Why Do People Love Horror Movies?

shellycheval

shellycheval

The Living Force
I once read an article discussing this topic titled something like "Why Do We Love Our Monsters?" My apologies--I can't remember a proper source to cite. The article stated that we love our monsters and have a morbid attraction to horror, gore, death and destruction because this attraction is an instinctual learning mechanism. We look so we can learn what has caused the demise of others so that we can learn how to avoid meeting the same fate. It seems it is better to face "the devil you know" than to have to figure out how to survive the unknown. In other words, we look at what is horrible to gain knowledge of how to protect ourselves in the future from similar dangers. Hmmm . . .

Apparently experiments have shown that squirrels have a similar morbid curiosity and will come out and observe at a distance a trapped and distressed fellow squirrel. Perhaps they are exhibiting empathy and planning a rescue--I know the squirrels at my bird feeder are smart enough!
shellycheval
 
That's a very good question I have been asking myself as well.

As a kid I was terrified of monsters and ghosts but when I was a teenager I loved horror movies because it was on the fringe of everything I knew at that time.
It was shocking and thrilling at the same time, not because of the blood factor but because of the "unknown" aspect of what was going to be in the movie.
Most of the time I was disappointed though because it wasn't that scary or it was just plain dumb.
But I was never into gore, I could not see the point of it.

The worrying aspect is that I built a tolerance to it and that's why maybe some people go further and further looking for more.
I think people need to shake their numb emotional center and strong emotions will provide this but in this case there is nothing to be gained from in term of esoteric work imho.

I still from time to time look at a horror movie but most of the time I don't enjoy them, not because they're bloody but because I realize that I subject myself to something that has no purpose for me anymore.
Still, I noticed that I would "enjoy" a horror movie better if there was humour or parts where there is more thrills (chase, tension...) in them than just plain violence (which I usually stop watching).

This raise the questions : do I accept them more because it looks less serious, it still contains violence so I accept it better ? Is violence made fun less violent ? Is this just a technique to dissasociate us from real violence ?

I think it does.

There is this ambiguous relationship we have with darker things, we're attracted to them because we probably want to confront and control it but most of the time it controls us.
At the same time shunning it out won't protect you from it.

Just a few thoughts.

EDIT : Shouldn't this thread be moved ?
 
That's a question that has interested me, too. I really loved horror movies when I was growing up. I never missed the Saturday afternoon "Creature feature" on TV. This continued for a very long time until I began to get a really thorough knowledge of REAL evil, including psychopaths (which aren't moralistically "evil," they are more like a "force of nature.") Somehow, I've lost my taste for horror movies.

So, what I can observe is that, when I lived in a fantasy world where there really wasn't any "real life" evil evident (just mudane mistakes by normal people), I was fascinated by stories about evil that I simply could not comprehend. Then, once I learned about the real deal, moved my head into a more objective view of reality, my taste for the fantasy horror just evaporated. It was like there's just so much of the real stuff everywhere, I don't need to seek out any fake extra evil.

There are a few really campy, comedic, "horror" movies that I still have a fondness for, however.

So, I think people like such things because they want to inoculate themselves against any such thing actually manifesting in their lives.
 
I don't watch horror movies much, because on the odd occasion that I have, I find the images stay in my mind and keep me awake at night. I just can't watch a gory, horror movie and then forget about it.
 
shellycheval said:
The article stated that we love our monsters and have a morbid attraction to horror, gore, death and destruction because this attraction is an instinctual learning mechanism. We look so we can learn what has caused the demise of others so that we can learn how to avoid meeting the same fate. It seems it is better to face "the devil you know" than to have to figure out how to survive the unknown. In other words, we look at what is horrible to gain knowledge of how to protect ourselves in the future from similar dangers.
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Well, without reading the article but going by what you say it writes, i don't quite agree with the rationalization.

First, who is "we"? I personally feel no attraction to "horror, gore, death and destruction", and i know they are other people like this. Sounds like psychopathic propaganda to me, trying to convince people that we are all like them, so we cannot see them for what they are.

And second, we can learn how to avoid meeting a bad fate by other means, it is not necessary to watch horror movies. One can learn a lot from mystery and spy novels, and the narratives never to be gory or horrific. There's more than enough horror and destruction in real life. I think they make the horror movies to disensitize us from reacting to the real horrors - OSIT
 
Stephen King's movies are the most that I have watched than other movies. For some reasons, I felt that there were lessons hidden in his movies.
 
manitoban said:
I don't watch horror movies much, because on the odd occasion that I have, I find the images stay in my mind and keep me awake at night. I just can't watch a gory, horror movie and then forget about it.
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Neither do i. And i never liked it.
 
Going through any video store, there is a terrible amount of "blood and guts" horror movies. Working graveyard, my LPN co-workers bring movies on occasion, and they are usually the scary gorey one's. I have had to ask them "do you really want to watch this?" and they would resign to turn it off, because I would actually feel physically ill watching the stuff. I know if I had not said anything, they would sit and watch the whole thing. We are talking violence for the sake of violence. Fear, torture, gore, pretty much a nasty phychopath in action. These people that watch this stuff don't seem to be moved by it at all. To me that is the scariest part of it.

I also like most of Stephen King's movies and books. Some have scary parts but the best books like The Talisman, and The Stand, do have lessons in them, and the character grows in strength by learning to trust themselves and becoming aware.

Mostly I think that the vast amount of horror flicks is proportionate to how well the PTB have put people to sleep. They are numb and dumb.

Tarri
 
Just wanted to add the link to SOTT article on the same topic
http://www.signs-of-the-times.org/articles/show/137135-Why+do+people+love+horror+movies%3F+They+enjoy+being+scared

Horror movies are not my thing. I like parodies on old horror movies, or actually black comedies or comedies with grotesque B movies flavor - "Mars attacks!" is the favorite.

Ack-Ack-Ack! We come in peace!.

Muahhh! :)
 
I thought I was the only person who liked Mars Attacks!

Seriously though, I did watch a lot of scary movies when I was younger. But the cheesy 80's horror flicks don't seem to be as gruesome as today's kind, like Saw or Hostel. I don't care for them anymore.

Freddie Krueger was actually kind of comedic. And who doesn't love Evil Dead 2? I always thought their was a good lesson in the book Needful Things by Stephen King too.
 
I was never really bothered about vampire, frankenstein or psycho murderer films, but MAN, I had a serious fear of werewolves for many years. I saw American Werewolf in London at a far too young age - its a really cool movie now, but oh the fear it created in the past!

I always enjoyed Stephen King books, he was my favourite author for a long time - I guess because most of his heroes were flawed, average joes who had to overcome insurmountable fears and tribulations. Movie adaptations of his books, apart from a few, really suck though. One of my favourite stories of his, although it was a short story, was "The Langoliers" - about a plane load of people who accidentally fly through a rip in time. True to form, the movie adaption was terrible.

Freddy Krueger was pretty comedic, when I hit the age of 20+ - but when the first movie came out, boy I had a few sleepless nights :)
 
Barry said:
Freddy Krueger was pretty comedic, when I hit the age of 20+ - but when the first movie came out, boy I had a few sleepless nights :)
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I was 10-11 at the time I saw his movies, and every time I had to wash my hands in a place with a mirror above the tap, I had fears that I'll see Krueger's creepy smiling face in the mirror while long nails coming out from a tap and grabbing me :D
 
Also...

The very one movie that scared me to the bones is "The Candyman," when I was 10 years old. I get nightmares after that, and it took a while for me to face the mirror again.
 
OOh Yeah, Candyman - good movie. Did you know anyone who dared to say the name 5 times in front of a mirror?

I got to four but thats it...Probably still couldnt do it!
 
marss atack :) is quite funny .
Mebye when people watch horrors they make negative energy - and lizzies are eating it.

Greeting from Poland.
 
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