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 …show more content…
Lesage, 1977). Not only semic code, but also other codes, mentioned by R. Barthes, is repeatedly used with in horror film context. Especially, enigmatic code and symbolic code play a decisive role in horror movies in order to elevate the level of fear and curiosities. As can be seen in the movie the Bhoost, unknown sound of crying and mumble form the beginning would be an example of enigmatic code. With the argument of R. Barthes, despite watching the movie without any preceding explanation, audience might predict that there must be unusual scene and narrative by hearing the sound and watching enigmatic scenes. And also, as the symbol of evil spirit or ghost, doll is depicted on the movie in an attempt to intensify tension and lead to the narrative. To explain more about symbolic code, it has two distinctive functions on horror film. First, it symbolized the evil spirits and supernatural powers. Second, it would provide unclear, blurred and suspicious information by making audiences more concentrate on narratives. With the elements stated above, expressionism, enigmatic, semic and symbolic codes are the characteristic features compared to other …show more content…
Typically, ghost or supernatural phenomenon was the main theme of the horror film. These supernatural characters have something in common, that they are mostly the spirit of discriminated and lower class females. At the end of movie, the main reason why these ghost show up or possess someone’s bodies was revealed, since main character; usually males, identify the offender who killed the spirits. Finally, the evil disappears and every social order operates as usual. To investigate the prevalence of female monsters in horror movies, it would be explained by borrowing the idea of ‘repression model’ stated by Robin Wood. With his colleague, he strived to explain that societies, which have surplus repression, are likely to use horror or joke as social
I have provided a clear evaluation of his essay in an organized way using the appropriate standards of evaluation. In understanding why humans “Crave Horror Movies” even when some people get nightmares after watching them we find the importance of our emotions and fears. We find those emotions and fears form a body of their own which needs to be maintained properly in order to remain healthy. We see how emotions can be controlled though viewing horror movies. Stephen King’s “Why We Crave Horror Movies” is a well written essay with convincing analogies, comparisons, and urban humor.
Clover, Carol J. Men, Women, and Chainsaws: Gender in the Modern Horror Film. Princeton: Princeton Publishing, 1992.
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.
In both Japan and America, the film industry is a big industry. Part of that industry is the genre of horror. Movies like this include the themes of an evil entity usually killing people or causing havoc and the protagonists, which are represented as good. Many cultures have their own takes on horror movies. How they’re done and the themes that they believe are evil or that they’re scared of. Ultimately horror movies are dark and invoke fear. Japan and America are two good examples of how horror movies in different cultures can be different, similar and how they can influence each other.
Horror movies are one of the most fascinating genres of film that exists. They are unrealistic but at the same time, they are also realistic. This realism that they contain is what draws people’s interest towards them because viewers are able to associate aspects of their own lives with the film. Every horror movie, no matter how farfetched the theme or plot may be, contains an element that people can relate to. This element may not be observable to a conscious mind, but to an unconscious mind, it brings back memories of something that has been repressed earlier in our lives (Wood, 197). This recollection of suppressed memories is how horror films create a sense of fear and it is literally what Robin Wood means when he talks about “the return
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. (Horror Films)
The Horror Movie in Late Modern Society’ that labelling films such as these as postmodern may be an overreach. He argues that the hybridity of the genre as seen in horror-comedies such as ‘The Cabin in the Woods’ and ‘Scream’ are nothing ‘new’ and that comedy has always played a prevalent role in the horror genre. He goes on to state that, “much of the comic fun to be had (in contemporary horror-comedies) derives from the excess of gory detail. The other aspect, in this case more a development characteristic of the 1990s than the 1980s, is the tendency to reflexively generate humour by openly appealing to a knowing audience’s familiarity with the genre conventions.” This view suggests that Tudor views the emergence of a more comedic element to horror movies as more of an evolutionary step in horror, than a deliberately postmodern outlook. He cements this as his view as he uses the example of ‘Scream’ and the films made in its wake (such as ‘Scary Movie’ (2000)), Tudor claims “It is films such as these that have so often attracted the designation ‘postmodern’, if only superficially, because of their studied self-consciousness and their use of pastiche.” (Tudor, p.107) Tudor’s view is that films such as these bear only surface-level post-modernism that the term is used too liberally and the films would be better suited towards the term parody than a post-modernism. Tudor argues that their “studied self-consciousness” disqualifies them from being labelled as postmodern, however it can be argued that parody and self-consciousness elements of these films are what make them postmodern at
Horror is one of many fears humans have. We all have many terrors, but horror is the one that gets the best of us. Some crave, while others resent, the feeling horror movies bring to our body and the emotions that we experience. In Stephen King’s article, “Why We Crave Horror,” he explains that it is a part of the “Human Condition,” to crave the horror. King gives many strong and accurate claims on why we crave the horror movies, such as; testing our ability to face our fears, to re-establish our feelings of normality, and to experience a peculiar sort of fun.
Too many horror films provide scares and screams throughout their respective cinemas. Not many viewers follow what kind of model the films follow to appease their viewers. However, after reading film theorist Carol Clover’s novel, watching one of the films she associates in the novel “Halloween”, and also watching the movie “Nightmare on Elm Street” I say almost every “slasher” or horror film follows a model similar to Clover’s. The model is a female is featured as a primary character and that females tend to always overcome a situation at some point throughout the film.
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.
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.
The reading by Barbara Creed titled “Horror and the Monstrous-Feminine: An Imaginary Abjection”, is an in-depth examination on the role of women in horror films. Creed challenges the commanding patriarchal view, which frequently puts the woman in the position of the helpless victim. She argues that when the feminine is constructed as monstrous, it is frequently done in conjunction with its mothering role and function. Creed’s main thesis supports that the prototype of all cinematic definitions of monstrosity related to the feminine is linked to the woman’s reproductive body. Creed elects to use the term “monstrous feminine” instead of female monster, because for Creed it is the “femininity itself that is monstrous” (41). It has been unfairly
Horror literature has been around since as long as man has been on earth. While usually in the form of ghost stories, many have often told stories orally, or on paper, to play on the horrors and darkest fears that we as humans face. While large populations of people do not like the horror genre, some get a satisfaction or enjoyment at looking at some of their worst fears being played out in front of them via a book or movie. As the stories have advanced through history and been examined and read through many different lenses both by history and literature experts, one aspects remains to be examined, and that is the changing role on of women in the story. While many of the early stories early stories portray them as simple, one-dimensional characters, weak and unable to help themselves, they evolve into more complex and eventually pushing through the damsel in distress mantra into the complex villain or hero.
A horror movie “makes people think, what if it was reality?” said by a thrill seeker person who was waiting to watch a horror movie. Experts also cite more various reasons about why people enjoy watching scary movies. For the thrill of it and also because it seems real for thrill seekers; these are some secretes reveled to show why thrill seekers enjoy horror movies. Feeling the sense of evil and being curious about understanding humanity’s dark side makes horror movies a perfect way of enjoying these feelings, and relieving the tension of curiosity about violent, blood and terrorism. Moreover, experts said that not only desirability to blood and fear could consider as an attraction to whose ...
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.