Article 1:

“How [do horror films] give us pleasure and/or why does it interest us?” (Carroll, 276).  Carroll poses the question we all wonder (maybe not consciously): What about horror makes us so crazy for it?  Isn’t horror supposed to scare us?  And aren’t we as humans supposed to stay away from things that are scary?  You would think that would be the logical answer.  However, that’s actually the opposite of what horror does for us: “…the horror story is driven explicitly by curiosity” (Carroll, 279).  Horror intrigues us for some reason.  The first article I found gives ten reasons as to why horror should be considered the best film genre.  It gives possible explanations as to why horror is so popular:

Some of the reasons we love horror so much, according to the article are: they’re the best “date movies,” they have the best icons, it takes a lot of skill to scare an audience, they help us face our fears, they provide great controversy, horror has legendary directors, the genre never goes away (it’s always popular), it pioneers special effects (you have to make the terror believable, right?), and, finally, they’re just fun!

All these reasons can be considered as answers to the question why do we love horror so much? Or why is horror so interesting?  Well, because it shows us things that we’ve never planned on seeing.  It surprises us, and keeps us holding on.  Horror is one of those genres that is able to create anything out of the ordinary and make it seem possible.  I think one reason from this article that I haven’t thought about was “horror movies give us an outlet to rationalize and face our biggest fears, while remaining comfortable with the knowledge of it being fake” (Leigh).  It lets us experience fear, which gives us a kind of thrill, without it actually being harmful.  Therefore, horror allows us to experience scary things without it doing any harm, which gives us a sort of adrenaline rush.

Throughout this article, I was thinking of what Carroll said about curiosity, and that horror intrigues us.  I think all of the reasons listed in the article are reasons why we could be curious: there’s controversy, thrills, surprises, and things that just don’t make sense.  It gives us a chance to wonder what could be out there in the world.

I also think one of the big reasons horror is so popular is because as humans I think we are always intrigued by tragedy, and terror.

Article 2:

In this article, Fink gives expert opinions on why we love horror so much.  There is the desired effect, just plain suspense, and something that happens inside your brain.

The desired effect is basically the thrill we get from watching it: “‘People go to horror films because they want to be frightened or they wouldn’t do it twice,’ says Jeffrey Goldstein, a professor of social and organizational psychology at the University of Utrecht in the Netherlands” (Fink).  Fink also mentions that “the thrill calls up primal behavior, mainly in males, to assess threat levels. (The typical horror-flick viewer is a male adolescent between the ages of 15 and 45)” (Fink).  This goes along with what Carroll says: “… audiences for horror fictions are often adolescent males…” (Carroll, 291).  This makes sense if you go to a horror movie, there are mainly guys in the audience.  “‘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,’ Goldstein said” (Fink).  Like I mentioned in the previous argument, people want to feel the rush of horror: “the pleasures derived from art-horror are a function of fascination…” (Carroll, 291).  People love to feel fear, but from a safe distance.

Another reason Fink mentions is we love horror movies because they’re suspenseful.  “‘…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.’” (Fink).  In order for this effect to take place, horror must make it suspenseful.  Fink mentions the movie Paranormal Activity as one of the main suspense horror movies out there.  I’ve personally seen all of the sequels and I would have to agree that the main thrill of the movies is the sense of suspense.  Yes, the moments are scary, but having the audience wait in silence adds to the thrill.

The final assessment that Fink mentions about the effect of horror movies on us is what happens in our brain: “…fear is not merely a biological reaction, but an emotion derived from both deep-seeded evolutionary factors as well as newly learned cautions. Conversations between the brain’s primitive amygdala and the more recently acquired cortex allow humans to interpret an environmental event and respond with an emotion such as fear” (Fink).  Watching scary movies and having such a strong reaction can explain why we want it to happen again.  The arousal of the brain while watching horror gives us an addiction that we have to have again.  That would explain why people keep going back to horror movies even though they get scared while watching them.  People love the feeling they get while watching it, and don’t want to turn it off.

Bibliography:

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, November 6). Horror Movies: Why People Love Them. Retrieved November 9, 2014, from http://www.livescience.com/7949-horror-movies-people-love.html

Leigh, S. (2011, October 14). 10 Reasons Why Horror Might Be The Best Film Genre. Retrieved November 8, 2014, from http://whatculture.com/film/10-reasons-why-horror-might-be-the-best-film-genre.php