"People like to be scared when they feel safe." — Alfred Hitchcock
Two of the most popular authors alive today are Stephen King and JK Rowling. Stephen King is world-renowned for such chilling horror masterpieces as The Shining and Carrie. Although the Harry Potter series by JK Rowling is not usually classified as horror, it does have its scary moments. One of the reason people enjoy their work so much is that they genuinely like to read these scary stories. Some even claim that they find a good horror novel or horror movie to be relaxing. How can horror be relaxing?
Horror Reinforces The Joys Of Being Normal
Stephen King points out repeatedly in his autobiographies that the entire horror genre does not try to undermine society in any way. In fact, the horror in any story tends to derive from normal society being turned upside down or twisted in some way. This can show that deviating from the average way of life can be scary. You might even feel better about your own life circumstances in comparison to what’s going on in a horror story.
For example, the school I went to never had a prom night. It was considered "non-Christian". At first, I felt like I had been gypped of a really cool experience. Then I read Carrie, which features a slaughter of teenagers on prom night. I felt a lot better about never had a prom night.
Primal Scream Therapy
As pointed out by Lovelyn in a previous post, screaming can be a suprisingly relaxing activity. In the 1970’s, there was a semi-popular form of analysis called primal scream therapy, created by Arthur Janov. It’s most famous patient was John Lennon. The basic theory behind it is that mental illness can be cured as a result of re-experiencing past traumas. In other words — getting scared. You then scream your head off and feel a sense of deep relaxation for at least ten minutes.
After tensing up for a while, even letting out a scream, it sure does feel good to relax. Perhaps this is one reason why people like to be scared.
Life Lessons
And if you can survive one scary experience in your mind through books or film, then perhaps your survival muscles will be better able to handle scary situations in real life, such as jury duty and filing income taxes. Vampires and werewolves are pieces of cake compared to them.
But if you find horror can’t help you relax, then don’t worry about it. There are plenty of other relaxation activities to play with.
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2 Comments
Write a Comment»I like watching horror movies all the time. Doesn’t scare me at all though.
They can be quite fun. Although, Psycho really scared me and I’ve never been able to watch it more than once. I don’t like the horror films that take themselves too seriously.