Master's Reading and Writing, "Why do we Crave Horror Movies?"

 By Nate Feldman

       Why do People like Horror Movies?

            Horror movies are designed to shock and terrify us with images of humans being menaced and tortured by some monster or killer.  The interesting thing is that many “normal” people enjoy watching this.  There is a reason that horror films earn millions of dollars at the box office when they are released.  It also explains why they have so many sequels.  But, why do people crave these films so much?  What attracts them to these stories?  I think people like them because they are an escape from reality and because we all have a little craziness inside of us.

            Our lives are filled with enough difficulties, and I think people enjoy horror films to enter another world.  The thing about horror movies is that they are so obviously fake.  I mean, the idea of a man coming into your dreams and killing you like Freddy Krueger is obviously not from the real world, so while we watch these films, we enter into these fantasy worlds if only for a short time. 

            Another reason we like these films is because we have a crazy side inside of all of us.  Stephen King in the essay in class referred to it as alligators in our brains that need to be fed.  I see some truth in this.  Instead of doing crazy and horrible things, we can be entertained by people doing this in fake stories.  Like I said in the paragraph above, horror movies are fantasies.  I think we all know that what we are watching is not real, so we don’t feel guilty for seeing the horrible things.  Still, we are crazy enough to imagine such horrible things as being fun to watch.

            In conclusion, horror movies have been with us for a long time and will continue to be so long into the future.  Their fun stories and chance for us to feed our own craziness will keep them popular for the foreseeable future.  So, go see a horror movie tonight and have some fun!   Thank you.