“It is not the physical or mental aberration in itself which horrifies us…but rather the lack of order which these situations seem to imply” (King, 2010).
Horror is a genre of story and film, an entertainment category that the audience read or watch to get scare and frighten. This genre comprises of things that are mysterious, creepy, gruesome, and shocking, both in the story form and imagery form, able to make their audience react physically. According to Stephen King (2010), horror appeals to people because it representing many things that people are afraid to say out loud and allowing them to experience emotions that people are not usually familiar with in normal society. Horror genre “begins to coalesce between the last half of the eighteenth century and the first quarter of the nineteenth” (Carroll, 2003). In the 1930s, horror was popular during that period, as people when through the Depression days, and decided to let go of their anxieties with horror. This period was also “the rise of the so-called ‘Shudder Pulps’, which encompassed everything from Weird Talesto Black Mask.”(King, 2010).
According to King (2010), Horror can be defined with three basic elements which are‘Revulsion, Horror and Terror’. These three things are the layered elements which made the horror genre works, keeping the audience on edge and interest in the story.
First, the ‘Revulsion’, this are the moments that created the feeling of disgust for the audience. Can be clearly seen in horror films because of the imagery, an example is the american horror movies franchise, Saw. This movies franchise has many disgusting and gruesome moments, such as in Saw II where the character has to get the key by digging into their eye socket or have his head squashed by helmet with spike.
Second, the ‘Horror’, this are about the “graphic portray of the unbelievable” (King, 2010). These are moments when audience are face with something that are not natural, abnormality or implausible, as facing with something that are difficult to understand often spark sense of fear in people. For example, the supernatural like aliens, vampires and ghost, these things created sense of fear in people.
Lastly, the Terror, this are when fear is stimulating by imagination, somethings that are unknown can sock the audience into terror. For example, in the 2019 film ‘Colour out of Space’, the characters experienced and faced with an unknown being which can control them into behaving weirdly.
For myself, a horror story I’ve watched that makes use of all three of these elements are the action/science-fiction horror movies franchise, ‘Alien’. The story has all three elements, the Revulsion, Horror and Terror. Revulsion are for scenes in which we see the aliens comes out from its eggs and attaching itself to a human’s face to later burst out from the character’s chest. Or when human and alien fight and kill each other. Horror as the characters are fighting with extraterrestrial species creatures which are really ugly. Lastly Terror as they are fighting with creatures that they do not have any information on and was not yet understood.
References:
Carroll, N. (2003). The philosophy of horror: Or, paradoxes of the heart. The Nature of Horror. Retrieved from http://ebookcentral.proquest.com
Fandor. (2017, September 12). 3 levels of Horror According to Stephen King [Video]. YouTube.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-EC0DoaaCY
King, S. (2010). Danse Macabre. USA. Retrieved from https://blackboard.aut.ac.nz/bbcswebdav/pid-5320793-dt-content-rid-12699647_4/xid-12699647_4
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