Why Horror is Good for You
Matt’s recent post on Frankenstein Conquers the World has got me thinking about a topic that pops into my head with some regularity these days:
Why being a horror movie fan is good for you.
Needless to say I’m preaching to the choir writing on this topic in a place like this, but all the same, I think it’s important to point out that being fixated with horror movies doesn’t necessarily make you a moron. In fact, it’s conducive to depth – to being a more thoughtful and well-rounded person.
Why? Here are two reasons.
Reason 1): Horror movie fans are more in touch with the realities of life.
For anyone who hasn’t noticed, the world is a terrifying place. Horrible stuff happens all the time. As Nobel-Prize-winning psychologist Ernest Becker put it in his book The Denial of Death: “Man is reluctant to move out into the overwhelmingness of his world, the real dangers of it; he shrinks back from losing himself in the all-consuming appetites of others, from spinning out of control in the clutchings and clawings of men, beasts and machines. As an animal organism man senses the kind of planet he has been put down on, the nightmarish, demonic frenzy in which nature has unleashed billions of individual organismic appetites of all kinds -- not to mention earthquakes, meteors, hurricanes, which seem to have their own hellish appetites. Life can suck one up, sap his energies, submerge him, take away his self-control… Above all there is the danger of a slip-up, an accident, a chance disease, and of course death, the final sucking-up, the total submergence and negation.”
Got that? So anyone who tells you you’re wasting your time watching horror movies just isn’t in touch with what life is really all about.
Reason 2) Horror movies keep you in touch with your childhood.
This is where Frankenstein Conquers the World comes in. I haven’t seen FCtW in a little over 35 years, but when Amazon delivers my DVD copy of it next week, I’ll have a chance to re-visit my childhood psyche in a way that non-horror movie fans would have a hard time equaling. When I originally saw this movie, I saw it as a seven-year-old who took it all completely seriously. Frankenstein really was a giant Japanese teenager, and he really was conquering the world. So present was I, psychologically, for that first viewing, that when I watch the movie again now, I know (because it’s happened a number of times before with other movies) that there will be moments in the movie in which I’ll suddenly BE seven years old again. This kind of Proustian re-visiting of one’s childhood self can happen in all kinds of other ways, of course. But there’s an intensity in visiting a favorite horror movie seen very young that fans of other movies – musicals, etc – just can’t equal.
some say horror movies inspire murder.
I've nothing to grind, but would like to add: 3) Horror movies increased and inspired my childhood prayer life. I loved to watch horror early as 3 yrs./ preschool (Dark Shadows, Bette Davis)...but I loved a good night's sleep more. Longer conversations with God were the result instead of brief memorized prayers.Early on, I think it clearly defined good vs. evil eternal consequences.4.)Horror movies boost confidence. It's encouraging to be able to keep your eyes open during a sinister movie the first time through, but even more empowering to do so bravely the second time around overcoming the fear factor from the first viewing. 5.) Horror movies are funny sometimes. Thank goodness- because some of the older ones are so obviously "unreal".
Awesome post, PT.
I noticed someone brought up the "horror inspires murder" theory/cop-out. Whatever happened to "crazy"? Why is it nowadays that the media and mainstream folks have to point the finger at someone's film, music or writing's? Why does some nimrod's actions have to be blamed on someone else? I say again.... Whatever happened to just being "crazy"?
Back to the task at hand... Whenever I am having a crappy day and want to think back to simpler times and happier days I throw in an old favorite or two. James Whale's "Frankenstein" or maybe one of the ridiculous (but awesome) "Friday the 13th" sequels.
Some of those sequels may seem bad now, but as a kid they scared me stiff. Yes, even Jason Takes Manhattan. That film is laughable now. Back then? When Jason knocked that boxer guys head clean off, I couldn't sleep that whole night.
This is not only a chance to plug AMC's new t.v. show Mad Men...but their movie house promo had a killer line that affirms PT's topic: FEAR STIMULATES IMAGINATION.
(PT, I've made a point recently to become more familiar with your work. Actually, read some for years not connecting it to you despite the fact Ptolemy is not a common name. You're very talented and hope you'll some day write a supernatural Christian fiction novel/screenplay. All the best to ya and keep up the thought provoking blogs.
P.S. to P.T.~And you could include the darkest angel of all...the devil. He obviously wasn't a suck up to God or he wouldn't have ended up striking out on his own in the pit. Have been having nudges to share that I think you could write something for the growing genre mentioned below. Hope you'll seriously consider it with your background and established reader baseS(note:plural)!
Wow -- readership overlap! I never thought that would happen...
Can't tell if you're being sarcastic like my husband...but truly believe you could write something that would be levels above what's out there. Check out Publisher's Weekly (Newsletter heading,under religion line Fantasy 4 Fiction Tour. Read all of it.)Be open to something like this. Maybe that makes me a crossover fan (guess John Edward already knew). Hope u go for it!