Why do we enjoy horror films?
Ultimately we choose our entertainment because want it to effect us. The height of this is the fear and thrill we experience watching scary films. In a paper in the Journal of Media Psychology, Dr. Glenn Walters there are three primary factors that make horror so alluring to an audience, these being, tension, relevance and unrealism.
If we were to watch a film depicting actual murder or death etc. we would be disgusted. Yet we so often pay money to watch premieres of films with an excessive amount of blood and gore without thinking much of it. This exact conundrum was the basis of an experiment done by Haidt, McCauley and Rozin (1994). When shown videos of cows being killed, a monkey having its head hit by a hammer and a child's skin being turned inside out, many participants turned off the video before it reached its end. McCauley came up with the logical conclusion as to why this was, as being down to the fact that the fictional nature of horror films afford viewers a sense of control. There is distance between them and the violence they are viewing. They are fully aware that the events taking place are not real no matter how many fake 'based on true events' screens we have seen. We face no guilt in our enjoyment of such media.
Another notion is that we watch these violent films in order to purge ourselves of such negative feelings as a form of catharsis, although if when watching a massacre take place and you only feel a sense of relief, perhaps rethink this.
Noel Carroll also puts forth his Dispositional alignment theory, suggesting that we like to see people get their just desserts. If the person on screen deserves what they are getting, then we are obviously going to get a weird feeling of satisfaction.
Another theory is Zimmermans 'snuggle theory' which also plays upon the theme of gender roles within this type of film. He reports that men enjoyed the film most when in the company of a distressed woman and least in the company of a mastering woman. They enjoy being the dominant, in control, feeding into their masculinity, one. Women also enjoyed the movie most in the company of a mastering man and least in the company of a distressed man.
Sigmund Freud says that humans have a life instinct which he labelled 'Eros' and a death drive which he called Thanatos. This death drive leads humans to engage is said risky and self-destructive acts, which is why sch behaviours as seeking thrill and aggression and viewed as stemming from the Thanatos instinct. However this is a bit of a reach. We don't want horror films because we literally want to die, obviously. We get to experience these threats without being at risk.
I tend to agree with all of these of a different level. I am a huge fan of horror films and love the enjoyment of watching these bizarre, unrealistic gory scenes while drinking a cup of tea in my bed. I think that depersonalisation that we feel when watching horror is what makes it best. Obviously we want the protagonist- if likable- to succeed and bad guy to be stopped. But when and if this happens we experience that emotion before moving on to a different feeling or distraction. Its not difficult to sit down and keep your eyes busy. I do also love the social side of it. Going to the cinema and watching the new 'it' horror film no matter how bad the reviews are just to watch your friend jump in their seat is part of the fun. We all jump when we hear a bump in the night before falling back to sleep, but to watch that escalate in film is entertaining and also hugely terrifying. I don't think any one of us has ever not been greatly effected by at least one scary movie that left you missing sleep. You don't get that with a Rom-Com. Horror truly is a genre all on its own that creates such a different feeling that you are used to feeling, and while not exactly pleasant it is unique and it is as thrill.
If we were to watch a film depicting actual murder or death etc. we would be disgusted. Yet we so often pay money to watch premieres of films with an excessive amount of blood and gore without thinking much of it. This exact conundrum was the basis of an experiment done by Haidt, McCauley and Rozin (1994). When shown videos of cows being killed, a monkey having its head hit by a hammer and a child's skin being turned inside out, many participants turned off the video before it reached its end. McCauley came up with the logical conclusion as to why this was, as being down to the fact that the fictional nature of horror films afford viewers a sense of control. There is distance between them and the violence they are viewing. They are fully aware that the events taking place are not real no matter how many fake 'based on true events' screens we have seen. We face no guilt in our enjoyment of such media.
Another notion is that we watch these violent films in order to purge ourselves of such negative feelings as a form of catharsis, although if when watching a massacre take place and you only feel a sense of relief, perhaps rethink this.
Noel Carroll also puts forth his Dispositional alignment theory, suggesting that we like to see people get their just desserts. If the person on screen deserves what they are getting, then we are obviously going to get a weird feeling of satisfaction.
Another theory is Zimmermans 'snuggle theory' which also plays upon the theme of gender roles within this type of film. He reports that men enjoyed the film most when in the company of a distressed woman and least in the company of a mastering woman. They enjoy being the dominant, in control, feeding into their masculinity, one. Women also enjoyed the movie most in the company of a mastering man and least in the company of a distressed man.
Sigmund Freud says that humans have a life instinct which he labelled 'Eros' and a death drive which he called Thanatos. This death drive leads humans to engage is said risky and self-destructive acts, which is why sch behaviours as seeking thrill and aggression and viewed as stemming from the Thanatos instinct. However this is a bit of a reach. We don't want horror films because we literally want to die, obviously. We get to experience these threats without being at risk.
I tend to agree with all of these of a different level. I am a huge fan of horror films and love the enjoyment of watching these bizarre, unrealistic gory scenes while drinking a cup of tea in my bed. I think that depersonalisation that we feel when watching horror is what makes it best. Obviously we want the protagonist- if likable- to succeed and bad guy to be stopped. But when and if this happens we experience that emotion before moving on to a different feeling or distraction. Its not difficult to sit down and keep your eyes busy. I do also love the social side of it. Going to the cinema and watching the new 'it' horror film no matter how bad the reviews are just to watch your friend jump in their seat is part of the fun. We all jump when we hear a bump in the night before falling back to sleep, but to watch that escalate in film is entertaining and also hugely terrifying. I don't think any one of us has ever not been greatly effected by at least one scary movie that left you missing sleep. You don't get that with a Rom-Com. Horror truly is a genre all on its own that creates such a different feeling that you are used to feeling, and while not exactly pleasant it is unique and it is as thrill.
Comments
Post a Comment