Can you imagine what the world would be like if everyone was mentally ill? If the only way for people to feel normal was to watch a horrific, bloody movie? In Stephen King’s essay “Why We Crave Horror Movies”, King states that “we’re all mentally ill...those outside the asylum only hide it a little better”(King 1). I completely disagree, if we were all mentally ill, murder would be legal, and killing people would be a daily ritual. Also if we are supposedly “mentally ill” that means that even cute, pure babies are mentally ill also, and that they also crave a good horror movie. This suggests that there is not one person on this planet that doesn’t crave watching the blood and gore of horror movies. King’s statements are clearly false because we all know at least one person that is still afraid of the dark, let alone Jack the Ripper who cuts people’s bodies to shreds. So, if people openly reject the nightmare forced horror movies, that means we all don’t “crave” them. To begin with, Stephen King says that people watch horror movies “to re-establish our feelings of essential normality” when really if we …show more content…
One report by Bernie DeGroat says that watching horror movies can cause effects such as “inability to sleep through the night after exposure” to the graphic movie (DeGroat, par 3). After seeing the movie Jaws, one person said that the thing that scared him the most wasn’t the shark “or actual deaths that was frightening, but the blood” (DeGroat, par 9). According to the Greek philosopher Aristotle, people that watch horror movies are more prone to releasing their negative emotions, also called catharsis. Although, studies have shown that Aristotle is completely wrong, horror movies actually make people more aggressive than they were before watching the movie. Therefore, why would everyone crave horror movies when really they make us more
Come to find out we as humans do have a dark side to our personality. In fact, our brains make imaginary monsters, demons, witches, and other crazy scary figures you can think of. We are all plugged in with the positives and negatives. In why we crave horror Stephen King is correct because he states that humans crave horror to face our fears; however, he is also wrong by claiming that we as humans crave horror to establish our feelings of normalcy and to experience a peculiar way of fun.
Why We Crave Horror Movies,” Steven King shares his opinion for why society enjoys watching horror films. He is a very well-known author and is very good at what he does. Let’s take a closer look at his article to examine his use of rhetoric to bring his readers to a point of considering a new perspective about themselves. Mr. King takes his reader on a journey of a mix of reasoning and emotions to help guide him or her from one perspective to the other side of a new perspective.
There are many reasons why people watch horror films, and some of these reasons are explored in King’s essay. King states that people watch horror movies “To show that [they] can, that [they] are not afraid...” (396). Essentially, King is saying that scary movies help their audiences prove to themselves that
We yearn for horror to re-establish our feelings of normalcy. For instance, some people would watch a movie and see people melting or in an ugly form, but then realize what King said,
Stephen King never clearly states the thesis of this essay however there is enough information provided that we can infer one. We need to keep our inner lyncher at bay by feeding ourselves with small portions of demonic, bloody, violence, found in horror movies. King writes “It deliberately appeals to all the worst in us. It is morbidity unchained, our most base instincts let free, our nastiest fantasies realized...” (Why We Crave Horror Movies, paragraph 12) and by doing so he’s implying that horror movies are like a temporary fix for our violent craves.
In the essay, “Why We Crave Horror Movies,” King explores his insight into why people enjoy and are fascinated watching horror movies. First, King points out “to show that we can, that we are not afraid, that we can ride this roller coaster”. He’s suggesting that horror movies are like roller coaster in that we search for the pleasurable, daring, lighter side of feeling fear and the thrill of trying to overcome it. King further states, horror movies “takes away the shades of grey,” giving the audience permission to return to children again, “seeing things in pure blacks and whites.” King goes on to explain that we go to “re-establish our feelings of normality”; providing psychological relief for the audience, allowing them to “lapse into simplicity, irrationality, and even outright madness." In my opinion, King’s reason for viewing horror films for psychological reasons is the most unsettling. He argues that horror movies gives the audience permission to return to childhood, viewing their emotions in a simple and madness way. I’m not sure everyone has the ability to differentiate these feelings. If we take a moment to observe the actual audience, we would discover that it’s mostly teens and young adults who have difficulty coping with their emotions and very impressionable.
“Why we crave horror movie” is a type of mini review written by Stephen King in playboy 1981 in which he had discussed, various features of the horror movies. Stephen King is an American writer well famous for writing the horror movies and is popular in the world of literature as Richard Bachman. In this mini-review King had used an ethical approach to delineate the differences between the some of the horror movies and to highlight certain psychological factors responsible for people’s craving for the horror movies. In this piece of writing, King had spotted certain emotions that become reason for this psychological drive. Moreover, he by using his straightforward approach
In Stephen King’s somewhat subjective essay in the 1984 Playboy magazine, Why We Crave Horror Movies, King describes his reasoning behind why so many people are fond of watching movies residing in the horror genre. The content of his essay, though inserted in an unconventional area for
In the essay, “Why We Crave Horror Movies” by Stephen King, the author talks about the benefits of the horror movies on human beings. He argues that we all behave like mad people by performing weird things like talking to ourselves, showing disgusting faces and having odd fears. Comparing the horror movies with roller coasters, he states that young people are more fascinated by these adventures to prove the point that they can do this and are not afraid of taking challenges. He argues that we get fun by watching people getting hurt and suffering from menacing pain in the movies. Despite having insane thoughts in their mind which they want to execute in reality people are expected to show emotions that are accepted by the society. Horror movies gives psychic relief to these insane
In the essay, "Why We Crave Horror Movies", Steven King explains that the modern day horror movie is our relief for violence it is what feeds the gator. He uses horror movies because of there violent nature. We all need to be able to step outside life's boundaries and certain
negotiates with what one may feel when, or after, viewing a horror film. While this may
It was a dark, cold, November night. The moon overlooked the lake as it mirrored its reflection. It was peaceful, too peaceful. I was on my way to my aunt’s, who lived a mile or so from my house. I didn’t want to go, but my mother made me. She was working a double shift at the hospital and she didn’t want me to be alone tonight. Tonight was the night my brother died two years ago. It’s a funny story how it happened, but that’s a story to tell another time. According to Stephen King’s essay “Why We Crave Horror Movies” he draws viewers into horror stories like the one above simply because we crave it. King claims in his essay we obsess over the wanting of horror as if we are daring the nightmare. The human condition is finally allows people
Why do humans need and out lit to get built up anger and aggression? Have you every craved horror movies? I’ve personally craved horror movies for the thrill and being able to get out any bad emotions or thoughts of hurting other people that I’ve had. In Stephen King’s short writing of “why we crave Horror Movies?” he suggests that “I think we’re all mentally ill; those of us outside the asylums only hide a little better…”. I Agree with King and I feel like everyone is crazy in their own way some are worse than others; The ones that are not that crazy simply find an outlet like horror movies to get out the negative thoughts that go through their head and are able to control it.
Stephen King wrote a very brief essay titled "Why we Crave Horror Movies", in which he explained some of the reasons that people choose to go to horror movies to be entertained. In his essay, King goes on to explain that we as a people need horror movies as a sort of release; to feed the darker elements within all of us without having to sacrifice our humanity (also, civility). King does this by comparing people based on their levels of sanity whereas some societal "eccentricities" are completely acceptable, while some will get you thrown right into the loony bin. It’s summed up pretty well in this quote:
Horror is designed to scare, cause alarm and dread, while also entertaining the audience at the same time in a cathartic experience (Dirk, 2016). Horror films are meant for a specific type of audience that enjoy scary films. Dirks (Tim, 2016) approach to genre horror, is that films went back as 100 years ago, from the earliest days our vivid imagination in seeing ghosts in the shadows to be connected emotionally of the unknown, and fear things that are improbable. You watch a horror film, it makes you aware of the scary surroundings, the essence of fear itself, without actually being in any sorts of danger. Dirks argues that there is a fun and thrill factor in being frightened, or watching something disturbing. It gives you that feeling of an adrenaline rush, as well as having that feeling someone is actually next to you lurking in the dark (Dirk, 2016).