REBEKAH GREEN
PRIDE STAFF WRITER
Maybe it’s the feeling you get when you’re home alone and you can’t place that odd sound you heard. Perhaps it’s those moments where you feel someone is watching you even though you are certain there is no one around. Fear takes many forms and because of its versatility, there are different ways to experience it.
Around Halloween, theme parks, films, shows and other sources of entertainment switch their themes to the scare factor, and we turn to them expecting it. Media and entertainment bring the scare factor to new levels each year because we’re being so desensitized to what used to be. When I was younger, I would watch programs like “Are You Afraid of The Dark” and read books like “Goosebumps,” and instead of switching off the television or closing the book whenever I got spooked, I would continue to be drawn in. There’s just something about being scared that is so enticing. Whether or not it has anything to do with adrenaline, it has to be fed. While I can’t speak for everyone, it still makes me wonder now what it means to be scared and what it is that actually scares us.
When I think of fear, three things come to mind: the unexpected, the shock factor and the fear of fear.
Halloween attractions are about the unexpected. Their main objective is to get you shrieking and send you running. Theme parks take advantage of the scare season, turning their parks into places of fright for their eager guests. Knott’s Scary Farm, Universal Studios’ Halloween Horror Nights and Fright Fest at Six Flags Magic Mountain are a few popular choices. The unexpected affects anyone. Even those who claim to be veterans of horror can be spooked in the right place at the right time.
The shock factor boils down to two things. The first is that loud boom of music that jolts you out of your seat during a film. It is quite annoying, considering it only gets out of you a moment of fright—only because you weren’t expecting it.
Second, I associate shock with films riddled with graphic violence and scenarios that seem like they’re meant to gross you out rather than scare you. But then again they must be doing something right; the “Saw” franchise gained an average grossing of over $59 million and a total of over $415 million according to boxofficemojo.com (and I admittedly really liked the first film).
Still, when I search for the “best” horror films on various blogs and websites, the films listed are predominantly dated back before I was born. It makes me wonder what the scare factor had for films in the past that it’s just not maintaining today.
I find fear itself a successful way to instill fear in others. It’s frightening to know how easily fear can transcend into reality as any other emotion can. Sometimes it doesn’t always have to be in your face, and you don’t have to actually see the “bad guy” (whether it be human or not). If you strip away all of the effects, jolting music and excessive gore, maybe the real terror can reveal itself. Whether you’re home alone, at a haunted house or enjoying a horror film, once the distractions are gone, raw fear arises.