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SURVIVAL
Horror films often revolve around struggles for survival in the midst of extreme hostility against forces which just get bigger, darker and stronger. These films teach us resilience. It’s a classic “fight or flight” skill that we get from horror movies. Characters in horror films must be resourceful to fight the unforeseen forces of terror or face the suppressed horrors from one’s past. The woman protagonist in Gerald’s Game is an example.
2. CATHARSIS
In ancient Greece, they had a theory of catharsis to explain the role of terrifying spectacles of tragedy to restore equilibrium of the social body. Catharsis is a very old medical term which meant the purging of excess body fluid (for example, letting out blood from the body of somebody suffering from blood pressure was helpful). Horror is likened with tragedy by some scholars in this respect. Horror movies show a lot of deformities and deaths, but the final scene is sometimes a great assurance of continuation of humanity in spite of all odds. The ending of original Exorcist movie of 1973 is a case in point.
3. HUMAN MONSTERS
Horror films sometimes expel the ghost by rational analysis where the supposed ghost is explained to be a natural phenomenon, or a human’s handiwork. Such flicks can belong to the type of “explained gothic” or rationally explained horror as opposed to “supernatural gothic” or horror involving ghosts etc. Rational horror reinforces our belief in scientific systems, which expels fear. So, rational horror instils not just courage but faith in modernity. Also, there can be horror movies which need no supernatural monsters as humans are shown to be way too monstrous to surpass any ghost. Speak No Evil shows human-monster, as does Gerald’s Game. While the former is pessimistic, the latter instils hope.
4. ANTIDOTE TO EGO
However, supernatural or ghostly horror challenges the limits of Enlightenment, Science and Modernity. It is a legacy of Romanticism. Gothic Romanticism relives the medieval darkness, fear of the uncanny. Supernatural horror is a great way to deconstruct the triumphalism of modern humans. In other words, it makes us humble. By showing the helplessness of humans vis-à-vis supernatural entities, such horror is an antidote to modern human hubris, ego, pride. The Ring and its various sequels or spin offs, and generally Asian horror would be examples of this fearful realization that we live forever in the shadow of death.
5. CREATIVE DEFAMILIARIZATION
We are often bored with our regular lives. Horror offers a respite by being a creative defamiliarization. Here, estrangement of the ordinary, mundane, routine, cliches of our everyday lives tests our intelligence and strength. A horror movie makes a known world of our home unknown by acts of haunting, a known person unknown by possession, a known device unknown by a curse. In Host, a zoom meeting witnesses demonic possessions. In It, a clown is the monster.
6. GOOSEBUMPS
Horror comes from a Latin word “horrere” that means tremble/shudder, a meaning still captured by the term horripilation. There is a physical sensation of excitement attached to it. It can be pleasurable if it happens in small dosage: goosebumps, a sudden rush of blood, a shiver down the spine. Best examples of that would be the horror comedies like Ready or Not.
7. ACCEPT VULNERABILITIES
Horror films show our deep vulnerabilities. These are not easy to overcome, but by coming to terms with them, instead of treating them like blind spots, we learn how to work our ways out of them. There was this interesting biblical line used in The Exorcism of Emily Rose: “Work out your own salvation, with fear and trembling”. Horror movies make us recognize that we fear darkness, loneliness, strangeness, and above all death.
