Why We Crave Horror Movies
Stephen King
Lara, Aqsa, Esmeralda, Diana
"Why We Crave Horror Movies" by Stephen King
Overview & Structure
Why do we want to watch horror movies?
Agenda
- discusses the reasons as to why he believes anyone watches horror movies
- refers to horror movies as an escape to allow individuals to release their inner insanity
- written in small condensed paragraphs
- “ when we pay our four or five bucks and seat ourselves at the tenth-row center in a theater showing a horror movie, we are daring the nightmare.” (2)
- effective because they single out a reason as to why the author believes we crave horror movies.
Rhetorical Devices
Assonance & Rhetorical Question
- Overview & Structure
- Purpose & Audience
- Thesis Statement
- POV, Tone & Diction
- Methods of Development
- Rhetorical Devices
- Relating to other essays
- Agree or Disagree on Kings point
- "I think that we're all mentally Ill". (1)
- “Why?”
- “Ah, but this is where the ground starts to slope away, isn’t it?"
- "Why bother?"
- Metaphor, para 12, “For myself, I like to see the most aggressive of (horror movies) - Dawn of the Dead, for instance - as lifting a trap door in the civilized forebrain and throwing a basket of raw meat to the hungry alligators swimming around in that subterranean river beneath.”
Purpose & Audience
- “The horror film has become the modern version of the public lynching.”(…)“The potential lyncher is in all of us (excluding saints, past and present; but then, most saints have been crazy in their own ways), and every now and then, he has to be let loose to scream and roll around in the grass.”
- the viewers of horror movies are satisfied by the pain and agony illustrated in the characters
- “‘What’s the difference between a truckload of bowling balls and a truckload of dead babies’ (You can’t unload the truckload of bowling balls with a pitchfork.)”
- provides an example of human nature’s desire to laugh at the pain of others, while simultaneously reiterating the same point by actually entertaining the reader
- “ The mythic horror movie, like a sick joke, has a dirty job to do. it deliberately appeals to all that is worst in us. it is morbidity unchained, our most base instincts set let free, our nastiest fantasies realized… and it all happens, fittingly enough, in the dark.”
- connection between the emotions that one feels while watching scary movies and alludes to the emotions of someone engaged in foreplay
- Adolescents and Adults
- Horror movies are usually rated 13 and up
- King’s essay is expository and analytical, satiric and informal.
- uses logic and reasoning to develop ideas, it entertains, and it exposes human wrongs.
- "we go to have fun"(5)
Methods of Development
Thesis
Compare & Contrast
Analogy
Relating to other essays
- “Which is not to say that a really good horror movie may not surprise a scream out of us at some point, the way we scream when the roller coaster twists through a complete 360 or plows through a lake at the bottom of the drop”
- connection between watching a movie and riding a roller coaster
- using analogies and popular cultural icons such as Freda Jackson, Robert Redford and Diana Ross to convince us that we “like to see others menaced” (1).
- relates the experience of a horror movie to riding a roller coaster
- the horror film is a young person’s domain, in contrast to where an elderly person might mosey around.
- “When we pay our four or five bucks and seat ourselves at tenth-row center in a theater showing a horror movie, we are daring the nightmare.”
- horror movies are humankind’s method for touching on the baser side of its collective soul
- “The mythic horror movie, like the sick joke, has a dirty job to do. It deliberately appeals to all that is worst in us. It is morbidity unchained, or most base instincts let fee, our nastiest fantasies realized.”
POV, Tone & Diction
- It is opinionated and informative.
- Relates to Bonnie Laings, "An Ode to the User-Friendly Pencil," “My students listen to music non-stop” by Kevin Bray and “Measuring the new prosperity," by Jack Layton
- **********************
Description
Example and Illustration
- “If we are all insane, then sanity becomes a matter of degree, If your insanity leads to carve up women like Jack the Ripper or the Cleveland Torso Murderer, we class you away in the funny farm (but neither of those two amateur-night surgeons was ever caught, heh-heh-heh; if, on the other hand, your insanity leads you only to talk to yourself when you’re under stress or to pick your nose on your morning bus, then you are left alone to go about your business...though it is doubtful that you will ever be invited to the best parties.”(8)
- paragraph 8, he says, “If we are all insane, then insanity is a matter of degree. If your insanity leads you to carve up women like Jack the Ripper or the Cleveland Torso Murderer, we clap you away in the funny farm…”
- paragraph 10, he describes a situation where we are praised for good behaviour, and punished for bad. If we give our “rotten little puke of a sister” a kiss, we are praised and smiled at, whereas if we “slam her fingers in a door,” we are punished.
- written in first person, "I think we're all mentally ill"(1))
- Humorous, Conversational, and Knowledgeable
- humor is lighthearted and makes the tone of the essay less serious
- “if, on the other hand, if your insanity leads you only to talk to yourself when you’re under stress or to pick your nose on the morning bus, then you are left alone to go about your business . . . though it is doubtful that you will be invited to the best parties.”(8)
- colloquial and scholarly, uses each to enhance the effect of the essay by seeming young and mature at the same time
- in reference to Jack the Ripper and the Cleveland Torso Murderer, “(but neither of those two amateur night surgeons was ever caught, heh-heh-heh,)” (8)
- “Our emotions and our fears form their own body, and we recognize that it demands its own exercise to maintain proper muscle tone. Certain of these emotional muscles are accepted - even exalted - in civilized society; they are, of course, the emotions that tend to maintain the status quo of civilization itself.”(9)
Optional Second Film Example
Agree/Disagree with King
Conclusion & Questions
Why do you think people enjoy watching horror so much?
Why does horror continue to be such a big part of human entertainment?
As issues of world peace continue to arise, do you think horror will start to disappear?
- Evident that King has experience in the field of horror and thriller movies
- Clear that he has put thought and research behind developing his theory; he states specific examples to support his argument.
- Essay also tells the audience about why we seem to like watching violence and horror
- Agree with Kings point about horror seeming to be a form of entertainment for people, because it continues to be a popular genre at theatres and novels.
- Agree because as humans, we hear about horror stories everyday, on the news, radio or television.
Thank you for listening to our presentation