screencraft.org: Humans are a strange bunch. We’re curious to a fault at times. We seeks thrills by putting our lives in danger as we jump out of airplanes, climb mountains, run away from bulls in chase, plunge off of a bridge with only a single cord to save us, etc.
Others take it down a notch by climbing into roller coasters and other thrill rides found at carnivals, fairs, and amusement parks.
And then there are horror movies. Audiences flock to them each year. The horror genre is one of the most reliable sources of profit in the eyes of Hollywood and the worldwide film industry as a whole.
15 comments:
I am a very cautious person and I can not understand why someone would ever want to subject themselves to the terror that horror movies induce. My dad and brother love watching horror movies in theaters right when they come out and I just don't understand the draw. That being said, I watched every single one of those clips and I love watching lets plays of Until Dawn (which is a really gory and gruesome horror game). This article was really interesting about the different aspects of those movies that scare us, but I still do not think this explains the reason people love to be scared.
My guess is that it releases some kind of catharsis for the audience. If they get scared in a controlled environment, it allows them to feel some kind of emotional release when they leave. I can understand if it allows the audience to feel more energized and invigorated, like a more potent version of a thriller. (a genre which I actually enjoy).
Even though I'm not much a fan of watching horror films, I think they would be the most interesting kind of movies to make because they rely both on brute force tactics and careful manipulation of the audience. This article picked up on both as being successful scaring tactics. I think movies like Saw, Paranormal Activity, and the Blair Witch Project are some of the most interesting examples of this because they all prey on the idea that you could find yourself in this situation. Saw refers back to the fact that the people who are trapped in the room are just ordinary people who had flaws just like everyone else, but whose flaws could be heightened to a deadly extreme. Paranormal Activity uses the convention of footage that looks like it was shot from a household security camera, as well as never showing the audience who or what is making the terrifying things happen, to make it seem more realistic. The Blair Witch Project is the most successful in using these techniques in my opinion. The low-budget camerawork and realistic editing make it eerily close to real life, which is what the movie is all about. The idea that it could happen to anyone is the scariest thought of all and makes these movies harder to watch without being terrified.
You've got to give some credit to horror movies: they know how to keep an audience coming back for more. The horror genre is so diverse and so stratified these days that you can basically see anything from a slasher to a psychological horror and declare it under the same umbrella. I find that a combination of visuals and anticipation are what really attract me to a horror movie; when the buildup to a certain freaky character or reveal is done just right, it incites something explosive in the audience. You can only think of the audience's reaction as pure and true as it can be from seeing something on a screen; they are so enveloped in the action of the hero or heroine that they feel placed within the confines of this horror movie. Bloody and gory horror movies don't very much 'scare' me as much as they entertain me; when there's a deep psychological aspect to the film, a human aspect to it, is where I really start freaking out. We're so used to seeing monsters in CG and on the internet that whatever someone creates now just doesn't compare to our wild imaginations.
I love horror films and other such things of their nature and I have actually spent a lot of time figuring out why people love them and why they are so scary. Especially after watching Prom Night, a sad high school horror story that completely overused their use of mirrors, jump scares, and metaphors regarding prescription medicine. But why is it that when one movie uses something in repetition, it is less effective and when we see it in multiple movies, we still get scared every time? I theorize that this is all connected to what the article calls “Anticipation”. We know exactly, or at least have an idea, as to what is going to happen and we get excited about it. Whether it be excited about being right, or excited about how exactly they reveal the scary thing, or how it will be different or the same as all the other horror movies are the same.
I LOVE HORROR MOVIES AND THE HORROR GENRE! Which explains why I want to be an artistic director for haunted houses and horror films once I graduate. Sound and location are huge aspects to the horror genre. The location can make or break the scare factor very easily. Imagine the Blair Witch Project set in a forest which wasn’t dense; it wouldn’t be scary at all because you could easily see what lay beyond. This is how horror really gets you: it’s all in the suspense! Chase scenes are all about suspense; not knowing what’s next is suspense; not seeing the monster is suspense; even watching someone get killed can be suspenseful because you don’t know if they will live or die. The other aspect of horror is pure gore. Blood and violence is terrifying to people because everyone has the instinct in them to survive. It is primal and natural, and horror films attack that very idea.
I personally hate horror films, but I love analyzing what makes certain things scary. Someone, who I cannot remember (it may have been a professor or it may have been a friend), recently discussed how the scariest movies are the ones where the monster never appears. When there is no forced visualization of the monster, every viewer creates in their own mind what is scariest to them. I think it's so incredibly interesting how different types of horror movies play up different aspects of terror. As the article mentions, horror movies use the unknown, anticipation, visuals, chases, disfiguration, phobias, locations, and monsters to scare audiences. Different horror films will use all of these aspects differently. Some movies rely entirely on monsters, while some use monsters combined with location. For example, movies like Cloverfield show a monster in a highly populated city. When people see landmarks that they know and are used to seeing in a certain way destroyed or exploding or being torn apart by zombies, it adds a certain level of familiarity that makes what is happening even scarier. It's so fascinating to examine the combination of elements of horror that are discussed in this article.
Although I'm personally not the biggest fan of horror movies I have a lot of respect for the kind of entertainment they provide. What I personally think is so unique and interesting about the genre of film is that it relies on so little to create and effective film, but can still utilize even the most basic kinds of effects to create a attention grabbing story that can elicit real fear. While we can debate the merit of entertainment that is created purely to elicit a response of horror and fear all day, I find the resourcefulness of horror filmmakers astounding. As someone who's working to create an effective theatrical horror experience for playground I found the key points of this article extremely useful. In particular I think the best tool horror movies implement is the use of the unknown. While there are some images and sounds that scare large audiences, there is nothing like the audience's imagination which can contrive the exact image or idea of a fear that is most unnerving for that person in particular. This use of the unknown is something I plan to keep in mind moving forward with the rest of the creative team on our project.
I don't really like scary movies because like i said last week they depend on special effects and their genre rather than good storytelling so therefore they bore me. at the end I have no connection to any of the characters because they are so flat or so stupid. Most scary movies rely on suspense for their energy and try to capture their audience that way. For me it works sometimes and other times it doesn't. I've had more suspense in disney films then in scary movies sometimes. I think less is more especially in horror films. If there was a dead body or a ghost around every corner of the hotel from the shining there would be no suspense, it would be suspected. but because they focus on 4-5 ghosts only then they are able to create suspense by making the audience think 1 will there be a ghost there(because there hasn't been every time) and 2 which ghost will it be? will we find out more about their story and how they died? this is what makes good horror movies to me, the right amount of suspense and horror mixed with good taste.
Like some of those who commented on this article previously I am a fan of horror movies, except I think that I have become pretty picky as to what I consider to be a good horror movie. I do not believe that the only goal of a movie should be to make people jump or gross them out. For me, the most powerful horror movies are the ones with an exciting and disturbing plot line. If all I see on screen for two hours is blood, gore, and ghosts, chances are that I am going to fall asleep. The ghost in the house bit, I don’t have to tell anyone has been done probably literally millions of times. When films are able to take the simple concept of a child being the only one in a family talking to a ghost in the house and make the action intriguing AND valuable to the storyline it can be a pretty scary movie. Have seen a few indie-style movies that really mess with the minds of the viewers that I will recommend as soon as I remember the titles.
Horror movie and the whole scare industry has always been a favorite of mine because I view it as a fun experience to create. Personally though I can’t handle many gory or slasher movies so many of the references made in the article were lost on me but I still understood the formula. I have always assumed what made scary movie a success was all due to the sound designer. The sound designer is able to heighten the feeling of suspense and anticipation and wonder through the use of duration of sounds, the tempo of the sounds, use of silence, and sounds that are everyday day sounds that are distorted. So it the learning about the importance of what left seen and not seen was something I never realized. And it makes sense that our imaginations are going to be able to take the sounds we hear that freak us out and amplify them to match up with the visual of not clearly seeing the thing that trying to freak us out.
I agree with Nikki, sound has such an insane effect on a person, I would agrue even more so than the visuals in some cases, because it creates the unknown atmosphere that drives horror. In my sophomore year, my school did Dead Man Walking. At the end of the show, before the main character is set to die, my friend created the scene of his crimes (murder in the woods) purely through sound, and it played. Just the sounds of what happened let the audience visualize the scariest way it could have played out. It was truly haunting because it was "customizable" for every person in the audience. Sound also creates the aforementioned suspense/anticipation, another huge factor in horror films. The moment I get the most scared during a horror movie is the moment of complete silence right before the monster stikes. A horror movie wouldn't be anything without a sound designer.
I am a huge fan of horror, and more specifically thriller and psychological thriller films. Liek they say, I think CGI hasn;t exactly aided horror in the way that it should have. THe real horror of a good horror film, is like they say, the tone, disturbing images and the anticipation. My three favorite horror/thriller films, are The Shining, Rosemary's Baby and Alien. These movies are classic horror films, and do not simply rely on the new, cheap tactic of jump scares. Instead, they establish a tone of isolation, and overall uneasiness, then bring in elements of true horror. For instance in The SHining, the disturbing images really reign true. the first time I watched the Shining, the image of the woman ascending from the bathtub with rotting flesh had me instantly so afraid. Then, as I was rewatching the film in theaters, another part was left in my brain. The scene they mentioned with the dog felating the man. It's so unexpected and so... just weird, that it stays with you, and is unnerving.
Rosemary;s baby is built entirely around psychological fear. No one believes her. She is trapped in her marriage and in her apartment and no one will help her. And Alien, is about isolation as well- in space. You cannot escape. And both of these resonate with me perhaps as a woman.
Watching the video clips in the article just reinforces the ideas of what makes a good horror movie. Though never a huge fan of horror movies, it is quite interesting to read about the psychology and see examples of the different aspects of horror movies. I have to say that the article was right, when watching the video clips, they worked to freak me out. For me, I think that the sound and music plays an important part. They build suspense, as well as helping to narrate the scene. The clips without as much background sound did not seem as scary to me as the clips that did. That is really where this article falls short, as sound does not get its own section. I guess you could say that music and sound just back up and complement the other 8 sections of the article, but I think it deserves its own discussion.
These are all totally real reasons for why I have nightmares after every horror movie I watch, particularly "the unknown." There is a great quote from Albus Dumbledore that I often think of when I examine my fears, and that is: "It is the unknown we fear when we look upon darkness and death, Harry, and nothing more." As a person who hugely fears both the darkness and death, that was a big realization for me. It really is the things I am not able to see or understand that scare me the most. The things that have me turning off my light and jumping into my bed before something can get me in the dark are really my own imagination trying to understand what I cannot see. This is likely why, yes, Jaws scared the life out of me, and why I am afraid of water creatures in real life. I can't see them and they could be right under me! Same reason why I won't walk down a dark alley or why I check the trunk and backseat of my car before I drive at night. All you would need to do to create a horror movie that scares me for weeks is write a script with killers that hide in the dark and monsters that live underwater. Or killers that swim underwater. In the dark. I don't know. I'm getting scared. That's all for me.
This was a fun read, despite a kind of repetitiveness to the article. I think several of the categories, like The Chase and The Anticipation overlap substantially, both nuanced versions of suspense and tension building. More often than not, The Anticipation is a clutch part of any horror chase scene. This article also seemed slightly reductive, identifying these traits before kind of tossing them into a bag of tricks and gimmicks labeled "Horror". The examples were sharp, but the writing kind of toneless.
These eight categories form a key backbone to the horror movie genre, but I think what really scares audiences is when these elements are extrapolated and presented in unconventional and unexpected ways. There are many movies that have utilized these devices in an manner lacking thought and cleverness, and have been subsequently unable to elicit a fear response from their audience, a failure mirrored by their flopping at the box office.
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