Analysis of Why We Crave Horror Movies by Stephen King

Movies are a favorite past time recreation among individuals. The following two authors Gianluca Di Muzio (2006) and Stephen King (2007) present opposing views towards the horror genre and its impact on society. Di Muzio article on “the immorality of horror films” and King’s article on “why we crave horror movies” are great examples on ways the horror genre affects society. Di Muzio (2006) presents the negative messages placed in horrific cinema, whereas King’s (2007) communication is about the positives. Di Muzio (2006) emphasizes dark themes, plot and ways society’s consumption to gore can lead to a sadistic lifestyle in one of his studies and critiques on the horror film Texas Chainsaw Massacre, whereas views conveyed by King (2007) towards the genre are simply recreational and meant for adrenalin addicts.

We lock our inner psycho from reality and feed it with the demonic, bloody violence found in horror movies. Doing this suggests that horror movies are our fix for our psychotic thoughts. Stephen King’s “Why We Crave Horror Movies” portrays that we are all insane in some weird way through

As a result of these shocking murders, a lot of controversy and debates emerged discussing the role that horror movies played in the execution murders. Some blamed the movies and others said they had nothing to do with it. That said, one question has been the center of this problematic dilemma; Do horror movies create psychopaths, or do they rather push someone with inherent psychotic traits to commit a murder? No one can deny that horror movies have many negative effects on the psychology and physiology of a person. But if that’s the only case, no one would like watching them.

For instance the claim that is not to be agreed with in King’s essay is the one where he declares “The fun comes from seeing others menaced - sometimes killed” (2). King has the mindset that the reason we find horror movies entertaining is because of the torture the characters go through. This opinion of his is completely unacceptable because even though we all have our bad side, the satisfaction isn’t from seeing the people playing the roles die; but from the movie as a whole that is filled with feelings of suspense, curiosity, fear, excitement and so many more

Throughout this essay I will be evaluating the authors arguments and points on why society finds horror movies so desirable and captivating. Within the article Stephen King continuously states that we humans all have insanity within us. In the article,

Horror films are so popular due to the fact that it sparks curiosity, it allows one to release repressed feelings, it allows one to face their fears, and because it allows one to feel better about their own life. In many cases people are drawn to horror films because it relieves one’s repressed feelings caused from childhood trauma. A quote from the Intro to The Beauty was: “I fell in love with horror because what the best horror does, is make us look at the most frightening aspects of ourselves”. Although horror films are essentially fictional, it also has a real world effect. The happenings in a horror film are often real world situations which creates a sense of connection between the characters in the film and those of the audience.

Horror films play an important role in helping people satisfy a need to express evil thoughts in a controlled manner. Stephen King explains this excellently with his description of how everyone is to different degrees insane. That as people share common civilization emotions such as love, friendship, loyalty, and kindness; people also share and harbor anticivilization emotions. (Stephen) And although people are free to and are encouraged to express our civilization emotions in society, our anticivilization emotions are shunned and kept withheld as they are deemed to be dangerous and harmful to society. Emotions such as rage, fear, and hate do not contribute to a healthy society yet they still exist in all of us.

What is a horror film and why do so many viewers adore being terrified? Horror is a genre that has a goal to petrify their audience, making one feel nervous and realizing their fears. Several of us have a dark side whether we know it or not. Those who tend to fall in love with horror do for many intentions; however, countless fans refuse to watch scary films. Horror has several meanings; therefore, if you enjoy twisted situations you fall under the select group that lives to watch scary films.

In most countries, horror movies are beloved and popular genre for certain group of people who are eager to have different types of feeling and emotion. It usually delivers wired, freaky, uncanny, fearful and uncomfortable feeling to its audiences. There have been thousands ways of expressing fearful emotion to the horror film lovers, however, most horror film have something in common that provokes fearful emotion by using particular context, such as gender discrimination and trauma of wars. Without understanding such a context, foreign horror films are understandable to other nations audiences, which means that the process of feeling threatened and fearful does not need to rely heavily on certain cultural or historical information. In this

People have absurd thoughts all the time, it could be different things like wanting to hurt someone or saying cruel words to the person, however horror movies help us to “re-establish our feelings of essential normality” (King 1). The things in horror movies are worse than the things that most people think, the horror movies are showing people that everyone thinks these kinds of thoughts. Since everyone feels like they are the only ones that have these thoughts, the comfort in knowing that other people also share the same feelings will give someone the feeling of