a greater dramatic effect than the movie itself. Each text uses its own example of initiating horror, such as the lingering thoughts after one watches a horror movie, the smallest noises or occurrences trigger the sense of terror arisen from the horror that you watched or read.
From my personal perspective as someone who went through a phase of loving scary movies, I think the main reasons I enjoyed them so much a few years back was because of the challenge mainly. The challenge of watching the entire movie and then trying my hardest not to psych myself out and be frightened all night long. Then, after I realized that scaring myself was a waste of time, I now will dabble in horror films once in a while, but by no means frequently. I do agree with Carroll on how horror films have a series of processes, and once you start a horror film, you have to finish so you can see all of those processes through. Horror certainly adds an element of surprise and excitement, and I am glad I got to divulge more into the details of types and sounds and everything that one needs to know about the topic of horror in art.
Enjoying Horror
Non-Diegetic Example:
An example from the Buffy episode of non-diegetic sound (a sound that is not visible on screen) is beginning at 13:20, when the scene changes, and eery music begins playing. They show a clock, and then some hands opening a box. Next, whispers begin in the background of the music, and the camera continues panning around the room, with no commentary going on. This is an example of non-diegetic sound because no one was visibly seen playing the music, and the whispering was not coming from a particular character. It was setting the mood, giving the viewer a feeling of unrest, or that something creepy was soon about to happen. It was setting up the following scene using specific sounds. This example definitely contributed to the aesthetic of horror for this video. The sounds used made the environment seem dark and scary, and if the volume was up quite loud, it would be very frightening when the music and especially whispering began to play.
Diegetic Example:
Diegetic sound is the voices of characters seen on screen, or any sounds/music that you can physically see on the screen, otherwise known as “actual sound”. The entire episode consists of many examples of diegetic sound, but the scene I chose begins around 21:00, when all the characters realize they are unable to use their voice. It goes back to Riley, as he is working with a lady on a computer system to communicate how to fix the outbreak. The lady uses her computer, as you can hear her typing (the keyboard “clicking” noises), and the computer responding by reading out loud everything she types. This is an example of diegetic sound because you can clearly see where the sounds are coming from, this time my example is referring to the noises made by the objects (keyboard, computer, writing on paper, etc.). I think that this example did not necessarily contribute to the aesthetics of horror for this episode. The conversation was simply a necessary component of the plot, where the characters are trying to create a game plan for how they will get their voices back, and I wouldn’t say the way the diegetic sound was played is related to horror, it was more like a build up of the rest of the episode.
Mise-En-Scene Example:
An example of mise-en-scene (production designs, color, lighting, etc.) from the Buffy episode is right around 34:00, when Riley enters the house, carrying a gun, and then immediately after walking through the door, gets into a fight, and weapons are pulled out on both sides. This is an example of mise-en-scene because the props set up the scene to be a dramatic, and physical encounter. There is aggression displayed, as they both are fighting and purposefully trying to injure one another. I think this example of mise-en-scene contributes to the aesthetics of horror due to the lightening, props, and movements that occurred. The lighting is dim, and the camera shows only Riley as he slowly walks into a house, where there is hardly any lights on, and carrying a weapon.