Guest Author - Lisette BC Abbott

Scary, creepy, and downright disturbing images have existed in film as long as we have had the ability to invent them, perceive them, and to construct them. In fact, one could argue that the creep-factor is inherent within the human psyche. It’s our yin to the yang of feelings of safety and acceptance. It’s part of our imagination, whether it’s our individual imagination or the Jungian collective unconscious. The fact is horror, and by extension horror movies, appeal to our most primitive state of being. Horror strips us down to our essence.

Because horror is innate in the human make-up, an element of “horror” exists in all types of film genres. Horror movies make us ask the eternal question, “what if” and allow us to venture into the unknown. It taps into our childhood fears of shadows, shapes, and slightly opened closet doors. We watch, get scared, and desperately remind ourselves that it’s only a movie! We tell ourselves, over and over, that “it’s not happening! It’s not real.”

Unfortunately, like comedy movies, horror movies are often given short-shrift by film reviewers. At best, many film reviewers treat the horror genre with disregard, and at worst, they treat the genre with disdain. They reason that the main audience of horror movies is the teen-age crowd and, as such, is not fully aware of what makes a good film. But I have to disagree. While some horror movies target the teenage audience—and we can see these a mile away because of the schlocky-brightness that comes from these movies—there are some genuinely good horror movies. And by that, I mean well-constructed, well-acted, and well-directed films that leave the audience grasping the edge of their seat and unwilling to turn their eyes away even though they desperately want to. These well-done horror movies explore the nature of relationships, whether the relationships are between humans or between the natural and the supranatural.

Perhaps ironically, many attendees and devotees of horror movies are women, the targeted audience of relationship dramas. Horror movies often cross genre-boundaries because they deal with one of the most primal emotions in the human repertoire—fear. They untap carefully secreted ideas, images, and fears that we diligently try to lock up, to avoid, to negate their very existence.

Horror movies, while tapping into fears the human race has, can have a broad range of themes. Not only are humans afraid of the dark, afraid of the unknown, they’re also afraid of other everyday realities. They may be afraid of getting old, of being ignored, of the Devil, or simply of the strange! The point is, whatever humans can be and are afraid of, horror movies can successfully tap into these fears. By doing so, horror movies reveal just a little bit more about us to us.

While some may argue that horror movies are nothing more than entertainment, I argue that horror movies can—and often do—reflect on society. We may have to don our critical thinking hats and stop mindlessly watching movies, but because movies, especially horror movies, are made by humans, we can see into another group of people’s thoughts of, attitudes toward, and insight into humanity. And by extending this further, the fact that some horror movies are made and others are not—by virtue of funding, we can analyze what is considered relevant and what isn’t by shapers of mainstream society. It’s no coincidence that the brilliant “horror” film, Bubba Ho Tep with Bruce Campbell, is an indie film that opened in minimal theaters. This movie, while being a horror movie, explores our society’s attitude toward the old.

Horror movies are not just mindless entertainment—even the schlocky, gore-driven ones. While these may be so on the surface, we can still question why so many of these types of film make it to production and what that says about mainstream society’s attitude toward life, violence, and, yes, women since women seem to be the preferred victim and often serve as “eye candy.”

The next time you sit before a horror movie screen, think about what the horror movie is really saying about its subject. Hopefully, more people will come to stop disregarding the horror film genre with disdain and disregard and start seeing it as yet another insight into the human condition.