Definition Essay About Horror

Horror movies have captivated audiences for over a century. People everywhere flock to theaters to view chilling horror movies like Saw, Insidious, or the Conjuring. There is just something about horror that humans can’t get enough of. So why do we pay to scare ourselves sick? Why do we pay good money to watch others murdered and tortured to death? What do we possibly get from it all? In a culture were peace and non-violence is constantly promoted, there is still a part of the human that desires the opposite. So why is it that people watch horror movies in the first place? Experts believe there are different theories on why, but the three biggest are: the thrill, the Gender Socialization theory, and simply just because people actually want a scare.

Horror movies generally are all the same. They all have been based off of something that has already happened or a previous movie. Society has paid to be entertained by these gruesome stories that we all truly fear. Before movies, people would purchase books of similar tramatic events to read in their spare time for amusement. Writters such as Bram Stoker created graphic novels that grabbed peoples attention for years to come. But the horror movie, The House Of The Devil(1896), was noted as being the first ever horror movie. And as the years pasted, the industry grew and became stronger. The artist and creative portion of the movies became more gruesume and realistic. Now many of the horror films that have been creatured are said to be based off an events that were real. The fact of knowing that the events could be real attract millions of people, and keep the industy growing. Numerous people spend countless hours perfecting the art of terror for our amusement. Truly, they are looking at previous story lines and methods that had become successfull before.

People enjoy immersing themselves in fictional stories, whether that be through books, plays, or movies. No two movies are exactly the same keeping people watching more and more of them. Even though the movies may be very different, each story in a specific genre includes the same conventions, constituting them as part of that genre. Horror movies are filled with darkness, suspense, and anticipation. These conventions keep the audience on the edge of their seat wondering what is going to happen next.

Horror films are designed to frighten the audience and engage them in their worst fears, while captivating and entertaining at the same time. Horror films often center on the darker side of life, on what is forbidden and strange. These films play with society’s fears, its nightmare’s and vulnerability, the terror of the unknown, the fear of death, the loss of identity, and the fear of sexuality. Horror films are generally set in spooky old mansions, fog-ridden areas, or dark locales with unknown human, supernatural or grotesque creatures lurking about. These creatures can range from vampires, madmen, devils, unfriendly ghosts, monsters, mad scientists, demons, zombies, evil spirits, satanic villains, the possessed, werewolves and freaks to the unseen and even the mere presence of evil.

...is that isn’t always the case. Often, we either became the prey or the predator. Another reason is that we need to reassure ourselves our lives could be worse. We have this idea that what happens in movies only happens in movies and therefore we watch these films to guarantee our worst fears will never become our reality, regardless of how realistic it may seem. Lastly, we watch the genre of film that best matches our current mood or events that previously took place that day. Our emotions are key; if we’re depressed, we may be more likely to watch a horror film.

Film scholars around the world agree that all genres of film are part of the “genre cycle”. This cycle contains four different stages that a specific genre goes through. These stages are: primitive, classic, revisionist, and parody. Each stage that the genre goes through brings something different to that genre’s meaning and what the audience expects. I believe that looking at the horror genre will be the most beneficial since it has clearly gone through each stage.

"Why We Crave Horror Movies” is an essay in which the auther, Stephen King, whos one of the most succesful horror witers, assumes that we as humans are mentally ill. ”I think that we’re all mentally ill; those of us outside the asylums only hide it a little better – and maybe not all that much better, after all.” King gives his reasoning as to why we make the independent decision to buy a ticket and watch other human beings get killed. In other words, why we go cinema to watch horror movies. Futhermore he explains that that people enjoy watching horror movies because they to keep our insane

Stephen King, a very well-known writer and director, has a passionate voice when it comes to anything dealing with horror. In “Why We Crave Horror Movies,” King calls us out for knowing that we love the adrenaline rush and how we are so captivated by horror movies. He explains how we watch horror movies for the level of fun. King proposes that we go to defy ourselves; to see how far it can push us and that is what makes the experience so interesting. 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

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...

First of all, why do I watch horror movies? That is actually a really good and very heavy question. I often times try to understand why I watch films tha...