I watched 31 Spooky Movies for October 2022

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Nisaba
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Re: I watched 31 Spooky Movies for October 2022

Post by Nisaba »

Putting aside the slasher sub-genre of horror film for a minute, I found something that is probably helpful in pointing out why the horror genre has its own value.

John Truby says that the Horror genre is not so much about scaring the audience but about how we confront death and how we deal with the sins of our life that have never been paid for. The life philosophy of Horror is that over the course of the story the monster becomes the hero. The character that we felt was so horrifying at first is the most humane character in the story. And the characters we thought would be the heroes become animals attacking anything that doesn't look like them.
Bottom line Truby stresses is, that horror comes from seeing the human, the monster, in ourselves. It's the fear of what does it look like in us, the fear of the other.
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proYorp
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Re: I watched 31 Spooky Movies for October 2022

Post by proYorp »

That's a really interesting take on it. Never thought of that.

I guess that can explain some way that the genre may be useful for some people, that maybe don't know how screwed up real life is and are mature enough to get some idea. It's only been a somewhat recent realization of mine that some people are oblivious or ignorant to that. I already know that people can be a flaming mess so I didn't experience any revelation of thought therein.

Honestly that's all part of what really turned me away from the whole thing, 'cause then it's watching people suffer trauma and watching them be terrible to each other and it just feels awful all around. Some I've seen have felt like a mockery of real trauma, or a wistful fantasy of some dark mind. Being in groups watching these things for entertainment has felt off-putting. "Don't they know there really are things that bad?"

I guess not necessarily. Cognitive dissonance is helpful sometimes. It can make people think, though it amazes me what great lengths some will go to in order to preserve their worldview. Anyway... I can respect efforts to broaden one's understanding and depth of thought.
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