Kiara: So my sister and her friend were going to this movie.

At the time, I was basically a leech from the way I clung to my sister.

Everywhere she went.

I don’t remember if they invited me, which they probably didn’t,

or I just tagged along, which was often the case.

I’m about six years younger than my sister.

And well, it was a scary movie, and I was way too young to see it.

So my sister and her friend decided I should act like a baby to get in,

crawling and stuff. I really enjoyed that role.

Somehow that worked?

Not really sure how to be honest…

Well anyway, so we end up going to this movie.

I’m sitting between my sister and her friend.

I’m not sure how far into the movie I got before I was absolutely terrified

and starting crying.

Somewhere in the middle.

They tried to cheer me up and offered we go to the Hannah Montana movie

because I was so scared.

I looked at the exit but I didn’t want to leave. Mostly because I didn’t think

Hannah Montana would cheer me up and because I felt like making them

leave was…

kinda rude.

After the movie I was quite mad at them.

I tried to stay mad, but my sister’s friend told me a dirty joke about

spongebob and I couldn’t really help but laugh.

Now, you might think after that experience I’d never watch horror again.

Yet, turns out... one of my favorite movies is The Purge Anarchy.

Kiara: I’m Kiara Sogren, and this is Fear Seekers.

This is the first episode I’m gonna call “Oh the Horror”.
This podcast is gonna to focus on the horror genre, and why people can

enjoy fear. Horror is a popular genre. You can almost guarantee that if a

new horror movie comes out, the seats are going to be full.

American Horror Story,

The Walking Dead,

Goosebumps,

The Twilight Zone… at least one of these names, if not all, should ring a

bell. Rather than asking “Why is horror scary?”, I wanted to ask “Why do

we like horror, if it is scary?”. Now not everyone likes horror.

Even I have a love hate relationship with it.

But the question still intrigued me nonetheless.

Mom: I prefer them more when I was younger than I do now

Kiara: That’s my mom

-

Mom: I don’t really… look for horror movies anymore.

When I was younger… I look for horror movies to be afraid.

Kiara: What do you think changed

Mom: Uh. I don’t like being afraid

Kiara: So my mom’s not into gore.

Neither am I to be honest.

Like I said before, love hate relationship.

But what I really learned from this interview was that her point of view on

horror changed as she got older.

This made me curious of what would happen if I interviewed teenagers like

me, High school students.

Nicole: Nicole
Tasnia: Tasnia

Tasnia:Oh I just have nightmares

Nicole:Yeah I just wanna run away

I like playing like horror video games

I don’t know it’s just fun for me and like

Since i played it a lot

I don’t really get scared anymore cause I’m used to it already

I know when the jumpscares are coming soo

Tasnia: I’m actually not a fan of horror movies

Or anything that has to do with horror because

I get really scared

And like the whole night I won’t be able to sleep

Maya: My name is Maya

I am 15 turning 16 soon

Jaspreet: Jaspreet… Lal

Kiara: What sort of things scare you?

Maya: The dark, well not the dark actually.

Jaspreet: Supernatural creature like ghosts, demons, all that

Your parents

You know getting in trouble things like that…

Getting murdered

You know

Yeah all that stuff

Drugs all that

Kiara: Oh yeah yeah

Scary stuff

Maya: You see I can’t watch scary movies because my mom said I might get

nightmares from it. Soo I can’t.

Jaspreet: It’s much funnier

And it’s cute

because they’re they’re just so scared when they’re done

Kiara: Okay so what game

Jaspreet: Bloody Mary

Kiara: This didn’t really lead anywhere.

I mean I ended up getting quite a wide range of answers.

Still, everyone had an opinion.

It seemed that either they loved it or they hated it…

or they just didn’t get scared at all.

I couldn’t connect the dots.

At first I only wanted to know why people liked scary movies…

But, I got the sense that if I could discover why some people liked horror,

I would be able to figure out why the rest didn’t.

I needed to get the answers from an expert.

Time for research.

-

Kiara: John P. Hess is the voice of Filmmaker IQ.

During one of his videos,

The Psychology of Scary Movies,

as the name implies,

he delves into the psychology of horror .

John P. Hess: Film Scholar Noel Carroll puts forth an idea that horror

films are the product of curiosity and fascination.

Horror exists outside of everyday existence of normal behavior.

Studies by Tamborini, Stiff and Zillmann have shown that there is a

significant correlation between people who are accepting of norm-violating

behavior and interest in horror movies.

But that doesn't explain why some viewers respond positively when norm

violators such as the sexual promiscuous teenage couple, the criminal, and
the adulterer - are punished and killed by the movie monster.

Well this "enjoyment" of the punishment of those that deserves it, make up

the Dispositional Alignment Theory.

We like horror movies because the people on screen getting killed deserve

it.

But this may give us insight into who the audiences want to see eat it but

it's not a clear picture of why horror films are popular in the first place.

Another theory put forth by Marvin Zuckerman in 1979 proposed that

people who scored high on the Sensation Seeking Scale often reported a

greater interest in exciting things like roller coasters, bungee jumping and

horror films.

Researchers have found correlation but it isn't always significant.

Even Zuckerman noted that picking only one trait misses the fact that

there are lots of things that draw people to horror films.

Finally, DJ Skall posits that horror films are a reflection of our societal
fears.

Looking at the history of horror

we have mutant monsters rising in 50s from our fear of the nuclear

bogeyman,

Zombies in the 60s with Vietnam,

Nightmare on Elm Street as a mistrust in authority figures stemming from

the Watergate scandals and

Zombies again in the 2000s as a reflection of viral pandemic fears.

But for as many horror cycles that fit the theory, there are many that just

don't.

Kiara: He goes on to explain more theories including: gender socialization,

catharsis, excitation, and the “uncanny”.

Catharsis and The Excitation theory, which is basically like a modern

version of Catharsis, were both pretty much disproven.

Catharsis was the theory from Aristotle, it was disproven because watching

violent things...

Actually makes people more violent.

Excitation is wobbly because some studies showed that people actually

enjoyed the scary parts of the movie more than the resolution...

Which is pretty much the opposite of his theory.

Out of all of these theories, which is most true?

Basically each person is too different for us to pick one theory that would

work for everyone.

Which one do you think is most accurate for you?

Kiara: There was something about this video that stood out...

Hearing the name Aristotle.

Aristotle lived in ancient Greece…

384 bc.
Horror as a genre has existed before we even recognised it as horror.

Folklore with murders, giants, sea creatures, and spirits can be traced back

to the earliest civilizations.

In Europe there were sirens and one eyed giants.

In Africa, huge snakes and vampires.

In Asia, ogres and demon horses.

How long have we been obsessed with horror?

Maybe longer than we’d like to admit.

Kiara: So what did we find out?

That horror is rooted in us…

maybe morals, maybe instinct.

There are multiple theories to why we feel a connection with horror,

but none are quite complete.

Horror is timeless and has always had some effect on us.

It seems that our relationship with horror... is a mystery.

H. P. Lovecraft once said,

“The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and

strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown”.

Maybe our connection with horror is something to fear.