Why We Crave Horror Movies Analysis

In the essay, “Why We Crave Horror Movies” Stephen King attempts to explain why we love horror movies, and he gives a few different reasons why people go to see horror movies. People want to show that they are not scared; people want to have fun; but the main reason that he suggests is that we are insane and we need to watch horror movies to keep that insanity locked up in society. He uses a variety of argumentative strategies and literally decides to prove his thesis.

On the other side, King surprised me by the reasons and comparisons he made and gave about why people watch horror movies, but then, the essay went off into tangents that I did not expect. Conversely, Stephen King gives his first thesis that “I think that we’re all mentally ill…” King presents a case that every person intentionally watches horror to keep one’s under control--- well fed, but under control. “It deliberately speaks to all that is worst in us. It is morbidity unchained, our most base instincts let free, our nastiest fantasies realized…and it all happens, fittingly enough, in the dark. King says the basic reason why people will pay money to watch gore is like riding a roller coaster, “to show that we can, that we are not afraid…to re-establish our feelings of essential normality…and we go to have fun. ” King tries to make the case that murderous insanity is in the same category as public nose picking. The potential lyncher or saint needs to be “let loose to scream and roll around in the grass. ” Why over-work the good emotional muscles and neglect the muscle-tone of those less desirable? There is a logical fallacy in the title of his article, because not everyone craves horror movies.

King eventually tells the truth concerning horror movies, which becomes the key to understanding why certain people crave. First, he says,” the horror movie is innately conservative, even reactionary. ” What is being held back? What is being reacted against? All that is good, and he writes, “If we share a brotherhood of man, then we also share an insanity of man. None of which is intended as defense of either the sick joke or insanity but merely as an explanation of why the best horror films, like the best fairy tales, manage to be reactionary, anarchistic, and revolutionary all at the same time. However, I agree with Stephen King’s statement that we are all mentally ill, because mental health or mental illness is conditional to whether our actions interfere with daily task that are acceptable responses to demands and opportunities. In addition, we are all capable of crossing the line between acceptable and unacceptable actions that determine being classified as sane or insane. Horror movies allow us to view and emotionally experience the consequences of insane actions. I am also agreeing that horror movies appeal to all that is worst in us.

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Horror movies allow us to experience extreme emotional excitement through unacceptable actions acted out in the films. People crave the thrill they receive from experiencing extreme nervousness, disgust, panic, and fear. Horror films cause these sudden, temporary emotions and reactions, but will not interfere with our daily lives once we leave the theater. Packed theaters showing horror films and best selling horror novels are proof that people crave the thrill derived from viewing or imagining insane actions and their consequences. This article tells about how all people are somewhat insane.

King says it is our levels of insanity that make us all different. Our insanity is what makes us crave sick, unnatural, and wicked things in life. Specifically, he tells about people’s obsession with horror movies and wanting to watch other human beings be tortured in some frightful manner. We want to feel afraid. For some people, this is done to prove their bravery. Others do this in hopes to make their own lives seem more normal. Although I thought this essay was somewhat difficult to understand, I do agree with the main points of it.

I do not understand why I enjoy watching other people be brutally murdered in horror movies; however, I see it as more of an adrenaline rush than insanity. I was also somewhat offended when King commented on baby jokes. He said that the enjoyment of that type of sick joke is insanity. In reality, these jokes are not real; therefore, I do not see the insanity in chuckling at this type of joke. If people actually enjoyed seeing people slaughtered in real life, then I would think that they are mentally ill, but as long as it is just acting, I believe this lifestyle is a craving for entertainment, not insanity.

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