University Essay: Examining the Reasons Why People Enjoy Horror Movies

This essay analyzes Stephen King's perspective on why people are drawn to horror movies. It explores the human fascination with the unknown, the thrill of confronting fear, and the escape that the genre provides. The essay discusses how horror movies tap into our primal instincts and hidden emotions, offering a safe space to experience intense feelings. It references the works of authors like Roche and Clasen to support the arguments and examines the psychological underpinnings of the audience's enjoyment. The essay concludes that the appeal of horror movies lies in their ability to provide thrills, chills, and an escape from the mundane, allowing audiences to confront their fears and explore the darker aspects of human nature.

Running head: WHY WE CRAVE HORROR MOVIES?
Why We Crave Horror Movies?
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1WHY WE CRAVE HORROR MOVIES?
Horror movies are one of the most popular genres around. The popularity of the
horror genre is nothing new. This genre has been around for a long time and is incorporated
in the form of books, movies, TV series and other forms of media. Horror movies are also a
popular form of media as they are enjoyed by a lot of people. This is because it explores the
connection of human beings with that of the unknown. It is this fear of the unknown that
makes people watch horror movies even more.
The purpose of this essay is to determine why Stephen King says that people like
to crave horror movies very much.
In the essay by Stephen King, the author states the reasons that the human beings love
to watch horror movies. The author starts to explain his reasoning by saying that there is
something twisted among the human beings otherwise they would not watch horror movies.
There is a bit of truth to thus statement by the author. The reason is that the human beings
love to explore the unknown. It is the search for the unknown that makes them take on
adventures across the seas or go to space in search of the unknown. It is in the midst of their
exploration that they come across something so terrifying that it scares them like anything.
As stated by Roche (2014), this fear of the unknown is what makes human beings love horror
movies so much. Foe e.g. – take the example of movies like Godzilla, it is seen that the
humans are terrified when they come to know that a mutant dinosaur has been living in the
ocean and now has emerged to wreak havoc on mankind. In reality, this fear among the
Japanese started during the times of World War II after the bombing of Hiroshima and
Nagasaki. The Japanese were afraid that nature might retaliate against the humans for causing
so much destruction and pollution in the world. It is this fear that takes the form of Godzilla,
the unknown monster that attacks Japan. This is what is referred by when it is said that people
are afraid of the unknown.

2WHY WE CRAVE HORROR MOVIES?
The author goes on to state there are other reasons that people crave horror movies.
The reason presented by the author states that the horror movies question the sanity of the
characters as well as the viewers who watches the movie. In case of movies like Psycho or
SAW or Texas Chainsaw Massacre, there are a lot of blood and gore which might not be
suitable foe every audience. However, there also are other audiences who like watching such
violence and blood in the movies itself. This is because there is a sick pleasure to be derived
when the mentally deranged killer in a movie slashes the throat of his victim. Perhaps, the
author is right when he says that there is indeed something psychotic among humans that
makes them watch such movies with ease (King, 524).
As stated by Clasen (2017), the author goes onto state that horror movies gives the
audience a chance to relax and enjoy chilling moments while at the same time imagining if
such things happen to them in their real life. Horror movies are enjoyable because it allows
the audience to escape from their daily lives into a world full of danger and horrors. The
author states that people want to challenge the nightmares that the horror movies present to
the audience and it is exactly this reason people pay their money to watch a horror movie.
The author Stephen King goes on to state that the qualities that the antagonists present
in a horror movie, those same qualities are present in the human beings in reality itself. It is
these qualities that that the human beings are able to identify and connect with when they
start watching horror movies. For e.g.- we all are equally twisted and psychotic as Norman
Bates but we keep it repressed inside. The author goes on to say that human beings hide these
emotions to show a more gentler, kinder emotion. This is because such emotions earn them
praise. However, if those same humans, start showing their darker sides, then the society will
start hating them (Roche, 2014).

3WHY WE CRAVE HORROR MOVIES?
From the discussion above, it can be concluded that it is because of the thrills and
chills as well as the escape from the reality that the horror movies provides us with is the
reason that the audience loves horror movies very much

4WHY WE CRAVE HORROR MOVIES?
Reference List
Clasen, Mathias. Why horror seduces. Oxford University Press, 2017.
Freeland, Cynthia. The naked and the undead: Evil and the appeal of horror. Routledge,
2018.
King, Stephen. "Why we crave horror movies." Short Essays for Composition (1981): 524.
Roche, David. Making and Remaking Horror in the 1970s and 2000s: Why Don’t They Do It
Like They Used To?. Univ. Press of Mississippi, 2014.