Horror Movie Genre @ MindSay 
The other day I read a really great response by horror film director/writer James Gunn to a really stupid assumption made by the creator of Dilbert, Scott Adams... A Defense of Horror Movies in Response to the Guy Who Created Dilbert Scott Adams asked the question: "It's hard to enjoy a movie if I can't relate to how the characters are feeling, even if they are different from me. That's normal, right? So how the f*ck do you explain the popularity of horror movies?" He answered his own question with "By process of elimination, I assume fans of horror flicks are imagining themselves as the killer, thinking how cool it would be to disembowel attractive teenagers. Jeezus-frickin-christ! There are millions of these psychopath movie-goers. And they look just like normal people." This isn't an entirely unsurprising assumption, after all there are millions of "normal people" out there who make ridiculous assumptions like this over people who love any kind of movie or TV show with violent and/or gory subject material. James Gunn responded by bringing up the fright factor: "People generally go to horror films to be FRIGHTENED. That would mean they empathize with the victims. I can't believe I'm going to type the next word – honest to God, I probably haven't written it in at least twenty years, but here the fuck it comes – DUH." Gunn mentioned much more than this, and please, I encourage you all to read Gunn's entire blog post. After reading his brilliant defense, I started thinking about my own reasons why I love to watch horror movies and why I illustrate/write horror stories of my own. Here are my thoughts...
Why People Like Me Love Horror Movies
I'm assuming, if you're like me, you grew up watching late night horror movies hosted by Elvira, ended up a geek for George A. Romero's Living Dead films, fell in love with Ash of Evil Dead fame, and Nightmare on Elm Street kept you up with the lights on all night long. People like me also loved the camp and fantasy of televisions shows like Friday the 13th the Series, Outer Limits, Twilight Zone, Night Gallery, Monsters, and Dark Shadows (to name only a few). While my mother tried to encourage me to get interested in less violent movies (she also wanted me to wear pink all the time), I couldn't help but rebel and fled from anything remotely prissy or sweet. I was the kind of girl who loved to be creeped out and my thrill ride was horror. Going to a horror movie also meant getting the chance to hold onto a hot guy! That totally breaks the ice with a sledgehammer -- and both sexes go home satisfied. Ahhh... the good ol' days of making out in a theatre. *shiver*
So, I agree with James Gunn that most fans of horror movies go to get frightened, but I want to add that horror movies are very sexy, too. Guys go to see tits, women go to be with guys they'll be able to cling to during the scary parts. However, women also love horror because we tend to not only sympathesize with the victim, we are often seduced by the handsome villians of Gothic horror. We want to believe that the vampire in the velvet cape is going to give us some sweet, hardcore loving, and, hey, who cares if he's going to suck us dry, at least we'll die with an orgasmic sigh. As for the villians of slasher films, another part of us gets excited and that's the urge to see a female victim transform into a heroine and kick the villian's ass! Often the lead character in a horror film is a beautiful petite or fragile woman who usually in other movies tends to stay a victim and is dependent upon some guy (often one who looks like a total douchebag) to save her or she dies and becomes the guy's reason to avenge her. In a horror movie, when this chick is faced with terrible odds, the guy gets killed, her friends end up bloody messes of spilt guts, and she somehow finds the strength to stand up against the strong and ugly villian. This sort of thing makes us girls surge with confidence. We want to be the heroine. We like seeing our sisters win not wilt in the face of danger. We want to believe we can be like that, too.
There's also the attraction of the supernatural -- we awe at what could never exist in this world, we all want an experience that is out of this world, and yet never have to get out of our seat to have to be dazzled by it. Be it a ghost, freaky alien, giant spider, or demons out to seize our souls, the supernatural carries us AWAY from the normal things we fear.
Some people have asked me why it is that I, a person who suffers from an anxiety disorder, would want to watch horror movies. Well, the things to be feared in movies are extraordinary and usually unbelievable. I would have to say I get more freaked out by things that happen in the real world. The frightful things in the horror movie world distract me from what I really fear. At least in a horror movie I can expect to be startled and yet still enjoy it because there really is nothing to fear from a fantasy. Now, if you tried to get me to go on a blind date or jump out of a plane, those things are more panic-attack-inducing to me than sitting in a theatre.
Despite the problem of many hit horror movies becoming formulaic over time and inspiring sequels that are produced to repeat box office record sales over doing anything to innovate a quality media franchise, the horror movie genre is pure escapism. Loving a horror movie, be it a gothic classic to an 80's slasher flick, does not make anyone a clone of the serial killer or vampire villian they watch. Most people, if the story is written and presented well, really respond more to the characters who are put into ridiculously dangerous situations. Sometimes we want characters to die because they are annoying or because they have some kind of moral defect cursing them with enough bad karma to make them worthy to die. I have, on occasion, gone to a horror movie where everyone cheers when a certain jackass character meets his end, but in no way does anyone sit there and think of killing people like they see in the movies.
To assume that only horror movie fans go to work each day secretly fantasizing about killing their co-workers and customers is absurd. EVERYONE who has a hard day at work wishes they can let out their frustration on those who annoy them. This is only natural. At least most normal people frustrated at work don't actually kill people. If you're one of those people who are afraid of what other people think about you after you've given them a hard time at work, then you deserve your fate as imagined by the other person. Since Scott Adams assumes all horror fans are secret psychopaths, I'm forced to assume that he's seriously paranoid.
When Scott said, "I wonder how many times in my life I'm at a store, for example, swiping my debit card, and the cashier is looking at me and thinking... "It sure would be fun to drive a spike through his forehead and make a vest from his skin." It probably happens more often than I'd like. Do you enjoy horror movies? If so, what the f*ck is wrong with you?" To this I say: What the f*ck is wrong with you that you imagine that other people are secretly out to get you? Jeez, get a grip. And why assume that the people you come across each day are horror movie fans? It's assumptions like these that disgust me and make me want to watch the grossest, creepiest, stupidist horror movie I can get my hands on. And now that I am associating Scott Adams with his paranoid assumption, I am imagining him savagely attacked by a rabid Snuggles (the fabric softener teddy bear).
