Horror has been derived from folklore and religious traditions throughout history. It can be traced back to 'The Castle of Otranto' and subtitled 'A Gothic story' by the English author Horace Walpole in 1764. This led to a gothic horror genre that contained both horror and romance. Horror has existed in books, movies, music, and daily life ever since.
So... why horror? Why do some of us, even those who are mentally sane, enjoy these horrifying stories? Why did Paranormal Activity 3 gather a big $54 million in the box office? (The most ever for a horror film). Studies show that people view horror for the thrill, not because they're afraid. In other speculations, it has been said that audiences endure the horror simply for the euphoric sense of relief they feel at the end. However, authors Eduardo Andrade (University of California, Berkeley) and Joel B. Cohen (University of Florida) argue that humans experience positive and negative emotions simultaneously. The feelings of thrill, relief, and fear would be occurring throughout the whole encounter with this form of story, not just at the end. Opinions vary and studies change. We may never truly know exactly why Chuckie is our Friday night flick, we are all different. Some view horror to criticize a book or a film, some do it because they lead ordinary lives, and some figure they can get a cheap thrill that won't be detrimental... but is that true?
Think about a world without horror. Halloween would be filled with kids dressing up as dumb, corny, super heros with all treat and no trick. Books would be filled with sappy love stories. Boys wouldn't have an excuse to put their arms around scared girls at the movies on their first date. There would be no thrills and chills in orchestras. Would there be as many fears and phobias? How about crime? Does horror inspire murderers? Maybe The Texas Chainsaw Massacre invokes a crazy inside us all. Without this genre, the freaks of nature would not have an order. Maybe the world would keep turning just fine.
It is interesting that such themes appeal to the mentally stable, or anyone for that matter. We can experience fear, thrill, excitement, and even joy while encountering evil or death. Horror sends us on a roller coaster of feelings, and after it all we're still together. There's a reason society has kept this type of literature around for hundreds of years. Our minds love it for different reasons. Mike Meyers going on a killing spree may be crazy but then again so is traveling through the seven levels of the Candy Cane Forest to find your dad.
I totally agree with you. Horror fiction has been in our literature for centuries and even centuries to come. Believe it or not, they're important to a child growing up. A kid would be afraid of the monster in the closet or the Boggy Man. Obviously the parents made up these stories to tell the children to behave. Horror movies give us the thrill that most people wouldn't get in daily lives. But this is a different kind of thrill, and it is most definitely different from the heart-thumbing that you get from a romance movie. Horror movies nowadays extend beyond the believable, which is broadening our imagination. A successful horror movie would stick into our minds for a long time. Most of the horror films are the type that we don't experience in our lives, which is probably why we are so addicted to it.
ReplyDeleteInteresting. I'm impressed by the fact that you notice how fiction (in this case, horror) fits into our social existence. Our summer reading book attempts to answers a few of your questions. You might want to consider researching this further for a future project.
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