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How fear can affect people and society
Affects of fear in society
Affects of fear in society
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More handpicked essays just for you.
How fear can affect people and society
Affects of fear in society
Affects of fear in society
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
The Chemical That Rules Us Adrenaline. It’s the chemical that courses through a person’s veins whenever their body thinks something is particurally exciting. In acient times, it was deployed when a sweaty caveman was being attacked by a predator. Today, however, it is used when comfortable viewers watche scary images on their televisions in their cushy chairs. In Stephen Kings’s essay “Why We Crave Horror,” Stephen King challenges the sanity of mankind becaude they like to watch scary movies.
He characterizes fear by saying that it includes a belief that one is endangered by what they fear and one will be motivated to act as a result of this belief (Walton 263). Since the person watching the horror movie cannot be said to exhibit either of these qualities, they cannot be said to be genuinely afraid. Walton explains the phenomenon of “fear” when one watches a horror movie by saying that when the person watches the movie, they enter a game of make-believe in which they have a fictional belief that they are threatened, and therefore possess fictional fear (Walton 264). The problem with this view is that the person watching the movie is not aware that they are playing this game. Since games require awareness of the structure of the game and objectives in order to play, it cannot be said that the person watching a horror movie is really playing a game, since they have no such awareness.
The American obsession with spectatorship is a phenomenon created by the inaccessibility of timely and relevant knowledge. This oddly leads to an increase in the demand and likeability of terror. In her piece “Great to Watch”, Maggie Nelson explores the origins of this fascination with horror and gives an
He believes we are becoming just like zombies doing the same repetitive stuff. Our society has become so attached to their electronics, social media accounts, and technology that we have become so unaware of our surroundings. We don 't seem to ever get a break from the internet, that 's why we don’t even realize that it is destroying us. With King, we are able to use horror as a mechanism for our problems we are going through and our fears and anxieties we have within us. As with Klosterman he makes us realize with horror movies how our society is turning us into zombies.
King states that horror movies keep the “hungry alligators” under control. What he means by this is that horror movies keep us, humans, from committing crimes or violence. King assumed that people who watched horror movies and the horrible things that are shown would satisfy them and they would not want to commit a crime. I disagree with him because if this were the case our crime rate would be lower.
Alfred Hitchcock’s film Vertigo (1958) was voted the “best film ever made” by the 2012 British Film Institute, and for good reason. The plot is elaborate and intriguing and the cinematography is legendary. On top of this, the characters, like good characters should, all have their own needs and wants that are evident in the film. The needs of these characters affect each other and they affect the story and they all follow one common theme: control. Our protagonist, John “Scottie” Ferguson’s wants and needs differ greatly throughout the film, but his only constant is his yearning to get over his acrophobia, or fear of heights.
In the article “Why Do We Crave Horror Movies” King shows the idea of why humans crave to watch horror movies. To watch horror movies, people show to others that they have no fear of these things. King’s argument is that the horror films is a way for people to get the sense of normality. King believes that “We also go to re-establish our feelings of essential normality; the horror movie is innately conservative, even reactionary” (King 16). Re-establishing our feelings of essential normality allows us to release our emotions and enjoy our time watching horror films.
The increased usage of special effects in horror movies has led to a multitude of its characters to appear more realistic and immersive to viewers. This has led to filmmakers to use some aspects of special effects to help enhance the storytelling of horror movies to make it more immersive to viewers and keep them interested and intrigued throughout the entire movie. Consequently, this has prompted many viewers to become emotionally invested in horror movies which can have negative psychological issues on them if they are not mature enough. And if the viewers are not sophisticated enough, it can contribute to them acting more aggressive or angrily when being confronted with emotional situations in their personal and social life. Although special
In Stephen King’s essay “Why We Crave Horror Movies,” King is conveying that because we are human, we are insane. We may not be in asylums, but that does not mean we are not insane, it just means we hide our insanity better than others. By watching horror movies we are just asking to have the constant nightmares. However, we watch horror movies to prove to others that we can watch them, and sometimes we watch them so that we feel normal compared to the people in the film. Other times we watch the movies for enjoyment, which is a very weird enjoyment since we are watching people get killed.
In the universe of film, there has always been the need for something sinister and grim, I welcome you to the horror film. This unknown need has given birth to so many iconic franchises but most importantly these movies are an escape from reality for some. The audience will use the previously mentioned sinister and grim movies as an emotional playground. Stephen King, author of household horror novels such as ,“The Shining” and many other household names, discusses in his “Why We Crave Horror Movies” essay piece, that the genre of horror produces psychic relief that is almost needed for the human condition. He claims that these movies let our emotions run wild is healthy, helping someone from having terrible outbursts.
She does so by presenting a rhetorical question in the beginning: “Can we expect a decent society if the state is allowed to kill its own people?” (para.2). In the attempt of doing so, she heightens the emotional impact it would have on her readers, which in turn makes the readers question the positive beliefs they might have held about the American government. In the fourth paragraph of this essay, King draws the interest of her readers to the text by talking about her personal experiences relating to the issue of capital punishment. She does so in order for the readers to come to an agreement with her main purpose and that is to present them with the fact that the American government’s actions to legitimize murder as a way of dealing with violence is a step forward in the wrong
King wants to provide information to the normal human thoughts. To explain how all of this can come in through mind for some people. For example, murder that criminals do might have been influenced by someone or
Alfred Hitchcock’s 1960 film Psycho redirected the entire horror genre, and in doing so dismantled the prudent 1950’s societal barriers of cinema. Although unseen for its potential by the large studios of the time, Psycho became one of the crowning achievements of film history. While based partially on a true story of murder and psychosis from Wisconsin, the widespread viewing of this tale made way for a new era of film and ushered in a new audience of movie goers. The use of violence, sexual explicitness, dramatic twists, sound, and cinematography throughout this film gave Hitchcock his reputable name and title as master of suspense.
However, film critic, Robin Wood, argues that ‘since Psycho, the Hollywood cinema has implicitly recognised horror as both American and familial’ he then goes on to connect this with Psycho by claiming that it is an “innovative and influential film because it supposedly presents its horror not as the produce of forces outside American society, bit a product of the patriarchal family which is the fundamental institution of American society” he goes on to discuss how our civilisation either represses or oppresses (Skal, 1994). Woods claim then suggests that in Psycho, it is the repressions and tensions within the normal American family which produces the monster, not some alien force which was seen and suggested throughout the 1950 horror films. At the beginning of the 60’s, feminisation was regarded as castration not humanization. In “Psycho” (1960) it is claimed that the film presents conservative “moral lessons about gender roles of that the strong male is healthy and normal and the sensitive male is a disturbed figure who suffers from gener confusion” (Skal, 1994). In this section of this chapter I will look closely at how “Psycho” (1960) has layers of non-hetro-conforming and gender-non conforming themes through the use of Norman Bates whose gender identitiy is portrayed as being somewhere between male and female
Movies can be used in various ways to create different moods and emotions in both a person’s growth and well being. People of all ages, use movies as a form of entertainment or even an activity to learn, which aids in the growth of brain activity. The different genres of movies, create different inclines and declines in an individual 's mood, depending on the program they are viewing. Specific films can have different effects on people depending on their background, interest, and personality. Movies have a significant impact on people’s physical and psychological states; negative effects include more aggressive and destructive behaviors, whereas positive effects include making viewers more lighthearted and enhancing productivity within their thought process.