“Why Horror” as an entertainment genre?

Horry is an interesting and popular topic in the entertainment industry, especially the filming industry. Fear is from human’s instinct of self-preservation, and the fear of culture in contemporary society continues to diffusion trend. The film is typical of the industrial era of visual arts, and it never cease to fear humans and provides a new way of visual expression enhance the effects of horror. Horror movie theme fit the culture of fear in the society, and it has a very profound aesthetic and cultural significance. Contemporary horror movies reflect the theme of the contemporary society in contemporary film image is endemic fears, and these fears are actually on the theme of fear and anxiety of contemporary reality of society. Since 1895 the birth of cinema has became as an art form, a horror movie continues to trigger fears on its audience and becomes an enduring Genre. Despite the horror movie experienced several low tide on its development, but horror movies now is a very popular entertainment genre around the world. Here is a clip showing the evolution of horror films.

According to the article called At Leisure: Reconsidering the Horror Genre, “Horror is the genre of monsters-ghosts, vampires, werewolves, zombies, and more”(Joyce, 19), and we can see that those horror genres are vogue. People would like to spend time on horror movies, novels and so on, because horror evokes their curiosity and people’s curiosity creates the market value. Considering why horror as an entertainment genre, I am going to analyze several reasons.

Horror Helps Us Face Our Fears

An American author Stephen King says “We make up horrors to help us cope with the real ones.” Each of us has fears, because fear comes from the unknown. For example, you may be afraid of walking in the night, and this fear comes from the unknown of the road ahead of you. However, from the other side of the picture, if you clearly know that the road in front of you has no any danger, then you certainly will not have fear. Therefore, horror films and literature is a reflection of the true feelings of the human beings. “These novels demand an emotional reaction from readers: true fear. They achieve the reaction sometimes through psychology, sometimes through explicit violence and gory details.” (Joyce, 19) We can’t deny that we are afraid of horror because it straightly hit into your heart. Here is a clip talking about why people love horror.

“It’s terrifying, but we can’t stop watching” as the professor said in the video, horror evokes us curiosity because it helps us face our fears.

Lasting Impact

The purpose of horror films is to raises audiences’ fears, so that the audience is in a state of extreme tension. All the horror scenes are intended to touch audiences’ nerves, and the body is in a state of alert. At the end of a horror film, the director usually will not give us a definite end, waiting for you is a trigger you want more space for imagination. “Horror is the stuff of nightmares, filled with the worst fears we can imagine.” (Joyce, 19). Therefore, horror film always impacts us for a long period of time, because it gives you an infinite imagination.

Personally, I experienced a lasting impact from a horror movie called Case 39. Actually, this movie is a typical horror movie, but it educated me. The movie tough me that fears come from your imagination, and only the courage break fears. The courage is to face the own past and the courage is to endure the fear to overcome the devil in our mind. I like horror movie, because it always educate me a lot if you see the horror stuff from a positive perspective. Case 39 is the good example to help me build my courage.

Economic Value

Normally, horror movies have small investment, but the profit return is not small. The unique attribute of modern commercial films determine the economic purpose of filmmaking, and this is an important reason explains why horror movie is popular. Artistry and sense of value may not be the main pursuit horror film, but it is also pleasing place of horror, which directly and strange, mysterious and brutal, with a very effective entertainment impact. For example, James Wan filmed the first “Saw” only with a cost of mere $ 1.2 million, while the North American box office reached to $ 55 million, which easily broke 100 million worldwide box offices then. “Paranormal Activity” filmed with $ 15,000 of the cost exchanged hundreds of millions of dollars in global box office. In this industry, high return on investment produces amount of economic values.

Work Cited

Saricks, J. (2011). At Leisure: Reconsidering the Horror Genre. Booklist, 107(22), 19.