Horror Enjoyment Research

My first article, Why do people love horror movies? came from the Science Daily website. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/07/070725152040.htm This article talks about the general assumption that in theory, when it comes to human behavior, we pursue pleasure and avoid pain. Then the article postulates the question of why then would someone voluntarily place themselves in a position to be scared half to death. The article states later that in theory there could be a few explanations, one that the person is excited by the movie, not afraid, two, that they endure the fear "for a sense of relief at the end", and three the author argues that "people are happy to be unhappy....people may actually enjoy being scared." I believe that this article is right on target with our readings for this week. Noel Carroll, in the piece, Why Horror? states early on that many people, "do seek out horror fictions for the purpose of deriving pleasure from sights and descriptions that would customarily repulse them." (Carroll 275) This agrees completely with the article I found.

University of Chicago Press Journals (2007, July 31). Why Do People Love Horror Movies? They Enjoy Being Scared. ScienceDaily. Retrieved 11/07/08

Carroll, N. (2002). Why Horror?. In Neill, A. & Riley, A. (eds.) Arguing About Art: Contemporary Philosophical Debates (2nd ed., Chap. 17). New York, NY: Routledge

My second article, Why we like horror, came from a website called, In Bob we Trust, http://inbobwetrust.net/whywelikehorror.html. Bob summarizes early on that in general everyone seems to have a different reason for why he or she likes to be frightened by horror, and that they all seem to have a different view of what horror actually is. He divides the question into several key areas. Why do we like fiction, why do we like fantastic fiction and why do we like that creepy stuff. For the purposes of this assignment I will now focus mainly on his interpretation of why do we like that creepy stuff. He discusses the fact that every day there are real monsters that do really horrible things to other human beings. He states that "horror fiction can be an escape from those real horrors," and it "can be comforting because you know it's a safe monster...ultimately you know it can't hurt you." In our reading this week from Berys Gaut, The Paradox of Horror, Gaut believes that when horror is that stereotypical, it can be likened to actual phenomena of today, that this loses the curiosity for most individuals. He states that, "it is difficult to believe that our curiosity could be sufficiently stimulated..." Gaut believes that the reason so many people like horror is because of the curiosity of the unknown. I think that this is a good point but I still think that Bob has some ground to explore with his theory of escape from reality.

Gaut, B. (2002). The Paradox of Horror. In Neill, A. & Riley, A. (eds.) Arguing About Art: Contemporary Philosophical Debates (2nd ed., Chap. 18). New York, NY: Routledge.

Lewis R. (2007) Why we like Horror. In Bob we Trust. Retrieved, 11/07/08.