Horror Flicks

So what attracts millions of people into the movie theaters every year just to sit there and cover their eyes the whole time? What makes something like a scary movie appealing? Noel Carrol and Cynthia Freeland go into detail about what they think causes the attraction between horror and the public in this selected reading.

Noel Corey states that fictionalized horror attracts the attention of the audience because of the curiosity that it stirs up. Lets face it, the fact that when you sit in a movie theater and watch something on the screen that is not part of your typical day, you are intrigued. I think that it is a normal human reaction. Carrol says that the interest in horror is sense of disclosure and eventually pleasure. The characters that we watch actually participating in something on screen that hopefully we never will, therefor you can put yourself in their place or feel for them.

Cynthia Freeland talks more about the realist horror compared to Corey's fictionalized horror. In realist horror films, the story often centers around human serial killers or the villians that live next door versus the fictionalized creatures with unreal abilities and features. Ultimately, this is why I think that realistic film strikes more fear into the audience. After watching Frankenstein you can reassure yourself that that is not a true story but when walking out of the theater of a movie like Saw, you get the feeling that that could actually happen.

Questions:
1. Nowadays, the fictionalized horror movies are less popular than the realistic characters portrayed in movies. Do you think that is due to the human desire for a sense of fear?