The Amityville Horror, written by Jay Anson was without doubt a great piece of American literature. It has inspired many to write bestselling books, and others to create many excellent movies. Perhaps the most surprising thing about The Amityville Horror is its staying power. There are many possible explanations as to why The Amityville Horror was so popular during the 1970’s and it is no surprise that it is still in print today. The most shocking part of this books history is that it was based on a true story. The story behind the story began on November 13, 1974, when six members of an Amityville, New York, family were killed. This was one of America’s most shocking events during 1974. This is one possible explanation of the popularity of this book. America was changing drastically from 1960-1970 and people were beginning to open their minds to new ideas. One cause of people opening their minds to new things could possibly be explained because of the increased rate of drug usage during this time period. Ther can be many explanations as to why The Amityville Horror was so popular, but the two main causes of the high popularity of this film can only be explained because of what was currently going on in America. The two events in history that may have had the largest impact on this book are the creation of the movie, The Exorcist, and the Vietnam War.
In order to fully understand how popular The Amityville Horror was, a brief history of the story and book must be revealed. This book has sold nearly ten million copies from the time it was written in 1977 until present day. This is an extraordinary number and it continues to rise today. According to Benjamin Radford, a film critique, this book has caused the spawning of many different movie versions and has at least seven different spin-offs from the original story. Just a few of these stories have been continued in a series of books by John G. Jones. These are The Amityville Horror Part II (1982), Amityville - The Final Chapter (1985), Amityville - The Evil Escapes (1988) and Amityville - The Horror Returns (1989). In 1991, Amityville - The Nightmare Continues, by Robin Karl, was published. The original movie made nearly $402,500,000 worldwide.
House of Horrors goes into gruesome details by the survivor of a rape and almost a twelfth murder by Anthony Sowell. She gives the details of how the night went about before she was attacked by the serial killer. Also, this book has notes from the author written to Anthony Sowell as also there are letters written back to the author from Anthony Sowell while he is serving the death penalty in the Ohio State Penitentiary in Youngstown, Ohio
...dience long after the film reels have stopped turning. The idea of a “scary movie” could be innocuous enough, if it is simply frights and ghoulish images, but Nosferatu raised the bar and discovered how to delve into a collective mindset and produce a truly unsettling product. Germany’s residual shame and concern regarding World War I made Nosferatu a gripping, telling exploration of a nation’s psyche.
King chooses to compare the minds of a child and an adult to see the different resilience levels when exposed to the horror genre. He describes his findings as a paradox, “Children, who are physically quite weak, lift the weight of unbelief with ease” (PP 118). King assumes because the mind of an adult is mature it can handle the horrific depictions within the horror variety yet children seem too be able to withstand the pressure. King backed his theory by analyzing Walt Disney’s movies and their impact on a child’s imagination. Walt Disney’s movie Bambi is what Stephen King pinpointed when comparing the toll of horrific events in children and adult minds. King questioned adults about what was most terrifying about a movie when they were younger and they stated, “Bambi’s father shot by the hunter, or Bambi and his mother running before the forest fire” (PP 119). Another aspect King unveiled was the Doppler Effect and that, “A part of ‘growing up’ is the fact that everything has a scare potential for the child under eight” (PP 119). The cognitive imagination does not stop developing it just suppresses certain mental functions to draw a line between what is real and what is not. Horror novelist mask the tension with comedy yet with one swift motion it, “Knocks the adult props out from under us and tumbles us back down the slide into childhood” (PP
“As a broad answer, we might say that horror addresses fears that are both universally taboo and that also respond to historically and culturally specific anxieties. Horror movies exploit timeless themes of sex and death, the self and the soul, and our own beastly inner nature – fears that exist within our collective unconscious – as well as more topical fears such as, for example, atomic radiation in the 1950s, environmental contamination in the 1970s and 1980s, or, more recently, post-911 tourist horror with films such as Touristas (2006), The Ruins (2008), and the two Hostel films (2005, 2007).” (Grant ?)
The genre of horror when associated to film, it reflects on a vast variety of issues but when examined for the cultural significance it is narrower to what the aim is. This review surveys multiple scholarly sources from different aspects of the purpose of horror films. This literature review justifies that horror is derived from the fear and guilt within our psychological minds. I will argue that the cultural significance of this genre relates back to the emotional appeals that are conjured up when viewing these films.
I saw the play Little Shop of Horrors by Howard Ashman on Saturday the 7th of December 2013, at my school Dubai International Academy. It was about how a single but dangerous plant makes and breaks the Mushnik's Skid Row Florists business, and the romantic conflict as well as the traitorous characteristics of Seymour Krelborn. The main themes of the play are horror and comedy. I think that the production of the play was very successful as they had the audience locked into the story and overall, it was a very enjoyable and entertaining experience.
Humans crave horror to simply “dare the nightmare” (King, “Why We Crave” 1). Everyone has something that they are afraid of; even though we don’t like to admit it. The ideal life is to be fearless but, it never happens. Stephen King’s story, “Strawberry Spring,” gives a thrill to the story; through Stephen King’s writing, we are allowed to “show that..we are not afraid.” (King, “Why We Crave” 1). For instance, in the beginning of the story, “Strawberry Spring,” the narrator had been introduced
A man starting from nothing with only the urge to write becoming so much more. The King of Horror is a member of many guilds, writer of some of the best horror novels, and has even made a couple movies. Although, with a current net worth of 400 million dollars, Stephen King was not always the King of Horror.
The article Why We Crave Horror Movies by Stephen King distinguishes why we truly do crave horror movies. Stephen King goes into depth on the many reasons on why we, as humans, find horror movies intriguing and how we all have some sort of insanity within us. He does this by using different rhetorical techniques and appealing to the audience through ways such as experience, emotion and logic. Apart from that he also relates a numerous amount of aspects on why we crave horror movies to our lives. Throughout this essay I will be evaluating the authors arguments and points on why society finds horror movies so desirable and captivating.
Parker, Sam. Horror Through The Decades. Bauer Consumer Media, 2009. Web. 1 Oct. 2013. .
To begin with, some people would say they enjoy a horror movie that gets them scared out of their wits. They go see these movies once a month on average, for fun, each time choosing a newer sequel like “Final Destination” or “The evil Dead”. King says “When we pay our four or five bucks and seat ourselves at tenth-row center in a theater showing a horror movie we are daring the nightmare” (405). As a writer of best-sel...
Horror movies have been part of mainstream cinema since the early 1930s when films such as Dracula and Frankenstein were created. As the horror genre evolved, so did the stories in the films. Friday the 13th (Marcus Nipsel, 2009) is a very good example of this evolution. Even though it is a remake, Friday the 13th changed the way horror movies were seen by the audience. The ideas and theory behind this slasher sub-genre of horror films can be summed up in a book. Carol Clover, an American professor of film studies, wrote a book in 1992 entitled Men, Women, and Chainsaws: Gender in the Modern Horror Film in which she described the horror film genre. In a chapter entitled “Her Body, Himself”, Clover describes how weapons play a very important role in horror movies as well as explaining her Final Girl theory. Her book’s ideas changed not only academic notions but also popular beliefs on horror films. The 2009 remake of Friday the 13th implies that Carol Clover’s ideas about 80s slasher films, including male tormentors, the importance of weapons, and the Final Girl, have stayed the same through the years.
Stanley Kubrick's The Shining (1980) initially received quite a bit of negative criticism. The film irritated many Stephen King fans (and King himself) because it differed so greatly from the novel. The Shining also disappointed many filmgoers who expected a conventional slasher film. After all, Kubrick said it would be "the scariest horror movie of all time."1 Kubrick's films, however, never fully conform to their respective genres; they transcend generic expectations. In the same way that 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) is not just another outer-space sci-fi flick, The Shining is not a typical horror movie. The monsters in The Shining originate not from dark wooded areas, but from the recesses of the mysterious human mind-in broad daylight, at that. Perhaps Kubrick said The Shining is "the scariest horror movie of all time" not because it offers a bit of suspense, blood, and gore, but because it shines a light on the inherently evil nature of humankind on psychological and sociological levels.
Stephen King believes that we are naturally attracted to the horror genre because we can identify with it to some degree and it is also considered a challenge by some to be able to withstand horror. I find it slightly unsettling that to some degree we are all insane according to King, however, I find this to be very believable.
what meets the eye. So in an odd way then, Shelley leaves us to decide