Explaining the Horror Paradox: Theory #2

I began my Countdown to Halloween pondering the question of why we love horror movies. I wrote about the "horror paradox", a phenomenon where, although we find the horrific to be repulsive, we pay good money to watch it again and again. This is not a new question; it's as old as Aristotle, who addressed disgust as an emotion. Why do we enjoy ugly things? Why do we enjoy tragedy?

I've explained in previous posts that people watch horror movies as a way of coping with actual fears or violence in the world in which we live. That is a sound theory when you examine various decades in which horror movies were produced. But now I want to take a different approach and attack the question from a more specific psychological angle, independent of time and era.

Reliving  Our Youth

In the excellent documentary, Nightmares in Red White and Blue, legendary director John Carpenter (Halloween, The Thing) says, "People love the movies they see when they’re young."   That’s certainly true in my case.  I developed my love of horror at a very early age and have never outgrown it.

With such fragile young minds, it seems improbable that children would like scary movies.  But clinical psychologist Glenn Walters wrote in a 2004 paper that horror movies help young people learn to manage their terror.  “They can either succumb or learn to manage.”   Children have an attraction to frightening stories, as they have for centuries.  Remember that the original Grimm’s fairy tales were quite gruesome:  The queen in “Snow White” asks for the young maiden’s liver and lungs, the king in “Sleeping Beauty” bites and rapes the princess and the step-sisters of “Cinderella” cut off parts of their feet to fit into the glass slipper.
 
I’m not suggesting that all children are eager to be scared.  But I am saying that the ones who are often become lifelong fans.  One of the first movies I remember seeing is Disney’s Snow White & the Seven Dwarfs.  (During a re-release; I’m not that old!)  I remember being frightened by the evil queen, especially during the climax.  It isn’t a horror movie, but by simply adding thunder, lightning and music, parts of it become horrifying for children.  But you know what?  It had a happy ending.  I was scared, but I faced that and, by the end of the movie, I was able to deal with the fear.  Snow White & the Seven Dwarfs remains one of my favorite movies to this day.

 

 

As we grow older, horror movies become popular for dating.  Walters says, “By learning to suppress feelings and display mastery or cling to others in a dependent ploy for protection, a person learns to cope with another aspect of his or her environment, a skill that may be useful in dealing with more than just horror pictures.”  Therefore, he continues, “Teenage boys enjoyed a horror film significantly more when the female companion… expressed fright, whereas teenage girls enjoyed the film more when the male companion… showed a sense of mastery and control.”  In high school, I remember seeing Halloween upon its initial release multiple times.  Most of those times, there was a female grabbing onto my arm.  Halloween is my single most favorite movie to this day.

My mother recently revealed that, as a child, I went through a period of time having nightmares.  One of my grade school teachers told her it was probably because of what I was watching… movies and TV.  I remember these dreams now; they always concluded with me suffering an ill fate with a loud noise, which physically woke me from my sleep, after which I laid in bed convinced someone uninvited was in the house.  I don’t remember this being a pleasurable period of my childhood.  But I didn't stop watching scary movies and TV.

I remember running home from school to watch Dark Shadows, yet having to leave the room when the werewolf appeared.   My aunt Nancy took me to see House of Dark Shadows at the theater.  After Barnabas turned old, I whispered to her, “If that happens again, can we leave?”  “To get popcorn,” she asked.  “No,” I replied, “can we leave?”   It happened again and we left.  Yet I wrote and drew a picture book of the movie when we I home.

I remember in fifth or sixth grade, a friend (Tommy Terrell) told me about a movie he saw over the weekend.  His description was more vivid and imaginative than any movie could actually be.  But I couldn’t wait to see the story where dismembered body parts came to life and crawled across the floor.  I may have seen Asylum only once or twice since 1972, but it is still one of my favorite horror movies ever.

I don’t know why I took to horror as a child.  I was evidently scared by it, but I didn’t run away from it; I embraced it.  Did it help me manage by fears?  It seems like it may have caused them.  But there’s no doubt it thrilled me.  I experienced a rabid anticipation of more horror, begging my parents to take me to see Taste the Blood of Dracula at the drive-in and Beneath the Planet of the Apes at the theater (not technically horror, but the world exploding from a nuclear bomb… scary).

 

 

Side note… the one movie my parents would not take me to see was Hammer’s Dr. Jekyll & Sister Hyde.  As I begged, my dad explained, “There are operations people can have that turn a man into a woman.”  Ewww, I didn’t want to see that.  Oddly enough, I have yet to see that movie.  I’m fairly certain that’s not what it’s about, but something about it lingers and I’m reluctant to watch it.

 

Maybe I have fond memories of my childhood that are associated with these movies.  When you grow up and face the real fears of life, like being able to keep a job, pay the bills and stay healthy, it’s not unusual to long for simpler times.  And if there’s something from the past that made you happy, chances are it still does today.  That is one reason we, or at least I, love horror movies. 

Well, that's one theory, anyway. Join me in the remaining days of Countdown to Halloween to explore others...