Inducing fear, horror films?

Question

we go to the movies to watch these films so we can experience fear , For every human fear there is a magnified version of it in horror films giant spiders snakes rabid dogs ,Evil men zombie films seem to be linked to a paranoid personality everyones out to get them . why do you think we as humans need to experience this fear for entertainment value .??????????????????????
I personally think that inducing this fear is counter productive as a weak minded person might immitate or be so disturbed by horrific imagary that it will effect lives and how we relate to each other ultimately.

Answer 1

In general, I like horror films. I like a good creepy story and the excitement of being a little spooked. I'll tell you though, I'm very much disturbed by this newer trend in hyperintense gore movies. For example, Hostel, High Tension, etc. The degree of the violence is almost pornographic, ultra-sadism. They go beyond the splatter films of my generation such as Friday the 13th, Halloween or Nightmare on Elm Street. I saw the first two minutes of one the other day, I think it was High Tension, and the killer is having sex with the severed head of a dead woman. That isn't scary, it's perverse, sick, and twisted and I immediately shut it off. I would agree that it is this genre of horror movie that sends a deeper message of sadistic devaluation of human life that eventually promotes societal decay because it pushes the envelope even further. What is the next boundary or limit to be pushed after you're had sex with a severed head? Ever heard of a snuff film? We're getting awfully close.

Answer 2

Problem for me is, there is no horror film that induces fear in me, I hate it because I want to be scared, the only film to ever make me feel uneasy was Quatermass And The Pit and that was made soooo long ago now. (oh and Watership Down, that black rabbit freaks me out!!)

As for effecting peoples lives, no, don't buy that, if anything in a film really effects someone that badly then they have severe mental problems anyway and if it wasn't the film that bought them to the surface then something else would have at some point. I would say 99% of people know the difference between reality and fantasy when it comes to movies, the other 1% would need help even if films didn't exist.

Answer 3

Well i guess i am more freaked out by Krazy_in_Japan's answer than actually watching a horror movie, how can watching so much violence (gory scenes, zombies, rotten flesh, tons of blood) be in funny anyway. Even though most people know that its just some actor wearing a mask or silly costumes, it is still not funny!!!!! What is funny about watching a person's head being chopped off and his blood being spurt all over the place, or some drinking blood or eating flesh. My dear Krazy_in_Japan, please go see a shrink. And the earlier the better.

Answer 4

Producing fear in a person can be very productive. I have never once entered my home after finding the door ajar, taken a ride from a stranger, or gone off with someone I didn't know; why? Fear of these things have been instilled upon me! Another thought is that fear experienced in a "safe" setting allows one to come to terms with the real world without having to subject oneself into it's dangers.My final argument is this simple question: what is the opposite of fear? HOPE

Answer 5

You need to take in account that those "horrific things" that appear on the screen are nothing more than actors with makeup.

If somebody has his life negatively affected by a guy wearing a mask on a cinema screen, they have other more serious problems that have little to do with horror films.

Answer 6

That's why movies are given class categorisation to prevent nervous people from going to see horror movies.

Some people just love them to bits, but I myself would draw the line at going to see the likes of the 'The Chainsaw Massacre' I would be scared witless by it and would sit with my hands over my face or walk out.

Having said what I have, the adrenaline rush you get from watching horror movies induces flight or fight. And sometimes we need that fight senario as a way of self preservation.

Answer 7

Fear is both good and bad in different situations. Personally i like being scared witless by a horror film as its not real, gets your heart racing. Other fear however, i dont enjoy :)

Answer 8

my wife and I went to see the Ring when it first came out and, contrary to what many people have said (It's stupid and not that scary), we walked out of the theatre and I was angry that the imagery was so disturbing, meanwhile my wife suffered nightmares for several months and she has yet to want to watch another scary movie. It sent her into a serious violent/disturbing imagery aversion (which is a good thing, really. who needs that stuff?). Why was it so disturbing? I don't know, maybe my wife and I didn't watch enough violence and horror leading up to the ring to be desensitized. I stopped watching TV for the most part when I was 14 because it was boring to me (better things to do) and my wife, for whatever reason, never watched that much TV growing up, either. TV is evil and you do get desensitized to violence which must do something to you psychologically.

Answer 9

fear induces a build up in adrenaline in preparation for the fight or flight reflex. As the real fear never materialises into a threat as its oly a film, we are left with this adrenaline in our bodies which is a pleasurable experience

Answer 10

Those of us who have lived in traumatic situations for any length of time certainly don't need to suffer in the cinema. I think only people who feel very secure in themselves "enjoy" being scared like this...actually it's kind of sadistic, enjoying watching the person on screen suffering, tho of course it's fiction.