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Emotions Set Free

Horror films are becoming more popular amongst young people. Why is that? Stephen King, the author of “Why We Crave Horror Movies”, argues that young people watch horror films because they want to experience certain emotions; for example, catharsis—the purging of emotions or relieving of emotional tensions, especially through certain kinds of art. We humans are exposed to catharsis when watching horror films. In other words, horror films help to release uncivilized emotions and find a psychological balance in life. Furthermore, Asma writes, “Beyond simple sensations of pain and pleasure, we tend to think of emotions as crucial ingredients for being a person” (221). Emotions are a way of defining the uniqueness of human beings. Certain emotions can relate us to abstract things like monsters such as, watching horror films. For example, out of all the genres of horror films, audiences are more attracted to slasher films—“hardly seen killer, an atmospheric place where the murderer occurs, a ‘final girl’ (usually the most attractive female character who survives until the final credits, peculiar ways of eliminating the victims, and an ambiguous ending” (135). Slasher films are preferred by young people because it consist the previous elements listed. A popular slasher film, Halloween, directed by John Carpenter in 1978, has become the inspiration of many slasher movies now. Halloween is a movie about a young boy, Michael Myers, killing teenagers who have become sinners; for instance, these teenagers abuses alcohol, uses drugs and has sex before marriage. Uncivilized emotions remain while civilized emotions are enforced; therefore, slasher films are needed to release the suppressed uncivilized emotions.

A slasher film promotes violence, which goes against the society’s goal of teaching kids to have civilized emotions. Some critics argue that violence and monstrous emotions are supposedly suppressed, so why would we encourage young people to...
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