Why Horror
“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.
Aesthetic of Horror
Mise-en-scene
From my understanding, I think the mise-en-scene is some tools assisting filming. My example from the Buffy episode is a person went to bathroom and brash her/his teeth, and after that she step into another room, which probably is the bedroom, and the scary sounds came. This is at about 15:00 minutes. Everything in the bedroom is mis-en-scene. For example, the beds, closet, desks, chairs and the girlish decoration and color in the room. The reason I choose this example is because everybody seems like they lost their voice, and they started to panic with the situation. This situation continuants the development of the plot, while causes the audience’s curiosity. Also, the example contributes to the aesthetic of horror because it gives me an imagination of the plot. I would imagine that if something scary hiding in the room anywhere.
Non-diegetic Sound
For me, the people in the screen do not create the non-diegetic sound, and it comes from the outside of the screen, which is kind like a sound rendering an atmosphere of horror. My example is a lady comes to home, and then something scary happened because the wired sound is from the outside of the picture. It is at about 13:30 minutes. The reason I choose this example because there is a hand which looks very strange making something, also all those happened in the dark and scary night. Also, the example directly expresses the aesthetic of horror, because dark night with horror sounds gives audiences an illusion of ominous. Dark night is one of the best places filming horror movie, because in a movies bad things always happens at night.
Diegetic sound
The diegetic sound is the sound directly from the scene we can see. My example from the buffy episode is a girl lying on the front desk in the classroom. After a guy kissed her, all students are just disappeared and a sound, which a little girl is singing, came in. When I was watching it I felt like that the girl is dreaming, or the guy reminds the girl something horror. This part is at about 1:00 minutes. The reason I choose this example is because it arose my curiosity about this video, and I think it is a hint foreshadowing later developments in the story. Also, this example attracts audiences, which is the purpose of the aesthetic of horror. The reason I think it is attractive is because it arose my curiosity. Personally, the little girl is an element always used in the horror movie, and especially a little girl standing in an empty area, which exactly like the scene in the video. I would want to know what is going on with this girl when I watch the video.