Cruelty

Title : Horror Movie Terrified? Hell No!
Joslyn

Abstract Horror movies are not that scary as people think it is. The positive reasons of watching horror movies actually has quite a few. In theory, watching horror movies could let yourself feel positive and negative emotions simultaneously which is fascinating how a brain could do that. Horror movies are also being watched just to feel happy to be unhappy. Horror movies also could boost the viewers adrenaline which is good for health for the body circulation flow. Besides that, horror movies represent the decay of society, show the value of staying within societal norms, or allow people to feel fear within a controlled setting. Through this research essay, readers could actually know quite a few reasons why people like to watch horror movies and how it affects the mind of numerous viewers in an affirmative way. Horror movies are not that scary as people think it is. Sometimes, people have the concept of horror as thrilling, blood-spilling and mind-twisting. But there is a saying, “ Don’t judge a book by its cover,” Actually horror movies could be as exciting and fun to watch. Although almost 75% of the population in the world still find that horror movies are terrifying and gruesome, yet there are a few thousands of people enjoy watching horror movies and become addicted fans of this genre. Fear is a mysterious yet scary emotion. It prompts horror movie viewers to have the motivation to pursue pleasure and avoid pain during the process. If most people do not like to watch horror movie, it seems counterintuitive that so many people would voluntarily immerse themselves in almost two hours of fear, disgust and terror. "Why do people pay for this?" "How is this enjoyable?" In this essay, I am going to discuss about the positive effect of watching horror movies.
Researchers, before Eduardo Andrade and Joel B.Cohen theorized their point of view, have found two assumptions for the reason why people would prefer to watch horror movies. According to them, first, horror movie viewers are not actually afraid of watching horror movies ( 2010 ). Instead they feel excited before they watch the movie as they do not know how the plot is planned for the entire movie. They feel as if they are anticipating something to happen during the movie that might get them thrilled of their lives. The second assumption is that horror movie viewers are willing to endure the terror in order to enjoy an euphoric sense of relief at the end of the movie. For example, watching Paranormal Activity late at night would be as terrifying as walking back home alone late at night on a cold and quiet street. Yet, people would still watch the movie late at night to feel a sense of relief as to make themselves to withstand the terror of everyday lives.
But, these theories are presumed wrong by Eduardo Andrade and Joel B. Cohen in Journal of Consumer Research. They believed that a reevaluation of 2 dominant explanations for people’s willingness to consume “negative” experience is in order. ( 2010 ) They also assumed that people cannot experience negative and positive emotions simultaneously. This assumption of people’s inability to experience positive and negative effect at the same time is incorrect. In truth, people could actually experience all different kinds of feelings and emotions at the same time. For instance, when a mother of a high school student knew her daughter’s result is not all that good at the end of the day, she would feel disappointed that her daughter did not get the result that she anticipated from her. She would feel angry and scold her daughter for not getting a good result. But at the same time, she feels that she is grateful and relieved that even though her daughter score just average marks in her class but she had tried her best on making the best effort that she could. So, it is actually not precise to say that a person could not experience both postive and negative at the same time. Furthermore, Andrade and Cohen state that people who watch horror movies are happy to be unhappy. (2010) People may actually enjoy being scared, not just relief when the threat is removed. Sometimes, the most pleasant moments of a particular event in a horror movies may also be the most fearful ones. Take, for instance, The Blair Witch Project. It is a documentary horror film with no sound effects and the story plot is all based on the recordings from the video cameras of 3 university students lost in the middle of the woods. In my opinion, even though the movie is not that all scary, the ending leaves a big impact on the mind of viewers. “Are they all dead?” “Why is he standing there?” “Does the movie have an ending?” All questions will pop into our heads and let us keep guessing what might the ending would be. This is what us horror movies lovers like about horror genre. Mysterious yet exciting movie. Horror movies actually have a loyal fanbase compared to other genres. Horror movie viewers could boost their adrenaline easily. According to Hallberg, watching horror movie can be a thrill ride for them by starting out slow, then gradually building pace to an exciting climax. (2013) Instead of going out to do some extreme sports, people could stay in their house watching horror movie to have an adrenaline rush. Besides that, it is safe to watch horror movies. The primary criticsm of horror movie is that the movie is too real. This has been a concern of most viewers as they do not want to get so frightened that they have to constantly reminding themselves that this is just only a movie. If the movie viewers were just to suspend their disbelief in the extraordinary phenomenon, horror movies could be quite interesting and act as a preparation for surviving difficulties. This is because horror movies provide danger without having actually being in danger. Horror movies are also cathartic. The contents in horror movies actually provide excessive levels of violence to the viewers. In fact, watching horror movies could actually reduce anger when viewers get upset on something. According to Tricia Ellis-Christensen, horror movie viewers mostly consist of older teens and people in their early 20s. (2013) She stated that some researchers believed that the movies represent the decay of society, show the value of staying within societal norms, or allow people to feel fear within a controlled setting. Some viewers watch horror movies as a product in the decay of society. For example, gorier films. In the early society, House of Atreus in Greek mythology represents cannabalism during that particular time. Besides that, the Bible has its own giants and destruction of whole cities while the Old Testament explains a wrathful God stomp onto people until his feet are wet with blood. According to Joseph Campbell and Carl Jung, all of this tales are called cautionary tales claiming wrathful revenge for those who dare to venture outside the normal boundaries. Therefore, old tales can be dangerous and certain producers use it as a reference to create a plot for horror movies. Next, horror movies can also show the value of staying within societal norms. Tricia Ellis-Christensen explained how the cautionary tales that has mentioned above relates to the socital norms. (2013) When people starting to venture outside of what is considered societal norms, it would depict chaos onto these people who does not “behave” well. It is somewhat like a punishment to those who does not obey the law. Mostly, cautionary tales are used in slasher films especially to promote themes of how innocence may prevail. However, there is some criticism of John Carpenter’s Halloween. One of the criticsm states that the only survivor, Dr. Loomis was virginal and sexually inexperienced. Another example that I could use is Wes Craven’s Scream which describes how teens recites the formula for what will get them killed in a horror movie. On the other hand, horror movies are not mostly cautionary tales, as Tricia stated. It is also a way for men to experience fear in a controlled setting. (2013) To them, it was proved enjoyable since fear can be controlled and limited to a fictional form of escapism that last short. Since real fear is much more terrifying, catharsis may be a manner deal with real and not imagined fear. The other reason men like to watch horror movies is also because it give the thrills that elevates the heart rate and boosts adrenaline and the “scares” post no real threat. About 80% of guys watch horror movies just to boost up their self-confidence and their guts so that they could be brave in front of the girls just to impress them. In conclusion, horror movies are actually exciting and fun to watch. Movie viewers can sit back and enjoy watching how the story goes and how it builds the adrenaline in the movie to scare the viewers from their couch. Instead of letting viewers themselves got shocked and frightened till death, viewers should have another point of view towards horror movies as it is also one of the genres that makes into movie production. Thus, dare yourself with your friends to watch horror movies whether it is in the morning or late at night, you might find yourself one day that you actually like watching horror movies.
Reference:
University of Chicago Press Journals (2007, July 31). Why Do People Love Horror Movies? They Enjoy Being Scared. Science Daily. Retrieved from http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/07/070725152040.htm
Hallberg, M. (2013, May 31) Why Do People Like Horror Movies? Retrieved from http://www.examiner.com/article/why-do-people-like-horror-movies
Ellis-Christensen, T. And O. Wallace (2013, July 3) Why People Like to Watch Scary Movie? Retrieved from http://www.wisegeek.org/why-do-people-like-to-watch-scary-movies.htm
Walters, G.D., ( 2004, May 13 ) Understanding the Popular Appeal of Horror Cinema : An Intergrated-Interactive Model. Journal of Media Psychology, Volume 9, No.2. Retreived from http://www.calstatela.edu/faculty/sfischo/horrormoviesRev2.htm
Palmer, M.A., Fear: A Psychophysiological Study of Horror Film Viewing. Retrieved from https://digital.library.txstate.edu/bitstream/handle/10877/3220/fulltext.pdf
Stone, B., ( 2001, October ) The Sanctification of Fear : Images of the Religious in Horror Films. The Journal of Religion and Film Volume 5, No.2. Retrieved from http://www.unomaha.edu/jrf/sanctifi.htm