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Paradox of “horror“: nature of genre attraction

 

Now we have come to the most profound question of this research, the question concerning the nature of horror genre attraction. “Why would anyone want to be horrified?“

It’s apparent that the basic component in the emotion of horror is repulsionordisgust. But — and this is the question of “Why horror?” in its primary form — if horror necessarily has something repulsive about it, how can audiences be attracted to it? «Even if horror only caused fear, we might feel justified in demanding an explanation of what could motivate people to seek out the genre. But where fear is compounded with repulsion, the ante is, in a manner of speaking, raised» [5, p. 159]. Normally, people avoid what disgusts them. Facing something that a person finds repellent is definitely an unpleasant experience. We do not, for instance, attempt to ginger up a boring evening by opening trash can in order to smell its putrid contents. But, nevertheless, many people that we consider to be mentally sane search for horror fiction or horror movies on purpose of extracting pleasure from visions or descriptions that usually disgust them.

We’d like to try to figure out the nature of attraction of people to the genre. And therefore we will refer to some theories.

1. Firstly, we’ll analyze some fragments from «On the Pleasure Derived from Objects of Terror», the essay written in 1773 by John and Anna Aikin about gothic literature. In this essay it was written: «The painful sensation immediately arising from a scene of misery, is so much softened and alleviated by the reflex sense of self-approbation attending virtuous sympathy, that we find, on the whole, a very exquisite and refined pleasure remaining, which makes us desirous of again being witnesses to such scenes, instead of flying from them with disgust and horror» [1]. This means that we aspire to sense sympathy for the main character undergoing a horrific ordeal which makes us experience an exquisite pleasure. In a way we identify with characters.

Another source of pleasure, according to the theory is facing the tragedy. Since people are aware that they’re finite, they mentally transcend the border between life and fearful yet magnetic death while learning about new calamities that happen in our world. «The reality of this source of pleasure seems evident from daily observation. The greediness with which the tales of ghosts and goblins, of murders, earthquakes, fires, shipwrecks, and all the most terrible disasters attending human life, are devoured by every ear, must have been generally remarked. Tragedy, the most favorite work of fiction, has taken a full share of those scenes» [1].

Another important reason for our inclination for devouring a horror fiction is curiosity, which force us to go throughout any deadly adventure depicted in the book or shown on the screen, regardless of our mind’s protests. «The pain of suspense, and the irresistible desire of satisfying curiosity, when once raised, will account for our eagerness to go quite through an adventure, though we suffer actual pain during the whole course of it. We rather choose to suffer the smart pang of a violent emotion than the uneasy craving of an unsatisfied desire. That this principle, in many instances, may involuntarily carry us through what we dislike» [1]. We just can’t help having a glimpse of a nightmare.



«When children, therefore, listen with pale and mute attention to the frightful stories of apparitions, we are not, perhaps, to imagine that they are in a state of enjoyment, any more than the poor bird which is dropping into the mouth of the rattlesnake — they are chained by the ears, and fascinated by curiosity. This solution, however, does not satisfy me with respect to the well-wrought scenes of artificial terror which are formed by a sublime and vigorous imagination. Here, though we know before-hand what to expect, we enter into them with eagerness, in quest of a pleasure already experienced. This is the pleasure constantly attached to the excitement of surprise from new and wonderful objects. A strange and unexpected event awakens the mind, and keeps it on the stretch; and where the agency of invisible beings is introduced, of "forms unseen, and mightier far than we," our imagination, darting forth, explores with rapture the new world which is laid open to its view, and rejoices in the expansion of its powers. Passion and fancy cooperating elevate the soul to its highest pitch; and the pain of terror is lost in amazement» [1]. We are enticed by exploration of the things that are hidden from our rational overlook, we are desperate to getting involved into virtual or imaginary event that’s bound with the presence of undiscovered wonders.

To sum up, according to the theory of Anna and John Aikin, we are like slaves for our curiosity. We can say that our eagerness to encounter something unearthly and paranormal leads us through the dark paths of horror and though our mind is trapped in terror, it’s just an exchange for the fulfillment of our curiosity’s desire.

2. One authority often cited in attempted explanations of horror is H.P. Lovecraft, an esteemed practitioner of the genre who also wrote an influential work entitled «Supernatural Horror in Literature». In Lovecraft’s view, supernatural horror evokes awe and what he calls “cosmic fear”. Whether a work of horror evokes cosmic fear is, in fact, the identifying mark of the genre for Lovecraft. He writes: «The one test of the really weird is simply this — whether or not there be excited in the reader a profound sense of dread, and of contact with unknown spheres and powers; a subtle attitude of awed listening, as if for the beating of black wings or the scratching of outside shapes on the known universe’s utmost rim» [13, p. 42].

«Cosmic fear» for Lovecraft is a bracing mixture of fear, moral revulsion, and wonder. He says of it: «When to this sense of fear and evil the inevitable fascination of wonder and curiosity is superadded, there is born a composite of keen emotion and imaginative provocation whose vitality must of necessity endure as long as the human race itself» [13, p. 51]. The capacity for this sensation of fear, which Lovecraft believes is allied with religious feeling, is based on the instinct. It appears that humans are born with a kind of fear of the unknown which verges on awe. Therefore, the attraction of supernatural horror is that it provokes a sense of awe which confirms a deep-seated human conviction about the world, a conviction that it contains vast unknown forces.

The main idea of Lovecraft’s theory seems to be that the literature of cosmic fear attracts because it affirms some natural intuition about reality, which intuition is opposed to the culture of materialism. This is something similar to a religious feeling of awe, an anticipation of the unknown wonder.

3. Noël Carrol in his book «The Philosophy of Horror or the Paradoxes of the Heart» described another way of explaining the attraction of horror — one that may be connected with elements of the religious account — is to say that horrific beings — like deities and daemons — attract us because of their power. [5, p. 167]. They evoke awe, it might be said that, In a way, we identify with monsters because of the power they possess — perhaps monsters are wish fulfillment figures. But there are some other opinions. «Our primary and acknowledged identification may be with the victim, the adumbration of our infantile fears and desires, our memory sense of ourselves as tiny and vulnerable in the face of the enormous Other; but the Other is also finally another part of ourself, the projection of our repressed infantile rage and desire... that we have had in the name of civilization to repudiate» [5, p. 190]. Sometimes the attraction to horror is evoked thanks to the figures of horror genre. We can’t help mentioning the main figures both of horror fiction and horror movies, especially, vampires and zombies. They are the objects of fear and admiration at the same time. Sometimes we so admire the power monsters have that the disgust they engender is outweighed. This explanation fits some cases very nicely. With figures like vampire Lestat («Interview with the Vampire») or Dracula, the monstrous entity is seductive, and part of that seductiveness has to do with its force. But, then again, the zombies in «Night of the Living Dead» are not seductive, we admire them because they converge in a huge mindless army.

4. A very interesting model was developed by psychoanalyst Ernest Jones in his work «On the Nightmare». In «On the Nightmare», Jones uses a Freudian explanation of wish’s fulfillment analysis of the nightmare in order to unravel the symbolic meaning and structure of such figures of medieval superstition as the incubus, vampire, werewolf, devil, and witch. A central concept in Jones’s treatment of the imagery of nightmare is conflict or ambivalence. The products of the dream-work are often simultaneously attractive and repellent, they function to denote both a wish and its inhibition. «The reason why the object seen in a nightmare is frightful or hideous is simply that the representation of the underlying wish is not permitted in its naked form so that the dream is a compromise of the wish on the one hand and on the other of the intense fear belonging to the inhibition» [9, p. 13]. For example, according to Jones, the vampires of superstition have two fundamental constituent attributes: revenance and bloodsucking. The mythic vampire, as opposed to the contemporary vampire of movies and fiction, first visits its relatives. For Jones, this stands for the relatives’ longing for the loved one to return from the dead. But the figure is charged with terror. Bloodsucking is associated with seduction, but the desire is transformed, through denial, into an assault attraction and love transforms into repulsion and sadism. At the same time, through projection, the living depict themselves as passive victims, portraying the dead as an active part that permits pleasure with no blame. That is, the dead are referred to as the vicious aggressors while the living are pretending ill-fortuned (and, therefore, “innocent”) victims.

According to Jones, vampire attract because they manifest wishes that are usually forbidden or repressed. They cannot be acknowledged outright. That’s when the horrific, repellent imagery takes its turn. It disguises or masks the undisclosed desire. The dreamer cannot be blamed for these images by his internal censor because he finds them terrible and repulsive, so he cannot seem to enjoy them (though he really does enjoy them in the back of his mind as they convey deep, psychological wishes). The revulsion and disgust the horrific imagery provokes is the price the dreamer pays for having his wish fulfilled. Jones’ theory explains how audiences can be attracted to horror despite the apparent disgust it enjoins. This disgust, of course, is not illusory; the audience is repulsed. But this disgust is, more importantly, functional. It exacts a little discomfort in an exchange for greater pleasure. Pleasure can’t be experienced unless this discomfort is exacted.

We suppose that the popularity of vampire movie may have a link with our deep-seated desire to avenge our foes for some sort of «energetic vampirism» they inflicted on us identifying ourselves with the vampire slayer. Or vice versa we may perceive vampires as a reflection of our counterpart involved in a scheme of revenge for our offenders by «draining them out».

5. Another notorious heroes of the horror universe are zombies. Linda Seddon noted that the appearance of the zombie by itself is a testament to tough times: they wear tattered clothing, their flesh is rotten and reeking. «Zombies are literally falling apart at the seams. They walk about in a perpetually hungry state, and there is something pitiable about them» [19]. «The zombie reeks of the greedy consumerism that many people blame for current economic conditions. It is the ultimate mindless consumer, devouring everyone in its path. No matter how much it consumes, it is never has enough» [7, p. 5].

In the contemporary world the concept of a Zombie Apocalypse is often used as a metaphor for the wrecking of our political systems. In some stories, fall of government have triggered the destruction of the world and invasion of zombies. «The Resident Evil films play off of anxieties about the military-industrial complex. «World War Z» deals heavily with American isolationism and how prepared countries are to respond to major crises» [19].

6. One more kind of supernatural being we would like to speculate about is a werewolf. In the book of S.T Joshi«Icons of Horror and the Supernatural: an Encyclopedia of our Worst Nightmares» werewolf is described as a innocent victim. «The werewolf is a hapless victim who, once bitten in human form by another werewolf, changes into wolf form during the days of each month when the moon is full, between the hours of moonrise and sunrise. The human who is a werewolf usually is unaware of the supernatural side of his life, or at very least of his behavior after his transformation» [10, p. 654]. To our mind, werewolf is a symbol of human duality. In every person’s life there are some moments when he or she behaves in a not typical way, for example, all of a sudden, a person can lash out at friends or relatives and then regret what she or he have done and wonder how could he act this way. A person is somehow «bitten», which means someone has annoyed or enraged him, but the offender couldn’t be confronted since he was a kind of «werewolf» and was too powerful and mighty to spill the rage at in response, that’s why involuntarily a «bitten» person offends the weaker ones, the ones that never want to bring him pain.

7. Stephen King states that the majority of horror movies are partly or completely sustained by the fear of death and derive their best effects from this kind of fear, for example «Final Destination» franchise. «The fear of death doesn’t imply that people don't have a certain occasional interest in what lies behind the locked door in the basement of the mortuary, or what may transpire in the local graveyard after the mourners have left... or at the dark of the moon» [12, p. 83] .This statement made by the King of Horror Stephen King affirms that people tend to search for the evidence of unknown powers’ existence.

8. Noel Carrol claims that the analysis of nightmare frequently leads us to the earliest, most profound, and inevitable anxieties and conflicts to which human beings are subject: those involving devastating aggression, separation and abandonment, the fear concerning loss of identity. ”Widening the borders of what can be expressed of that which is repressed in this way obviously enhances the reach of the psychoanalytic model. Horrific creatures and their doings can be linked with whole panoply of repression: to anxieties and childish fantasies. Thus, the recent popularity of telekinetic nastiness in films and like «The Exorcist» or «Carrie» might be explained as gratifying the infantile conviction in the unlimited power of repressed rage — the belief in the omnipotence of thought — while at the same time costuming this repressed fantasy in the drapery of horror. Speaking about Carrie mentioned on previously in this research, the viewer treats Carrie in all her unstoppable fury as a monster at the same time that Carrie realizes or enacts an infantile fantasy of revenge in which, conveniently, looks can kill. «As a monster, Carrie is horrifying; but at the same time, she provides an opportunity for a guilty fantasy — one with a shade of anxiety — to surface. Therefore, Carrie’s horrific aspect enables the fulfillment of a deeper pleasure, the manifestation of the infantile delusion of the omnipotence of the will» [5, p. 172]. «If this hypothesis is successful, every figure of horror will be connected to some infantile anxiety, fantasy, wish, trauma, and so on. It’s presumed that the manifestation of any form of repressed material affords pleasure and that the horrifying aspect of monsters is the cost for lifting or releasing this repression» [5, p 184].

Applied to the paradox of horror, these observations suggest that the pleasure derived from the horror fiction and the source of our interest in it dwells, fprimarily, in the processes of discovery, proof, and confirmation that horror fictions often employ. The disclosure of the existence of the horrific being and of its properties is the central source of pleasure in the genre; once that process of revelation is finished, we remain curious about whether such a being can be confronted successfully, and that narrative question leads us through to the final. Here, the pleasure derived is cognitive. Curiosity is in a way an appetite of the mind. «With the horror fiction, that appetite is whetted by the prospect of knowing the putatively unknowable, and then satisfied through a continuous process of revelation, enhanced by imitations of (admittedly simplistic) proofs, hypotheses, counterfeits of causal reasoning, and explanations whose details and movement intrigue the mind in ways analogous to genuine ones» [5, p.189].

 

Thus, in this chapter we have come to the following conclusions.

1. Every movie in the world is designed to invoke some type of emotion. Some movies supply relaxation and joy, while the other ones provide anxiety and the state of tension to the viewer. The relaxed kind of entertainment is represented by movies of such genres as comedy, melodrama or musical, the extreme kind of entertainment is concealed in the action and horror movies.

The addiction to horror movies can be explained in different ways. According to professor Glenn Sparks, one of the reasons of the horror genre’s appeal is the state of physical excitement lingering after the view of the movie that intensifies emotion we experience shortly after walking out of an auditorium. As Spark states, every tenth person of Earth’s population savor the adrenaline rush, for example, while riding roller coaster.

Some people stick to the horror movies because they are the objects of noveltyand the curiosity about abnormality is important for survival.

Men are considered to enjoy scary movies more than women mainly because they can show off their bravery and extract social gratification from not letting scary movie bother them.

Some studies have shown that after watching horror movie, the defense system of the body is empowered and the immune system is temporarily stronger.

Professor Joanne Cantor found out that college students who experienced scary movies or shows before 14 years old faced problems sleeping and felt anxious about usual everyday activities.

The addiction to the extreme kind of entertainment isn’t outright menacing for the young adults. As for young kids, it can have some side effects, psychological issues in particular, that’s why they should avoid watching them in excess until they reach the age of maturity.

2. The basic component in the emotion of horror is repulsion or disgust, therefore the audience can feel justified in demanding the explanation of the attraction to the genre.

There are some theories that are created to unravel the mystery concerning the essence of horror genre’s appeal:

— theory featured in the essay of Anna and John Aikin. The reasons of the horror’s appeal that are emphasized in the theory are sympathy/identification with the character, eagerness to face the tragedy due to the magnetism of death, desperation to satisfy the unbridled curiosity, desire to get involved into a supernatural event whether it is real or not;

— theory presented in the work of H.P. Lovecraft «Supernatural horror in literature» states that the emotion we derive from the visions of horror is «cosmic fear», a bracing mix of fear, moral revulsion and wonder. People are attracted to the horrific scenes, because they affirm the deep-seated conviction that the world contains vast unknown forces;

— theory developed by Carol Clover states that horrific beings attract us because of their power, perhaps, we identify with them, because they are wish fulfillment figures. The victim is the embodiment of our vulnerability and infantile fears while the monster or the villain is a projection of our repressed rage and desire of revenge;

— a very amusing model was developed by psychoanalyst Ernest Jones. The main points of the theory are the ambivalence of such figures as vampires, werewolves and zombies due to our simultaneous admiration and fear before them. Jones claims that they function to denote both wish and its inhibition. For example, horror aficionados seek to be seduce by a vampire, but when they observe him, the dread that the undead casts is a viewer’s excuse for not being reproached for the appeal to the monster, since in this case, the viewer is a victim in a way;

— theory concerning zombies elaborated by Stephen Harper suggests that The zombie is an image of consumerism, It is the ultimate mindless consumer, devouring everyone in its path and never gets enough. In the contemporary world the concept of a Zombie Apocalypse is often used as a metaphor for the wrecking of our political systems;

— theory created by S. T. Joshi explicate the essence of the werewolf as a hapless victim who, once bitten in human form, transforms into a monster and isn’t aware of the supernatural side of his life. We presume that a werewolf is metaphor for a person enraged by a more powerful one and then pouring his rage down on his beloved ones in the state of blurred mind;

— Stephen King states that the majority of horror movies are sustained by a fear of death, though the fear doesn’t imply that people are not interested in the death itself, because there’s a link between the end of life and a mystery of afterlife since we are not able to witness the continuation that follows the last breath;

— Noël Carrol claims that every figure of horror is connected to some infantile anxiety, fantasy, wish, trauma, for instance, Carrie is linked with infantile fantasy of revenge in which looks can kill.

All the observations suggest that the pleasure derived from the horror fiction and the source of our interest in it resides in the processes of discovery, proof, and confirmation that horror fictions often employ and the twisted appeal of the horrific beings and the wishes they represent.

 

 

CONCLUSION

Year after year cinema companies gross enormous sums of money thanks to the human demand for entertainment and mental relaxation. But at the same time such an atypical kind of demand as the need for the fear can bring not less financial success. People invariably attend cinema and spend their money to quench the longing for the sensation of terror and facing the supernatural. And though before writing the research we had a blurred apprehension about the gist of human inclination for watching the creations of horror, now we know what triggers this wickedly abnormal wanting.

Curiosity and the need for exploration are leading us to the wrath of «The Birds», the madness of «Psycho», the evil of «Omen», the mystery of «the Others» or the misery of «Carrie», all of them embroidered with fancy patterns of horror. All the beings belonging to the terror’s universe, whether supernatural or human, actually serve to show us the strength, the depth and the vulnerability of our own minds, souls and bodies and drag our deep-buried wishes and fantasies to the surface.

We came to find out that horror genre is utterly elaborate, because it conceals the abundance of symbols, it reflects human’s deep wishes, feelings and aspirations, it feeds our imagination, it gives us the soothing contrast between the ordeals of the film’s horrible images events on the screen and our relatively secure and serene reality. H.P. Lovecraft once wrote: «Children will always be afraid of the dark, and men with minds sensitive to hereditary impulse will always tremble at the thought of the hidden and fathomless worlds of strange life which may pulsate in the gulfs beyond the stars, or press hideously upon our own globe in unholy dimensions which only the dead and the moonstruck can glimpse». Although, thanks God, we’re not dead or moonstruck, we will never cease to search for something to restore our belief in the presence of powers that are far beyond our comprehension.

 


BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. Aikin, Anna and John. On the Pleasure Derived from Objects of Terror, 1773.

2. Bellantoni, Patti. If it’s Purple, Someone’s Gonna Die: the Power of Color in Visual Storytelling, 2005, Focal Press, 243 p.

3. Boyd, David. After Hitchcock: Influence, Imitation, and Intertextuality. 2006, The University of Texas Press. 282 p.

4. Caldwell, Sara. Symbolizing Concepts: 13 Common Objects and Abstracts of Horror, 2009, Constructing Horror, 3 p.

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6. Derry, Charles. Dark Dreams 2.0: A Psychological History of the Modern Horror Film from the 1950s to the 21st Century, 2009, McFarland & Company, 437 p.

7. Harper, Stephen. Zombies, Malls, and the Consumerism Debate: George Romero's Dawn of the Dead, 2006, Americana, 7 p.

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www.suite101.com/article/the-zombie-apocalypse-in-horror-stories-symbolizes-real-fears-a299875

20. Tartakovsky, Margarita, Why Some People Love Horror Movies While Others Hate Them, www.psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2012/10/31/why-some-people-love-horror-movies-while-others-hate-them/

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