Emotions In Horror Movies

It is an attractive idea that as humans live our lives out rationally, making decisions based on our logic and reasoning. Underneath our consciousness lies our primal instincts that originate back to when our ancestors and earth both primitive. These instincts are what shape our emotions and the actions people take, whether good or bad. Horror movies reflect our fears and our irrational thoughts, giving us a method in which people can experience these emotions. Whereas in our daily lives no such stimulation exists. This is why people have a fascination with horror movies. People crave horror movies because they put the fears, our irrationality, and the deep seeded emotions people have on the spotlight and gives people the ability to release

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. As these emotions grow there needs to be a way for people to release the pent-up emotions. Everyone finds different ways to do this. Some people watch sports such as football or mixed-martial arts to release their aggression, some people watch horror movies to release their built-up fears and emotions. People who do not or cannot regulate their anticivilization emotions will end up holding in those emotions until they express their anger, their fears, and their irrational thoughts in a way that is dangerous to society such as murders or acts of violence.
Another question that arises is how people are able to use horror movies to release these

Heroic movies typically portrays the main characters as strong, kind, and positive. This helps as when a person watching projects themselves onto those characters they experience those emotions and feelings. After watching a superhero movie people feel empowered and strengthened. On the contrast, horror movies encompass the opposite emotions. Typically the main characters are portrayed to be weaker and vulnerable. Their characteristics consist of irrationality and stubbornness. They are also shown to be weak in comparison to their environment. When movie watchers put themselves in these characters shoes, they can relate those emotions and faulty character traits to how they sometimes feel. They then feel as weak as the characters on screen, they also feel as vulnerable, as scared, and as irrational as them. This is a mental exercise that acts as a substitute for a real life experience. The differences between the two genres of films can show how different types of films can be attractive depending on the type of emotions people are looking to