Cedie Bagos Dr. Mello English 100 13 May 2015 The Monsters Within Stewart Cohan, a nine year old boy from Chicago died of fright while watching the opening scene of "The Creeping Unknown" and yet monster films still manage to create a multibillion dollar film industry where watchers risk a similar deadly fate. So what makes these films click? According to Stephen King in "Why We Crave Horror Movies," he argues that we fuel the monster frenzy because "we are all insane," and by watching "re-establish our feelings of essential normality" (King # ). When the Japanese was bomb by the United States in 1945, they created Godzilla, a monster that embodied their fears and anxieties in the physical form. Monsters gradually change overtime and Godzilla …show more content…
The modern Godzilla now was greatly linked to science and the environment, an area that was increasingly indefinite and devastating. It represented our generations fears of the unknown and what according to Dendle "it means to be human"(Dendle 177). Throughout his essay, Dendle focuses on the changing nature of the Zombie monster as it gradually re-morphs itself upon newer audiences. In a sense, the changing nature of a monster represents the changing nature of humanity overtime. In the twenty-first century English remake of Godzilla by Gareth Edwards, the monster has drastically changed as Godzilla was now a millennial beast representing our own culture moment. Japan and Russia, now strong economic allies of the United States have simmered down tension, and negotiated peace, thus killing the 20th century Toho-produced Godzilla and the American Zilla that represented the terrors of the atomic bomb. This millennial monster now represented the events that cursed the Millennial generation like the spread of HIV/AID, an unheard of deadly disease that plagued Americans especially during its early development as it became a death sentence to those who were infected, the Year 2000 problem (Y2K), and the surge of the supernatural brought out by the imaginations of a well-informed, tech-savvy generation. In the 2014 film of Godzilla, the fears of the generation …show more content…
In the film, when the government could not hold off the truth that following the nuclear disaster a new creature was reborn, they now needed to name the new monster which was "MUTO" a Massive Unidentified Terrestrial Organism. The creation of names help us to grasp the unknown. Similar to how scientist needed to name the elements of a periodic table as they were discovered, how we name monsters and how we name natural disasters such as hurricanes to make them less daunting. In a recent study conducted by Modern Healthcare in their article "Hurricanes with Feminine names seen as less Scary," they argue that hurricanes with a more feminine name brings out more casualties because people underestimate the dangers (Modern Healthcare 1). In a way, the characteristics of a deadly hurricane that kills thousands every year is forgotten because what is stuck in the people are the innocent attributes brought out by names like Emma, or Katrina. This is similar to how MUTO was a way to deescalate and underestimate the dangers of the massive extraterrestrial who wreaked havoc in the
For centuries, authors have placed human features on their fears allowing their public to confront a concrete creature rather than an abstract idea. The fear of death resulted in stories regarding vampires and mummies, fears of the unknown resulted in stories about creatures invading the Earth, fears of reincarnation resulted in stories of mad scientists creating life from death. With the invention of the motion picture in the late nineteenth century, these fears were able to be seen using human actors and actual “monsters” making both the fears and the fulfillment greater. As more of these films were created, audiences grew more tolerant of the once frightening monsters forcing directors to go even farther. To continue this trend, filmmakers soon were creating more fear than they were relieving creating another psychological void that needed to be filled. Sensing that the realm of horror films and many other genres of film were saturating the film industry, Mel Brooks wrote and directed two films in 1974: Blazing Saddles and Young Frankenstein. Th...
Monsters and the Moral Imagination, written by Stephen Asma, presents many possible outcomes as to why monsters are the rise. Mr. Asma discusses why monster portrayals could be on the rise in movies, books, and stories throughout his subsection Monsters are on the Rise. Perhaps the rise is due to traumatic events in recent history such as the holocaust or the terroristic attacks of 9/11 in
The horror genre is synonymous with images of terror, violence and human carnage; the mere mention of horror movies evokes physical and psychological torture. As remarked by noted author Stephen King “the mythic horror movie…has a dirty job to do. It deliberately appeals to all that is worst in us. It is morbidity unchained, our most base instincts let free, our nastiest fantasies realized.” (King, 786). At manageable intervals, we choose to live these horrific events vicariously through the characters in horror movies and books as a means of safely experiencing the “what if”. The horror genre allows us to explore our fears, be it spiders, vampires, loss of our identity, or death of a loved, under the most fantastic and horrible circumstances conceivable. King also points out that by watching horror movies we “may allow our emotions a free rein . . . or no rein at all.” (King, 784). According to psychiatrist James Schaller, by vicariously “experiencing contrived fears, a person develops a sense of competence over similar types of fears.” (Schaller). Horror films allow the viewer the opportunity to safely examine their fears safely and to the depth and extent they wish to do so. Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 provides the opportunity for the viewer to consider a diverse range of fears, with a little humor thrown in for balance, from the safety of a darkened room, a comfortable seat and in less than 120 minutes.
This is a Rhetorical Analysis essay analyzing an article that was published by Playboy in January 1981 by the author Stephen King “Why We Crave Horror Movies”.
sample, but it also appeals to population and emotion. To further explain why we crave
These days, more and more people are making the choice of going to the cinema to be scared out of their wits, and they actually find it thrilling. But why?
For instance take Godzilla, in “Japan’s Nuclear Nightmare: How the Bomb Became a Beast Called Godzilla” author, Peter H Brothers tells us some history behind the making of the monster. “Godzilla was made in Japan less then a decade after atomic bombs devastated the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Still reeling from the trauma of atomic annihilation and the subsequent effects of radioactive poisoning, a team of Japanese filmmakers created a monster that embodied the fears and anxieties in Japan resulting from Nuclear Warfare” (51). Godzilla is a prime example of monsters symbolizing a societies fears. “We create monsters as a reaction to the fears we experience and our inability to control the world around us” (Asma 61). Our inability to not have control of our fate and what other people are going to do will never change, but creating Godzilla gave the people of these
Monsters are symbols and representations of a culture. They exist because of certain places or feelings of a time period. Monsters are “an embodiment of a certain cultural moment”. Author of Grendel, John Gardner, and author of Frankenstein, Mary Shelley, both create a monster to represent something larger than itself in order to have the reader reflect on their “fears, desires, anxiety, and fantasy” in society, which is explained in Jefferey Cohen's Monster Culture (Seven Theses). The latest trend in monster media, zombies, also fit into Cohen's theses on what a monster is.
People are addicted to the synthetic feeling of being terrified. Modern day horror films are very different from the first horror films which date back to the late nineteenth century, but the goal of shocking the audience is still the same. Over the course of its existence, the horror industry has had to innovate new ways to keep its viewers on the edge of their seats. Horror films are frightening films created solely to ignite anxiety and panic within the viewers. Dread and alarm summon deep fears by captivating the audience with a shocking, terrifying, and unpredictable finale that leaves the viewer stunned.
We all have cravings, be it for snacks or sweets, there is always something we desire. We crave horror in the same way. In Stephen King’s essay, “Why We Crave Horror Movies,” he argues that people need to watch horror films in order to release the negative emotions within us. King believes that people feel enjoyment while watching others be terrorized or killed in horror movies. King’s argument has elements that are both agreeable and disagreeable. On one hand he is acceptable when claiming we like the thrill and excitement that comes from watching horror movies; however, his views regarding that the fun comes from seeing others suffer cannot be agreed with because the human condition is not as immoral as he claims it to be.
Imagine waking one day to witness the tragic state of hundreds of thousands of homes being left in ruins, along with the ashes and rubble of major cities, and the casualties of millions of citizens. This was evident on August 6, 1945 in Hiroshima, Japan when the first ever atomic bomb dropped. A mere three days later, and Nagasaki, Japan was also bombed, and the world was taken by storm. Even though WWII is in the past, the long-term effects on Japanese citizens and the debate on possible outcomes of the war is still discussed decades after the events. According to Peter H. Brothers in “Japan’s Nuclear Nightmare: How the Bomb Became a Beast Called Godzilla,” these events inspired film director, Ishiro Honda, to create the monster movie Godzilla,
We crave horror movies simply for “the fun of it” in agreeing with Stephen King Why We Crave Horror movies. King gave multiple examples in his story as to why we crave horror movies and I can agree with just about each and every one of them. After watching a few horror movies for yourself, you will understand why it is easy to agree with King. If you have watched movies such as the 2004 movie Dawn of the Dead, The Purge, or The Conjuring you will also be able to relate to Chuck Klosterman My Zombie, Myself “Zombies are just so easy to kill.” Klostermans theory of zombies are extremely useful because it sheds insight on the difficult yet exciting problem of zombies in the real world. Klosterman’s argument that the repetition of modern life is
During the Industrial Revolution machines and technology were being introduced to people that made them worry about the lessening of the impact that humans are making (Industrial). There were protestors at the time that thought these machines were de-humanizing. The monster was feared in the same way. He was not human. His strength was beyond that of humans and he in a way was de-humanizing mankind. When people saw him they were afraid because they couldn’t comprehend what he was because they had never seen anything like him before. In the same way people could not comprehend the machines because they were new and people had never seen things like them before.
Stephen King wrote a very brief essay titled "Why we Crave Horror Movies", in which he explained some of the reasons that people choose to go to horror movies to be entertained. In his essay, King goes on to explain that we as a people need horror movies as a sort of release; to feed the darker elements within all of us without having to sacrifice our humanity (also, civility). King does this by comparing people based on their levels of sanity whereas some societal "eccentricities" are completely acceptable, while some will get you thrown right into the loony bin. It’s summed up pretty well in this quote:
Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein or; The Modern Prometheus, published in 1818, is a product of its time. Written in a world of social, political, scientific and economic upheaval it highlights human desire to uncover the scientific secrets of our universe, yet also confirms the importance of emotions and individual relationships that define us as human, in contrast to the monstrous. Here we question what is meant by the terms ‘human’ and ‘monstrous’ as defined by the novel. Yet to fully understand how Frankenstein defines these terms we must look to the etymology of them. The novel however, defines the terms through its main characters, through the themes of language, nature versus nurture, forbidden knowledge, and the doppelganger motif. Shelley also shows us, in Frankenstein, that although juxtaposing terms, the monstrous being everything human is not, they are also intertwined, in that you can not have one without the other. There is also an overwhelming desire to know the monstrous, if only temporarily and this calls into question the influence the monstrous has on the human definition.