Why we like scary movies

I came across a very interesting article which was written by a professor Leon Rappoport from Kansas State University. The goal of his article was to express his opinion as to why humans enjoy watching horror films. He claims that humans as humans develop and get older we get use to things becoming safe and secure. He goes on to talk about how horror movies are one way for which we dare ourselves to escape this security. Its kind of like the same reasons why we would kids use to stay up late after bedtime to tell ghost stories, we have this rebellious side inside of us which needs to be released at one time or another so that we can feel truly alive. Rappoport also claims that this type of attitude is especially apparent amongst teenagers since they have not yet reached the age of 18 or 21 when they have more freedom to do what they want.

I think this analysis of horror movies is pretty interesting, I never thought of watching horror movies as some philosophical idea about the growth of humans. I always just thought of it as people who loved to get a thrill out of being scared. I am not sure if I really agree with Rappoport’s claim but it is definitely an intriguing idea. I personally like to think of horror films as Noel Carrol when he stated, “It engages its audience by being involved in processes of disclosure, discovery, proof, explanation, hypothesis, and confirmation. The idea that horror movies present this story which triggers our curiosity I think is very legit, these movies make us time and time again ask questions like, how can someone possible get away with this? Or, how are they going to get caught and is it possible? Every step of the way pulling us into the storyline. All in all, I think there are very many ways to interpret horror films, whether it be from a philosophical point of you or just from a simple one, horror films are made for entertaining thrill ride and I think that is why people like them.

Bibliography:

Rappoport, L. (n.d.). Why we like to watch scary movies. Retrieved May 2, 2007, from

     http://www.mediarelations.k-state.edu/WEB/News/NewsReleases/listscarymovies.html