What attracts people to horror films?
From “Nightmare on Elm Street,” “American Horror Story,” “The Fly,” “Stranger Things,” “Psycho,” or “It,” everyone has likely seen some sort of horror movie or show. Horror is becoming more and more prevalent on American screens, with numerous horror films being released every year. Given the low production costs and the high rates of consumption of horror films, it is no wonder they are such a high-production genre. However, the question lies in why people are so drawn to thrill-seeking entertainment.
According to Winthrop film professor George Cochran, a retired Directors Guild of America and NYC Commercial producer, “[horror] has been the core motivator since writers discovered ink … The motivations are ‘fears’: fear of the dark, bad people, scary people, dead people who come back and eat you … If people in general are afraid of something, love something, hate something, are repulsed by something, Hollywood will write it, shoot it, and distribute it ASAP. ‘God Bless America’ is a ‘genre’ that has always filled seats from the early days of real film.”
=In a 2004 paper in the “Journal of Media Psychology,” Dr. Glenn Walters claims that the three primary factors that draw people to the genre of horror are tension, relevance and unrealism. Tension has to do with the allure of suspense, mystery or gore. Relevance is the idea that viewers must be able to connect to the film through personal experience, relationships, etc. Unrealism is the idea that even with this connection to the film, viewers must be able to feel a sense of control by placing distance between themselves and the horrors they have witnessed.
According to Professor Cochran, “the common, predictable storyline [of horror] is you need a role for the ‘hero,’ and he needs a ‘lady in distress.’ You have to hide the ‘bad guy’ for a while until the audience is so frightened they scream … just ask Hitchcock.”
In order to connect to the audience, horror films use “casting, locations, wardrobe, the dialogue or monologue of characters and relationships. [For relationships,] a well-loved child and especially a dog or a cat [are used],” Cochran said.
Many theories suggest that the allure of horror films mainly has to do with the physical and emotional release that follows the fear factor of the film. According to sociologist Margee Kerr in an interview with “The Atlantic,” the love of horror is partially due to a phenomenon called excitation transfer. After the typical physical reactions to fear subside, they are replaced with intense relief, which comes with a boost of adrenaline, dopamine and endorphins. In short, “fear floods our brains with feel-good chemicals.”
To Professor Cochran, the scariest horror movies are “The 13th series and ‘Psycho.’ ‘Horror FILMS’ is a formula for a very broad audience of various genders/ages/areas of the country … all leading up to a very diverse demographic that loves to live on the emotional edge of fear.”
Overall, horror is a complex genre that is beloved by many and will continue to fill box offices for years to come.
