The Monster Within

I’ve always found myself wondering after I watch a really twisted movie, “why did I just watch this”? The ultimate question would be, are we the real monsters? Finding pleasure in something scaring our socks off or someone being stabbed multiple times. In Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho Norman was the monster. No creature here. Thomas Fahy can attest to my humans should be afraid of humans theory. He uses Norman’s name as an example. It can be used to suggest that one would think that he would be a “normal” guy but turns out to be the exact opposite (Fahy 15). 

Our gravity towards slasher films show the bit of crazy we have in each of us.We are the characters, they are us… Yes as confusing as it may be, it makes sense. Horror movies are so appealing because they allow us to become fully engaged. Directors put certain elements in movies such as in the Conjuring when a cracked door is open for the audience to be able to say what they would do differently. Or in Scream when the masked killer is right behind the girl and she trips and reaches out her hand instead of getting up. Our first thought as an audience is to get up and start running! Poor decisions are added into movies on purpose.

Our fears of being afraid of the dark as kids or clowns comes to light in horror films. This comes to no surprise considered danger is typically associated with darkness. Writers and directors have the creative ability for someone that is neither religious or believes in spirits or ghosts to be afraid of a dark figure at the opposite end of their hallway. This is what is great, the nonbelievers begin to believe even if it’s for the faintest second. James Weaver agrees with my theory on how horror films help the audience. He suggests that “through these rituals we confront and learn to deal with our fears.

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Why Horror Movies?

Why are people so apt to witness horrific events?  What keeps us as an audience asking for more? The answer lies in that it is pure entertainment. To enjoy a movie that is twisted you must fully submerse yourself  in it. When Jason Vorhees is getting ready to slash someone’s head off, we cringe because we picture  ourselves in the woods, running from him, in an attempt to prevent from meeting our maker so soon. Author Ron Tamborini of Michigan State says that  models of cognitive processing suggests that individuals that tend to become imaginatively involved with another’s experience can have unusually strong reactions when observing emotionally charged events. In Layman’s terms, your foot gets cut off, I look at my foot to make sure it’s still attached to my leg.

According to Joanne Cantor of University of Wisconsin, stimuli that are thought to be dangerous, should ultimately evoke fear. Producers have been doing an exceptional job at this. Putting things in movies that are a part of our daily routine. One of my all time favorite movies Stay Alive, is a great example. The concept of this movie is that if you die in the video game, you die in real life. Doesn’t just stop there, you die the exact same way you die in the game. While it was given a rating of 9% on Rotten Tomatoes, the concept is golden. One character in the movie was ran over by a horse carriage in the game and…well you get the point. . There is basically no one on this Earth that doesn’t enjoy a good video game.Contrary to popular belief (including mine) Thomas Fahy suggests that horror does not have to always draw on everyday anxieties for us as the audience to feel a sense of a connection.

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The King of All Kings

Stephen King

Okay this guy had to have his own post. I’m going out on a limb when I say that Stephen King is the only author in the horror genre to have so many books be adapted into movies. Kidding. I was very sure of that statement. This guy has written so many screenplays that I refuse to overwhelm myself and you, the reader,with them. King’s pieces of work don’t normally fall in just one bubble. Some of his ideas were brilliantly quirky, like making a 1958 Plymouth Fury (car) the villain in the movie Christine or Thinner were this arrogant lawyer runs over an old gypsy woman and gets off scotch free. He begins to lose weight uncontrollably after being cursed by this woman’s father. Stephen King writes about basically any and everything. The movie Silver Bullet, based off of his book shines a light on how a human can be part monster and man. The more recent of them all The Mist raised the question of how far as humans can we be pushed to be completely inhumane. Im talking about the last scene of the movie when the lead character David  murders his son along with four adults because he lacks any faith  that they will be rescued from that godforsaken mist.

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Japanese Horror vs American

The Grudge (2005)

American horror culture dominated the market but we began to gain interest in Japanese horror films. A lot of American fans of horror are probably unaware that a great amount of our movies are remakes of Japanese and Korean films. While both great in my opinion, American and Japanese films have different cliches. American films have become extremely “action orientated” (“Japanese Horror”).  for the past 20 years, Japanese films, however, What’s really the story behind the girl of Asian descent with dark black hair in the long white dress. Japanese creatures usually fall between two creatures Youkai and Yuurei. Yuurei is what us on the West side are literally obsessed with. Yurrei “are ghosts or spirits that have been stranded or died because of ‘intense emotion” (“Japanese Horror”).  So there you have it. Japanese directors don’t just love having  little girls in dresses. They usually have a purpose of getting revenge on the person that contributed to their death.The infamous movie The Grudge was a remake of Japanese director Takashi Shimizu’s 2002 film Ju-on. It follows an American woman that moves to Tokyo as a nurse. She moves into this house that destroys the lives of any and everyone that enters. Once the victim is overcome by the curse known as “the Grudge”, they die and it lives on until the next victim comes. Basically a cycle. Don’t worry this is as morbid as it gets for this blog. Kayako is the the cursed soul and basically the  poster child for this movie. I challenge you to find one person that doesn’t find this character creepy. You will fail time and time again. The way Kayako crawls on the floor is just… ok nevermind, makes me sick even thinking about it.

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Same ole ,same ole?

Over the years in horror movies, its very easy to point out certain patterns. Movies that  start off with a huge two story house. A typical suburban American family with 2.5 kids, just moved in with their dog named Bo. The parents tend to neglect the teenager of the family somehow leaving them more prone to being X’ed off. Strange activities begin to happen in the house, but only one spouse believes there is a presence while the other insists there is “no such thing as ghosts”. Movies such as Insidious and the 1970’s Amityville Horror come to mind. These types of movies can be classified as more of a supernatural type of horror. Rather than people being slashed left and right, they are possessed! How entertaining…Author Pat Gill suggests that “children’s questions and accusations are met with denial or excuses by parents who do not wish to engage them fully. It comes as a shock that 10 times out of 10 they are wrong. No element of surprise here directors. Another stereotype is the African American being killed within two seconds of the movie or not existing at all. I still haven’t found out the reason for this. Well, maybe I have but will not mention it to prevent from offending anyone. On the contrary, movies such as Halloween: H20 leave us thinking “hey maybe the minority does get to live”. And he does. When LL Cool J is the security guard at this preparatory school, he comes face to face with the infamous human/supernatural killer (still unsure of what he is) throughout the entire movie.

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Ewww = Good

The past decade, give or take a couple years, have clouded the classic element of horror movies (Fahy 15). Directors began pushing out movies with so much gore and violence that the plot of the entire movie was lost. Considering violence= money, they definitely took a step in the right direction. The 2003 remake remake of the Texas Chainsaw passes with flying colors in terms of the gross out factor. It made me cringe so much that I now have a permanent twitch from it. Five teenagers were taking a road trip to a concert when they get caught up in this rural town in Texas. The killer known as Leatherface bloodily butchered them while he was being egged on by his cannibalistic family ( Nelson 113). His face was extremely disfigured, which is what can be normally thought of as being monstrous. Blood can be connected to fear since it means someone is hurt or in a great amount of pain. This is the key! Its easier to reach the audience when a guy’s leg gets cut off or when a pool of blood leads to the kitchen. As Stephen King says it “ I recognize terror as the finest emotion, so I will try to terrorize the reader, if I am unable to terrify him/her I will try to horrify, and if I am unsuccessful in that I’ll go for the gross out” (Weaver 12). While I may think horror movies are the best thing since sliced bread, critic and author Mark Edmundson believes that “contemporary horror films represent a sense of degradation of the Gothic tradition (Gill 16). Ooops…

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Transition into 21st century

Rosemary’s Baby scene (1968)

Quarantine (2008)

Ira Levin’s Rosemary’s Baby an David Seltzer’s The Omen books introduced the entire demonic sub genre of horror. The movie Psycho led to a flood of imitators (Weaver 11). The sub genre “gore cinema stemmed from it (Sapolsky 33) Halloween being one of the most notorious, opened the door to the suburban neighborhood and how bad things happened there too.

Movies of the 1980’s brought about more teenagers as the protagonists. Parents in these films were “generally absent either physically or emotionally (Gill 18).  Prom Night (1980), Sleepaway Camp (1983) and the Lost Boys (1985).

My favorite type of movie is the slasher film. The murderer is typically unattached emotionally from every situation. These types of movies began to be very popular in the 80’s. Friday the 13th, My Bloody Valentine and A Nightmare on Elm Street Slasher movies  nearly always carried out by a psychokiller who slashes to death mostly female victims one by one until he is killed by the one girl who survives” (Sapolsky 1996) Michael Myers in Halloween kills his older sister whom was supposed to be babysitting  and goes on to kill teens and babysitters after he escapes from jail.

The 90’s brought about a variety of horror films. Movies that introduced one of the killers as being one of “us” such as in the Scream franchise, or House on Haunted Hill (1999) where guests are offered $1 million if they survive the night . The hosts develop traps to scare the guests but the actual ghosts actually began disturbing them.

The 21st century introduced a very interesting perspective to the horror genre: The camcorder. The movie Quarantine followed a television reporter that is trapped inside a building that was quarantined by the CDC  due to an outbreak of a mystery virus, turning humans into vicious killers. Another great thing about horror movies, humans one day, the next, flesh eating zombies. Two extremes that we find pleasure in seeing the transformation. Cloverfield (2008)  is another movie where the soon to be  victim is holding the camcorder.

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Freedom to Basically do Whatever

Psycho (1960) infamous shower scene

What is horror exactly?  Thomas Fahy’s defines it as having two elements. It is an appearance of the evil supernatural or monstrous and it intentionally elucidates dread or disgust (Fahy 15). The 1960’s were a time of rebellion and where people were stepping away from “the norm”.  As Phillip Roth says, “it had set children against their parents (Fahy 15).

The hushed about homosexuality and long hemlines would be no more. By this time, people wanted a more realistic horror.  This was convenient, considering the movie industry’s new ratings ranging from G to X (Zushi, “Horror and Hollywood”). Producers in the 1940’s and 50’s avoided images of blood to prevent from offending their audiences (Kendrick 221). No longer would a director be in grave fear of his movie being banned because it was “too violent” or sexed up.

Alfred Hitchcock’s movies showcased humans more than creatures. The “monsters” so to speak looked just like those that went out to the theaters to see the movies. Psycho “presented us with Norman Bates, the monster so close to normal revealing how monstrous a man could be. These movies showcased the capabilities of mankind. What we really should be afraid of…ourselves.

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History of Horror

Frankenstein (1931)

The movie industry is a multi-billion dollar industry. The horror movies gross millions per year bringing out various types of people from all over the world. Obviously the big bucks are made here due to the constant terrifying of audiences, movie after movie.

Let us take a trip down memory lane. There hasn’t just been some new-found love for creepy and disturbing, some form of the genre dates back to the late 1700’s.  Horror films found there inspiration from gothic literature. Author Horace Walpole’s, The Castle of Otranto, showed characteristics of an early developed horror story. The story describes a supernatural tale where the Prince of Otranto develops feelings for this young beautiful woman. Throughout the book the walls of the castle come to life. His definition of Gothic was different however. Walpole described it as being “barbarous” (Mullen, “Origins of the Gothic”). Gothic literature typically involved the protagonist being lured into a castle or building, where all the supernatural happenings took place (Mullen, “Origins of the Gothic”). Another writer, Mary Shelley is notable for her classic novel Frankenstein. When movies such as Frankenstein and Dracula came out in the year 1931, blood was not the main star. Rather weird camera angles and shrieks from down the hall. Boy would this change in the next 30 years…

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The Reason Behind it All

(Drive-in Ft Lauderdale)

Growing up, I was used to watching horror films on a daily basis. My mom would take my brother and me to the Drive-In theater to watch all of the latest movies. In Fort Lauderdale, the Drive-In was the place to go. Not to mention you can get your bang for your buck by catching two movies for the price of one. No overpriced popcorn at this theater. Let’s just say this was extremely frowned upon and could get you escorted out immediately. But anyways, my love for horror films began at the drive in.  The movies that scarred me the most I saw there, leaving me wanting more from this genre. In this blog I will be focusing on the genre as a whole as well as my favorite type of horror movie. What keeps the audience asking for more, film after film after film?

“A Brief History of Horror.” Filmmaker IQ.n.p. Web. 25 Oct. 2014.

“Chris’ Guide to Understanding Japanese Horror”. Chris Guide.n.p.n.d. Web 27 Oct. 2014

Fahy, Thomas. The Philosophy of Horror. Ed. University Press of Kentucky, 2010. Print.

Hantke, Steffen. American Horror Film. Ed. Jackson University Press of Mississippi, 2010. Print.

Mullan, John. “The Origins of the Gothic.” Brithis Library,n.d. Web. Nov. 1 2014

Weaver, James and Ron Tamborini. Horror Films.Mahwah: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1996. Print.

Wilson, Karina. Horror Film History.n.p. 2001. Web. 26 Oct. 2014

Zushi, Yo. “How the Market Affects What Horror Makes it to  Hollywood.” New Republic Mag., 22 Aug. 2014. Web. 28 Oct. 2014

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