The Horror Of Horror

Introduction

I see many people who eulogise horror icons and and situations almost to the point of apparent love for the deeds of these people. From Dracula to Krampus to Michael Myers to Freddie Kruger.

While I understand why people iconise these characters I have greater difficulty with people who iconise murderers like Ted Bundy, John Wayne Gacy and Jeffrey Dahmer. These people were evil and the world is well rid of them.

More Horrific Observations

While it is fine to be aware and take an interest in real life murderers, their deeds should not be trivialised, you have to think what if you or a loved one were one of their victims. I did watch the Netflix series on Jeffrey Dahmer but found it very difficult to watch, especially the scenes that included Dahmer, though it was the Police interactions with his neighbour which were as mentally horrific and Dahmer's crimes.

When I see horror films I think why we like watching them is that it is almost anologous with a roller-coaster ride or a fast car or motor cycle ride. We enjoy being frightened and scared and maybe even losing control, but when we watch it on screen or on stage or read it in a book we still remain control.

We can always withdraw from the situation, by closing the book or switching of the TV.

I have never been so frightened that I have had to switch the TV off or close a book.

On a couple of occasions I have been so disgusted by events that I did switch off, I think the only time was the flm "Hostel" and I won't even say why I switched that off. The other was the book "American Psycho" by Brett Easton-Ellis which to me, seem to trivialise the evil and approve of the behaviour of a particularly obnoxious yuppie.

While cos-play and the like where fans become vampires, zombies and other horrific creatures, I am always worriesd that some people may be drifting towards a new reality.

The horrors of Dracula, Frankenstein and the Werewolf are easily categorizeable and, especially in the case of Dracula sex appeal is a big part of the attraction of the horror icon.

With the advent of cinema more and more monsters have crawled from the imaginations of the horror creators, although books were far ahead of celluloid in the regard with the creations of Lovecraft, Hope Hodgson, Machen and others.

We have the Cenobites from Clive Barker's "Hellraiser" series and Freddie Kruger from "Nightmare on Elm Street" as two modern examples of Horror Icons and I see people who love being constumed as these characters and they look great and have great fun in their chosen characters.

I then start to think what if this were actually real? Could anyone, and I include myself in this, cope if these horrors became reality. I have many fears of real life situations but if I were to encounter real zombies or vampires then the horror train would come right off the tracks for me.

I am easier with fictional horror than with real life horror, although sometimes entertatinment blurs the lines between reality and fiction, the hooks and chains of the Cenobites ripping flesh are acceptable but what Jeffrey Dahmer did was definitely not and it disturbs me when things like this are presented as entertainment because the may then be accepted and the real horror of what they did may then be either forgotten or trivialised.

Conclusion

These are just some thoughts about how we are afected by horror and how sometimes we may be numbed to the real horror we may be exposed to in real life.