Possble 'effects' of horror films
Horror films are made to cause a reaction from an audience. Other genres only hope to cause a visceral reaction but with horror, if the watcher isn't jumping or screaming, then it hasn't done its job. Because of this people can have certain responses to certain horror films.
“What happens for most people is that you have an arousal of your sympathetic nervous system and an activation [to produce] adrenaline,” said Psychology professor Heidi Mathers. Adrenaline is a natural high and can ultimately become addictive. This is why horror movies have such an effect on people- no other genre elicits such a strong emotional response, no other genre causes you to lose sleep or in extreme cases seek out therapy or cause a change in body and mind.
The Emotion Theory states that our interpretation of these same physiological cues can be different depending on the individual. So most people experience the rapid heartbeat and increased breaths. However, those who find horror movies enjoyable would just compare the movie to a roller coaster ride: just an adrenaline rush. And those who find them terrifying would experience distress.
Horror movies can also be create new fears through association. “Our family doesn’t watch horror movies because we tend to view these events as threatening, and then we start to associate the trigger in horror movies with real life events,” said Mathers. This effect is called classical conditioning. As an example, she remembers not being able to tolerate the sound of footsteps without envisioning Jack Nicholson’s character from “The Shining.” She also remembers being terrified of birds years after watching Alfred Hitchcock’s movie “The Birds.” I personally have strong memories of a horror movie entitled 'The Fourth Kind', it comes up the sci-fi/alien sub-genre and is one of those that has a black screen with 'based on a true story' written in bold white. As an 8 year old this wasn't debatable but was presented to me as fact. The film even had fake 'REAL FOUND FOOTAGE' in it of said alien abduction. Almost 10 years later and these clips continue to play in my mind when something goes bump in the night. My dad, in all his brilliance, is a conspiracy-theorist-UFO-expect-horror movie buff and sees 18 rated horror films as casual watching, and so my numbness to said effects is most likely down to being dropped in the deep end from the get go. Perhaps this could be seen as bad parenting, but could also be brilliant experimenting at work. Its definitely a definite way to ensure that someone would enjoy horror films rather than be so effected by them.
Of course, perhaps an adverse effect of this casual watching is desensitization. For example, if you were afraid of clowns, then exposure to horror movies about clowns may help ease your fear because you are being continuously exposed to it. However amongst this is a desensitization to violence and gore. We are a modern society that merely cringes when a particularly gory scene comes up; imagining a scenario where such scenes were presented to a world maybe 70 years ago truly shines a light on just how little we truly are effected to horror.
Even in a physical sense our heart rate and blood pressure increase when experiencing such adrenaline inducing films. This can and does lead to heart attacks, in people who have cardiovascular weaknesses. Those links are just two examples of people people who keeled over dead during The Passion of the Christ. Its a rarity but it does happen.
All media effects us, it is ultimately its intention. In my eyes making someone laugh and making someone scared are talents that are not best appreciated in this modern era. You go into both genres with an expectation: make me laugh, make me jump. If we don't experience this then we are left severely disappointed. The way we are effected by films is entirely on us and is relative to our own lifestyles and so being effected is unavoidable.
“What happens for most people is that you have an arousal of your sympathetic nervous system and an activation [to produce] adrenaline,” said Psychology professor Heidi Mathers. Adrenaline is a natural high and can ultimately become addictive. This is why horror movies have such an effect on people- no other genre elicits such a strong emotional response, no other genre causes you to lose sleep or in extreme cases seek out therapy or cause a change in body and mind.
The Emotion Theory states that our interpretation of these same physiological cues can be different depending on the individual. So most people experience the rapid heartbeat and increased breaths. However, those who find horror movies enjoyable would just compare the movie to a roller coaster ride: just an adrenaline rush. And those who find them terrifying would experience distress.
Horror movies can also be create new fears through association. “Our family doesn’t watch horror movies because we tend to view these events as threatening, and then we start to associate the trigger in horror movies with real life events,” said Mathers. This effect is called classical conditioning. As an example, she remembers not being able to tolerate the sound of footsteps without envisioning Jack Nicholson’s character from “The Shining.” She also remembers being terrified of birds years after watching Alfred Hitchcock’s movie “The Birds.” I personally have strong memories of a horror movie entitled 'The Fourth Kind', it comes up the sci-fi/alien sub-genre and is one of those that has a black screen with 'based on a true story' written in bold white. As an 8 year old this wasn't debatable but was presented to me as fact. The film even had fake 'REAL FOUND FOOTAGE' in it of said alien abduction. Almost 10 years later and these clips continue to play in my mind when something goes bump in the night. My dad, in all his brilliance, is a conspiracy-theorist-UFO-expect-horror movie buff and sees 18 rated horror films as casual watching, and so my numbness to said effects is most likely down to being dropped in the deep end from the get go. Perhaps this could be seen as bad parenting, but could also be brilliant experimenting at work. Its definitely a definite way to ensure that someone would enjoy horror films rather than be so effected by them.
Of course, perhaps an adverse effect of this casual watching is desensitization. For example, if you were afraid of clowns, then exposure to horror movies about clowns may help ease your fear because you are being continuously exposed to it. However amongst this is a desensitization to violence and gore. We are a modern society that merely cringes when a particularly gory scene comes up; imagining a scenario where such scenes were presented to a world maybe 70 years ago truly shines a light on just how little we truly are effected to horror.
Even in a physical sense our heart rate and blood pressure increase when experiencing such adrenaline inducing films. This can and does lead to heart attacks, in people who have cardiovascular weaknesses. Those links are just two examples of people people who keeled over dead during The Passion of the Christ. Its a rarity but it does happen.
All media effects us, it is ultimately its intention. In my eyes making someone laugh and making someone scared are talents that are not best appreciated in this modern era. You go into both genres with an expectation: make me laugh, make me jump. If we don't experience this then we are left severely disappointed. The way we are effected by films is entirely on us and is relative to our own lifestyles and so being effected is unavoidable.
Comments
Post a Comment