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Editorial: Fear versus Horror

Why many "horror movies" are just scary.

By Samuel WrightPublished 3 years ago 7 min read
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Editorial: Fear versus Horror
Photo by Elti Meshau on Unsplash

I am about to split a hair, making a distinction between emotional states that most people overlook. Fear and horror are not the same emotions. Fear is the visceral reaction to a physical threat, the fight or flight reaction to actual danger. Horror is something else, the reaction to an assault on the soul, not the body. Horror does not require an existential threat or even physical danger. In modern media they are portrayed as the same and I think that is done to the detriment of real art. So-called “horror movies” have little in the way of real horror because the producers of these films confuse fear and revulsion with horror. Movies that rely on violence and grotesquery to get an emotional reaction from the audience should rightfully be called “scary movies”, not Horror. To clarify the distinction between these two emotional states and the situations in a story or movie that evoke them, I offer you the following scenario:

You are at home in winter for the holidays with your family. You and your parents had meatloaf for dinner; you are pleasantly full and relaxing in front of the telly under a warm quilt. On the news there is a report of a possible serial killer stalking the area where you live. Police think the cannibalistic killer is stalking your neighbourhood, looking for people to cook. Several bodies have been found with their limbs stripped of meat and the heart, liver, and kidneys removed. The one surviving witness says the killer wore a mask that looked like some type of demon. The report scares you; you hug your quilt a little tighter.

It is snowing and after dark but your mother turns the television off and asks you to go to the market to buy eggs and butter so she can bake a pie. You resist but after sufficient nagging you relent and get ready to go out. Your mom gives you a peck on the cheek and tells you to drive safely. You go out into the cold and head to the store, just a few miles up the road. After you do your shopping you hear footsteps following you in the parking structure but do not see anyone. Your pulse jumps momentarily, but you relax once you lock the doors of your car. As you drive down the street your brakes go out and you crash into a street light. You are okay, but your car is too damaged to drive the rest of the way. You try to call for a tow but your phone is not working. You are a mile from home, carrying a bag of groceries, with a cellular phone that is not working. You have no choice but to walk the rest of the way down the empty street.

As you make your way through the light snow you once again hear footsteps behind you. You turn around but do not see anyone so you assume it is just your imagination and start walking again. A moment later you hear more steps. Now you know someone else is walking down the dark street. You walk faster but the steps quicken to keep pace. You are being followed. You decide to take a shortcut through an alley, and soon realize that you no longer hear footsteps behind you. You calm down and return to a leisurely pace. You exit the far end of the alley on to a small street that parallels your own.

You hear a swish. “Aaaaauugh!” you scream as a sharp blade stabs your shoulder. You drop your bag and try to run; a figure in black with a mask like a demon is running after you, the knife in the killer’s hand is dripping with your blood. You run down the street screaming for help but windows are sealed against the cold and no one can hear you so you just keep running.

Your heart is racing, you are sweating despite the cold, and your pulse is beating loudly. The icy street is slippery. You trip and the fiend is upon you but you grab the killer’s arm. You wrestle the killer for the knife but get stabbed again, this time in the stomach. You are bleeding, crying in pain, this may be the end of your life.

Your desperation gives you strength, adrenalin fuelling your muscles despite the pain you are in, and you finally rip the knife away from you attacker’s hands and plunge it straight into the murderous stalker’s chest. You pierce the heart of your attacker, blood gushes out of the wound to cover you in gore, the light in the eyes behind the mask fades. The villain is dead, you are safe, and the threat is over.

A neighbour, who saw you getting attacked when he was walking his dog, runs up to you and tells you they witnessed the attack and called the police. He is a doctor and starts tending your wounds on the spot while the two of you wait for the police and ambulance. You are safe now, your pulse slows down, the adrenalin fades, you stop sweating, your breath returns to normal. There is no more fear.

So you get up, walk over to the dead body, give it a couple of swift kicks in the head to make sure the killer is dead, then bend over and pull the hideous rubber mask off the dead killer’s head to see who it is. The face is contorted in rage and pain, but you recognize it nonetheless for it is a face you have seen your whole life. It is your own mother. Her dead eyes stare back at you. Her blood is on your hands. You will never know why she tried to kill you. Everything you thought was true an hour ago is in shambles. You wail in anguish, your mind reeling, all reality and meaning in your life ruined. You vomit into the gutter and sob. Now you are feeling HORROR…

Do you see the difference? Even when you are safe and no harm can come to you, you can still feel horror. This is a simplistic scenario just to illustrate the difference between physical fear and psychological horror. When you imagine that Jason, Michael, or some other movie killing machine is hunting you in the dark with a machete or chainsaw you feel that visceral rush of adrenalin that comes from the threat of death. You are scared out of your wits and rightfully so. But this is not horror. It is the immediate urge to flee a physical threat. As soon as the physical threat of harm is removed the emotion drains out of you and you calm down. The stress of the experience may stay with you, but this is not an assault on your soul or your consciousness. No, real horror often does not begin until the threat of physical danger is gone. Then there is time to reflect and the horrible implications of what has happened to you start to multiply. In real life, it is when you gain the awareness that you are a victim and thus no longer safe, after you survive a crime and realise that complacency is a trap that horror begins.

The implications of a violent act are often more horrific than the act itself. In the above scenario it is implied that your mother is a serial killer. She sent you out of the house in dangerous weather, followed you to the store, cut your breaks, and tried to stab you to death. Just what did she intend to bake in that pie? How come she did not tell you to buy any apples or canned pumpkin? Could it be that you (or at least pieces of you) were to be the filling? Just what (or who) was in the meatloaf you had for dinner tonight before you went out? You do not remember seeing meat in the refrigerator, where did it come from? How much human flesh is in your diet? What keeps you from doing what your mother did? Digest those questions for a moment or two. Have you ever experienced horror? Ever woken up in a cold sweat because of something that happened to you that is over and done but haunts your mind? Then you know that fear is something different. Take that into consideration when you watch a movie, read a story or play a game like Call of Cthulhu.

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About the Creator

Samuel Wright

I am a writer & tarot reader in Oregon. I'm a TTRPG fan, love all types of sci-fi & fantasy books, movies, & games, & read voraciously. I write a variety of content, mostly RPG blogs. Tell me where you found my page.

Art by Google/Unsplash

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  • Testabout a month ago

    That was exceptionally well written.

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