According to the psychology of terror, fear is not a particularly pleasurable feeling, on the contrary, it is the natural and cultural response that human beings have to respond to situations perceived as dangerous or threatening, so it is a feeling that we usually want to avoid. Then why are there movies designed to scare us?And most unusual of all, why do some people find them funny and enjoyable?
The answer to these questions is in the films themselves that seek to generate fear, horror films are made thinking of the human psyche, taking advantage of human instincts, stimulating arousal in the face of danger and playing with culturally constructed fears. Through the psychology of terror, we will see why it may be nice to feel the fear that horror films seek to arouse.
- We all feel fear at some point in our lives.
- Feel vulnerable to danger or simply distressed when we think of potentially threatening situations.
- All because human beings are instinctively coded to react to danger.
- Flee or face it directly.
- To increase our chances of survival.
However, the trigger for fear changes depending on the culture of each individual, although there are constant elements, human beings are usually afraid of three things: death, the unknown and the loneliness imposed, is without denying that there are personal triggers of fear, such as phobias, which are often psychological and social constructions.
These are instinctive responses and cultural constructs that filmmakers rely on to generate fear in horror films, but that still doesn’t explain why we decided to watch horror movies.
Horror films, to be appreciated, must maintain a certain balance between fear and pleasure, for this they must follow certain narrative techniques. They are techniques that take into account both the psychology of terror and human physiology.
Therefore, the fear created in horror films cannot be as real and visceral as real fear, more specifically, the viewer experiences fear, but without running away from what is scary, because in his heart he knows that he faces a fiction. The most common narrative techniques to achieve this effect are:
Narrative techniques are not enough for a horror film to be a success, it is necessary to use certain psychological theories taking advantage of certain notions of the psychology of terror.
The most basic is positive conditioning. Despite all the evils that afflict the protagonists of horror films, the relief they feel when saved has a pleasant effect on viewers, an effect that most viewers seek when watching a horror movie.
Therefore, fans of horror films appreciate not only the negatives, but also the positive aspects of these films.
There are also horror films that use the pleasure of punishment. In a 1993 studio, it was found that many people liked horror movies, such as “Friday the 13th” (1980) or?All Saints’ Eve? (1978), because they believed that the murdered dead characters deserved it, all of which met the moral standards of some viewers.
According to the psychology of terror, these films use many unconditioned stimuli to generate fear or shock in human behavior, these stimuli can be loud noises, sudden movements and show extremely strange things in unexpected situations.
Finally, it should be considered that the effectiveness of horror films depends on the personality of the viewer, there are people who try to animate thee by watching a movie, while others prefer to be relaxed, so horror films are not for everyone and not for every moment.