1.

Tartakovsky, M. (2012). Why Some People Love Horror Movies While Others Hate Them. Psych Central. Retrieved on August 4, 2014, from http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2012/10/31/why-some-people-love-horror-movies-while-others-hate-them/

University of Chicago Press Journals. (2007, July 31). Why Do People Love Horror Movies? They Enjoy Being Scared. ScienceDaily. Retrieved August 3, 2014 from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/07/070725152040.htm

2.

The article, Why Some People Love Horror Movies While Others Hate
Them, discusses why there are people out there that enjoy horror films. A lot of what is stated is that a lot of it is due to the excitement that people get from watching horror films. The psychological viewpoint is that people know that they shouldn’t be enjoying the horror films but do because of the reverse reaction that they get. The fact that they feel the adrenaline rush is what attracts them to the horror films. Another reasoning that this article gives about the enjoyment of horror flicks is that some people are just wired differently from the rest. Some people enjoy the adrenaline rush more than others do, stating that 10 percent of the population gets enjoyment from the rush. Another topic was based on the fact that a lot of the horror films are very well made movies that have a rich background or story to it. People might enjoy the movie because of the fact that it is very entertaining and it does have a good story to it and is considered a novelty.

In the second article, Why do People Love Horror Movies? They Enjoy being scared, discusses the feeling that people get after the movie. The people that do enjoy the movies will often find it having a good time, while those that don’t find enjoyment out of the movies will not find themselves having a good time and will not want to see another. This relates to things such as having a good time with friends, most likely you will want to go back to those same people because it created a good memory for yourself. Same with the horror films, if you feel excitement at the end of it, one will most likely go back for more. One study found in this article was that men enjoyed horror flicks more than women. This is so because men see scary films as a good movie to take a date to. They often seek for that physical closeness women often are depicted to do when scared. Men are often seen as being the brave ones in society, so for them to admit that they like horror films makes them feel more acceptable to society rather than looking like a girl who is supposed to be scared of horror films.

A couple things that relate the two articles from above to the reading about horror films was how the reading discusses the enjoyment of a film due to the events that occur in it. “Thus, it is not the tragic event in itself that imparts pleasure, but rather, the way it is worked into the plot” (Carrol 77). This relates back to my second article about how people often enjoy a horror film due to the fact that the story behind the plot can often be entertaining. Often the plots in horror films are filled with things people can only imagine happening to them and make them feel a certain way because of the creative juices flowing through them during a film. “Some people turn to scary movies because they’re novel. All of us are wired to pay attention to anomalies in our environment, Sparks said. Since danger disrupts routine, curiosity about change is important for survival” (Tartakovsky, Why Some People Love Horror Movies While Others Hate Them). The reading for this relates back to my first article as well when it discusses how curiosity plays a large role in why people enjoy the films.  “It engages its audience by being involved in processes of disclosure, discovery, proof, explanation, hypothesis, and confirmation” (Carol 279). What this statement is saying is that people enjoy horror because it makes people get their creative juices flowing, and keeps people entertained because of how the audience doesn’t know what will happen next. “This novel approach to emotion reveals that people experience both negative and positive emotions simultaneously —  people may actually enjoy being scared, not just relief when the threat is removed. As the authors put it, “the most pleasant moments of a particular event may also be the most fearful” (Chicago Press Journals, Why Do People Love Horror Movies, 2007).