Craving Horror: A Diet To Steer Clear From

This was my strong response essay to Stephen King's "Why We Crave Horror Movies" article. I was arguing against the article's validity.

Sam Reidy

Strong Response Essay

3 November, 2010

Craving Horror: A Diet To Steer Clear From

Blood, guts, gore, and that suspenseful adrenaline rush. These things are the best part about going to see a horror movie and the things we crave, right? Stephen King’s theory on this is, “I think that we’re all mentally ill; those of us outside the asylums only hide it a little better,” (King, 51.) King talks about this theory in the article “Why We Crave Horror Movies”, from the December 1981 issue of Playboy magazine. This article was appropriate for a magazine geared towards males, but assumes that everyone is as into horror as King himself. King’s theory is that every individual has an evil streak, and that we need to watch horror movies to deplete our urge to act on that evil. With King’s lack of evidence shown, his widely generalized assumptions seem very unstable.

“Why We Crave Horror Movies” basically lumps us all into a pile of psychos and says that we are all just a different degree of crazy. If we aren’t, ‘clapped away in the funny farm,’ as King refers to it, then we probably just do a good job of hiding it. The article stresses that we go to movies for the thrill of a fear induced adrenaline rush , similar to that of a roller coaster with breakneck drops and 360-degree loops. According to King, everyone likes to see these movies, because internally we wish to do these horrific things. He believes horror movies quench people’s thirst for violence enough to ‘keep the gators fed.’ Famous horror movies such as Die, Monster, Die! and Dawn of the Dead, as well as famous villains Jack the Ripper and the Cleveland Torso Murderer, are used as evidence of our addiction to this movie genre. King believes we enjoy seeing grotesque things, because we are not allowed to behave that way in society. King believes we suppress these desires, because society has forced us to only show good emotions our entire lives. King was attempting to prove that as long as everyone watches a good slasher movie, then our world will never be a blood fest.

‘Love, friendship, loyalty, kindness- these are all the emotions that we applaud, emotions that have been immortalized in the couplets of Hallmark cards,’ (King, 52.) King’s theory that we are all slightly insane actually makes a lot of sense. We have been trained since birth to behave a certain way and only express our positive emotions. Therefore, if we had been raised to express our negative emotions as well, then these horror movies may be much more of a reality to us. We feel a giddy uneasiness from experiencing these evil things, without the consequences that would follow in real life. It is almost as if we are getting away with these forbidden actions ourselves, at least in our imaginations.When we go through haunted houses or sit through scary movies, we are challenging ourselves to see if we can handle the danger.

In “Why We Crave Horror Movies,”, King talks about the sick jokes people tell and how we find them gross, but hilarious. Sick jokes are a forbidden fruit in a sense. They are things you shouldn’t talk about and certainly can’t act out, but we find humor in the bad behaviors we joke about. We are relieved by going against what society has always expected of us, such as in the killing babies with pitchforks joke from the article. The irony we find in horror movies such as, a murderer brutally killing the prom queen, is humorous and entertaining because it’s not real. Admitting to enjoying watching someone get cut into tiny pieces would most likely get you locked away in an asylum. Looking rhetorically at this article, it is very well done with language,tone , and genre appropriateness; but it lacked proof and evidence to support his theories.

Males love guns, blood, violence, and really anything else that will show off how macho they are. With their addiction to violent video games and quickly sparked aggression, horror movies just feed their competitive nature. Therefore, “Why We Crave Horror Movies”, is a very appropriate article for Playboy magazine. Playboy has a mostly male audience, and an average male would not object to Stephen King’s theories. The language and tone of this article is also very well suited. King’s use of phrases like, ‘little puke of a sister’ gears the article towards a male audience. King does a good job of achieving the purpose of the article, which is to show us we are all crazy to some extent. His use of everyday examples like picking your nose and talking to yourself makes the article easier for most readers to relate to. He reels the reader in at the beginning by listing thrilling activities we enjoy participating in, then once the reader is hooked he drives it home with a bunch of unfounded assumptions. The theories could make sense, but King does too much generalizing and lacks evidence to show that everyone likes these movies. He is a knowledgable writer on this topic, but it causes him to become extremely biased. He never mentions the number of people who dislike these sort of movies. Without those statistics in the article, however slim they may be, it really lacks credibility and comes off as an opinion.

The lack of hard evidence and facts would be the biggest chunk missing from this article. If it had more statistics of the amounts of people who enjoy horror movies it would be a more credible source for why people enjoy them. Including fact and statistics would back his points up further. In addition, King never considered the different surroundings people grow up in. Such as where they lived, what their home life was like, genetics, etc. If he had shown statistics of an increase of violence and compared it to horror movies box office sales, the article would be more credible. In the article King blatantly states, ‘And we go to have fun.‘ He is eliminating a large amount of readers with that statement. What about all the people who hate to be scared? They will certainly feel excluded from this article. The article’s theories are opinion based and are possibly how a majority of people feel, but he shows no proof that all people feel this way. In his biased world everybody loves horror.

With those things being said, he does make some very valid points. His theories are logical and slightly shocking, because readers feel connected when King talks about our reactions to these movies and our desire to rebel at times. However, because you talk to yourself when stressed or pick your nose, does that really make you a little loony? As in, crazy enough to kill?

Although Stephen King’s article, “Why We Crave Horror Movies”, makes some logical points, it is not the whole picture. Contrasting to his belief that we all have this tendencies to want to do grotesque or evilly satisfying things, I believe that we have to understand that not all human beings are the same. Aggression and violence run through the majority of individuals, but many people find horror movies disgusting. A big thing King never considered, was that not everyone grows up in the same area and home life. A kid who grows up in a rough area such as, Over the Rhine, may view violence as a survival skill. Adversely, a kid raised in Hyde Park may never see violence in person. It is clouding children’s judgement and the same goes for adults as well. Of course anyone can snap, but it can be argued that kids growing up around violence could actually be influenced further by these movies. With our countries rapidly increasing problems with gang violence, robberies, drugs, and domestic violence, these movies glamorize the forbidden things. Horror movies make the violence in our society seem normal or at the very least, too familiar.

Furthermore, these movies do not help tame our evil urges. Horror’s heighten fear and infatuation with scenarios we never would have had any pre notions about. They plant the seed of an idea in our heads, which can potentially stick with us. If a child begins viewing these types of movies at a young age it can misconstrue their brains formation of what is right and wrong. Joanne Cantor, PhD, was quoted in an article on WebMD called, “Why We Love Scary Movies”. When doing a survey with her college students Cantor found that 60% of them reported having disturbances in their sleep or awake life from watching these sorts of movies before age 14. It confuses the brain’s natural development. Cantor goes on to say that these films cause emotional reactions that will stick with the viewer long after the movies end. It can cause people to have similar reactions to trauma in real life as in these movies, such as violence and aggression. Additionally, MindSign, one of many groups to do fMRI tests on viewers to test their brain’s chemical and physical reactions to parts of the movies. They call this tactic “neuromarketing,” Which is used to arouse certain reactions at certain points in a movie, to increase the viewer’s entertainment. These movies literally cause our brains to send out certain signals and responses to things we see in the movie. You may feel very entertained and pleased by the severity of the gore on the screen, and the endorphins released by your brain in response will stick with you, according to research done by MindSign. This puts people at great risk for being subconsciously influenced by horror movies, and creating these reactions and ideas about trauma that we never would have had without these movies. The aftermath of these films could be the cause of unexplained murders and some of the sadistically violent acts we have seen played out in our world. Society may push this need to be kind and loving all the time, but the media is also a large part of society. And the media is pushing that serial killers that go around chopping people up is normal, as long as you’re crazy enough. They are pushing the thrill of being evil. Better yet, they present these movies as a challenge to the viewer. It’s presented in a, ‘can you handle it?’, kind of way. Many people are extremely competitive by nature with their friends and themselves, and will take this challenge. When they go to see the movie and enjoy it, they will walk out feeling strong and confident. They will let these emotions carry over into their reactions to everyday threats. It causes them to be very irrational and they can no longer separate reality from things that are made in Hollywood.

Although Stephen King is very well-studied in horror, he does not think outside that box. These movies can confuse our views on what is right and wrong, because Hollywood makes horrific things look graphically intense with all the sounds and special effects. Frequent exposure to these movies, especially in young children, can and will have negative effects on them. The fewer horror movies seen, the less likely people are to have these ideas on their mind. King has to realize that life isn’t simple enough to lump everyone together in the “loony bin,” and that not all people are naturally like the malicious characters in the pages of his novels. Our gluttonous consumption of horror movies and media violence, is greatly depreciating any moral value we once had.