Noel Carrol begins his “Why Horror?” essay by noting that questions arise about watching horror that don’t come up with other sorts of movies. “Why” he asks, “would anyone want to be horrified, or even art-horrified?” People don’t routinely seek out experiences they find disturbing or disgusting, but disturbance and disgust are often central to the experience of horror. So, after a semester of watching horror movies, thinking about their internal properties, and discussing audience responses, why do you think horror remains such a widely (though not universally) popular genre? Feel free to cite the arguments of Carrol or Tudor, or to offer an idea that is entirely your own.
6 thoughts on “Why Horror”
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I think the call to horror is the same as the call to tragedies. The reason why we have eighty different versions of Romeo and Juliet is the same as the reason for how many horror films there are. Tragedies are evocative, we know that Romeo and Juliet are gonna die in a completely avoidable way and yet we read and re-read and watch and re-watch different versions of it, each time hoping it will be different. And though we know it will happen, we are still shocked and sad and frustrating with the ending of Romeo and Juliet. Same feeling happens when the girl goes down to the basement. We know there’s something down there that’s gonna kill her, we know it’s a bad idea for her to go down there but she does it anyways. Because it’s a horror film. Because it’s a tragedy. I think for me personally, the feeling of yelling at the tv screen, of such frustration at the imminent doom of all the characters, it’s a kind of addicting feeling. It’s tragedy stretched to the absurd, to the fantastical.
Horror is a popular genre because in many instances viewers can engage with the characters or situations. For instance, in the clip we watched for Carrie showed the daughter going to visit Carrie’s house alone while her mom spoke on the phone stating how the daughter would do the opposite of what the daughter was doing. In many instances a lot of people could relate to being misunderstood by their parents. Especially in Horror films it is a common theme to see children not being taken seriously by their parents or their parents not truly understanding their children. Additionally, horror movies evoke a sense of temporary fear, anxiety, suspense, gore, and shock that can thrill people and once the film is over they can simply rationalize the contents that they watched and remember it as an enjoyable time.
I think the reason why people enjoy horror varies person to person, but that overall I think it’s almost like morbid curiosity. We’ve all heard horror stories and we’ve all imagined scary things at night, and horror movies give us a safe way to explore those curiosities. I think this is proven by the fact that we can watch really good horror films but not find it to be a good move because it didn’t scare us. Having said this, it is also true that some people lack morbid curiosity or simply don’t like being startled/scared, they don’t find the feeling to be fun. I think the reason why fear can be fun in this context is because the person being scared still has full control over the situation.
After a semester of watching horror movies, the main reason why horror movies remain a popular genre is due to their ability to enable viewers to experience the feeling of fear. Often, this fear is imposed by a supernatural character. Furthermore, many horror films contain stories or narratives that drive viewers to be more curious or become fascinated with supernatural characters. For example, when watching the movie Babadook, the exposure to the monster instilled a feeling of fear, but at the same time, the plot of the movie developed in a way that kept the audience curious and fascinated about the presence of the monster. Therefore, the opportunity to experience the feeling of fear and fascination that is derived from abnormal characters in horror films is what I believe attracts many audiences.
I think that horror to some people is a way to safely get the experience of feeling fear. The anxiety and tenseness could always be walked away from if it is in the form of a movie. It also invokes emotions to an extreme which some may not feel they get everyday. I think that horror movie enthusiast also just consider horror an art form, from the gore to appreciating the cinematic aspects I think that they find enjoyment as horror is distinguishable from other mainstream genres. Horror seeks to accomplish the goal of invoking people to feel a way that is quite different from emotions such as just happy or sad. Accomplishing this is not always easy so a good horror movie itself is recognized as a work of art.
I think horror remains popular because we enjoy the emotional climax and suspense that horror offers. Similarly to what Carrol said, I don’t think we are after the horror itself, but the story that accompanies it. Us as viewers don’t revel in the bad things of a movie, or take pleasure in other’s suffering. I think instead it’s the fact that many of those things are necessary for a narrative, though in the case of horror, it takes it to the extreme. Most people, I would say, are craving the adrenaline they get after being terrified, rather than horrified. Though I think the less popular aspects of horror movies are disgust and unpleasantness, the suspense and adrenaline are hard to deny. I think this suspensefulness also provides an outlet to explore some more gritty themes. In the same vein as the question “does art need to be beautiful”, there is a sort of twisted creativeness that can be expressed and explored through horror.