Magician’s Tricks: What Makes Horror Movies Work?

Why are people attracted to cinema that makes them uncomfortable?

What is it about feeling scared that is so desirable to us?

(Photo: iStock)

When it comes to horror films, the basics of how we judge a film is how strongly it makes us feel something. The soft mush we become watching The Notebook or the superhero energy we feel watching Avengers- it’s all about how we feel at the moment. But what is it that we like about fear? Why do films like the Shining and the Conjuring or heck, even Raaz make the whole experience so fascinating? Why are we drawn to jump scares and creepy whispers?

The Two Basic Ingredients:

1. Sound & Tension Building

Watch this famous ‘Red Rum’ scene from one of the best horror movies of all times - Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining. Now watch it without sound. Not half as scary, is it? Horror films and thrillers use special background music to not just build tension, but also subsequently reflect the anxiety you feel as a viewer. Prolonged broody tunes, screechy sounds - the little buildups at the gory visuals. Often, music is used to establish an atmosphere of fear even when nothing is happening on screen. Often, it acts as a trigger to your fear, a warning, a foreshadowing of something terrible.

2. The Upside Down

Imagine everything happy in the world you’ve ever known. Now, imagine all those happy things as a symbol of evil. Most often than not, horror filmmakers choose a simple route to tug at your deepest fears: They turn everything you love into something horrific. Think about it - everything from toys (haunted dolls and musical carousels in The Conjuring), baby’s laughter, women who get possessed by ghosts, soft music - everything that gives you comfort in the normal world becomes the demonic object. It is an instant fear-trigger as it attacks your basic comfort ground. Take this object, a simple musical toy:

The Human Psyche

But what is it that attracts us to this feeling of fear? What makes us pay for anxiety? The rational human brain is always looking to find happy stability in life, to indulge in activities that make them feel happy inside - then why do we chase fear?

1. Adrenaline Seekers: John Edward Campbell, an expert in media studies at Temple University, pointed out the mindset of people who seek adrenaline through the content they consume, pointing out how it is most common in young adults. Through horror films, he points out that teenagers “are more likely to look for intense experiences”. But why is that? He says young adults look for an escape from the boring dreariness of their daily lives.

He explains that adults have lesser time to deal with the fake adrenaline pumps as they have real-life horrors (read: death, divorce, disease) to deal with. So in ways, it becomes the same thing as getting on a roller-coaster. It is the “Yeah, I made it!” feeling you get afterwards.

2. Catharsis: And that brings us to good old catharsis. Distress and delight are correlated. The final pleasure comes from the relief you feel at the end of the film - when things go back to the good. This is why films with sad endings are so unsettling, they refuse to stabilise your ideas of a happy world. The tension build up finally gets you to an emotional release, a cathartic feeling.

3. Apart from tension-building, psychologist Glenn D. Walters identifies three primary factors that add to the attraction to horror films and shows:

a) Relevance: Horror films, he claims, have elements that each viewer identifies with. These could be broken relationships, or dystopian settings they are always warned about. Horror films allow them to experience a reality otherwise too scary to tap into or wish for. It allows them to tackle things like fear of death, to see it up close and personal, but also to not have experienced it at all.

b) Unrealism: And finally, the deal sealer. It is the fact that we know that we are not in danger that we allow ourselves to feel that fear. Think of Exposure Therapy used to treat phobia patients: The patient is forced to face their fears till they can no more be scared of it. Parents of children who have hydrophobia often jump into pools and wait for what may take hours till the child becomes okay with water, realizes that nothing there would hurt him. Just like that, horror films put you in a state of panic and fear, but a setting that you know won’t hurt you. It is the comfort of knowing that the fear is a game playing in your head that makes you okay with being a pawn. At the end of the day, you can come out of the theatre and say: Pssht, that was nothing.

All said and done, it is evident that horror as a genre isn’t just growing and become better with the developments in tech, audiences seem to have a steady demand for it too. With Netflix pushing out shows like Ghoul and Typewriter, it will be interesting to see how traditional horror will be extant in the coming years when it comes to satisfying the lust for fear.