Objectives:

• 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.

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Reflection:

This portion of the class was probably my favorite because I love watching horror movies.  They’re definitely my favorite genre because they keep me interested wondering what happens next.  This assignment was really interesting because I had the opportunity to look into what goes on in people’s minds and hypothesize why people love horror so much (I’ve been wondering that myself).  One article I found stated “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” (Fink).  This is definitely one of my favorite reasonings for people going to see horror films: they want the thrill of it.  I think people also go because it’s fun to be scared and people seek adventure (mentioned here).

In one of the other articles I found, they mentioned the Paranormal Activity movie.  This was one of the most famous scary movies when it came out.  I think it was such a success because it was so raw and looked extremely real (not to mention it was actually extremely scary).  I have seen all the paranormals and you can see the suspense affect building throughout the movie (suspense is talked about in this article).  It was interesting, also, to read about the different things that happen in your brain as you watch a scary movie as well.  Fear is actually an emotional reaction that we love, and in response to that, people get attached to that feeling and want it to happen again.  This explains why we tend to go to scary movies more than once.

A scene from one of the Paranormal Activity movies. This is the kind of stuff they use to scare an audience. They use disturbing, unusual things instead of gore and monsters.

Future:

I’m not a big fan of horror movies now (for a reason I’m not sure of).  My guess is because it has become so mechanical on techniques horror movies use to scare people it’s easy for me to pick it out.  However, now that I understand more of why people go, it will be more fun to watch people’s reactions in the movie theaters!

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