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I came across another piece of information a couple of days later which dealt with more theories of why people love to watch horror films. This news article titled "Why Do People Love Horror Movies? They Enjoyed Being Scared" by ScienceDaily states that new research suggests "horror movie viewers are happy to be unhappy." Investigators generally use one of two theories to explain why people like horror movies. The first is that the person is not actually afraid, but excited by the movie. The second explanation is that they are willing to endure the terror in order to enjoy a euphoric sense of relief at the end. However researchers Eduardo Andrade and Joel B. Cohen have argued that those two theories are incorrect. Horror movie viewers are happy to unhappy because in their book, their "novel approach to emotion reveals that people experience both negative and positive emotions simultaneously -- people may actually enjoy being scared, not just relief when the threat is removed. As the authors put it, "the most pleasant moments of a particular event may also be the most fearful."

This podcast was very interesting to listen to. It deals with the grossing effect of extreme horror as it explores how people love to watch films like these. It brings the question who are the REAL crazy people in this world? David Poland, a film critic says that after watching Hostel II, he felt that, "I think that we've crossed some sort of line." The special effects and improvements in film today have created horror to a whole new level with new genres. However many horror film directors have different views. Rob Zombie takes the idea that its all for thrill rides and its like "taking the sex out of a porno movie... Its hallow." Eli Roth takes it as a reflection of the "horror" he sees in the news. "While we were recording the score for the first Hostel, I turned on the television, and Hurricane Katrina was on," Roth says. "[There were] bodies floating down the street, reports of people raping and shooting - and the police quit! Look around the world, at what happens when you're in a society where no one's looking and no one's paying attention and you can do whatever you want: People revert immediately to this state of killing." "In spite of the laughter, Brottman, a scholar, she says "extreme horror might be a way of examining the core of what makes us human." Figuratively speaking, of course."

Recent studies have shown that this also effects gender roles and what each gender is "supposed" to do in watching a horror film. "There's a great set of studies done here at Indiana where they had a male and a female watch horror films together, and when the female was a part of the experiment the male would watch it if the female appeared uncomfortable, squeamish, unhappy with the content, then the male enjoyed the movie more and rated the female as more attractive," Weaver said. And vice-versa: If the man appeared frightened, the woman would enjoy the movie less, and find her companion less attractive."

I read the title and I thought that it would be similar to my essay topic of phobias. It turned out, not so really, because it focused on people watching horror films. I especially like the part (where Jose quoted) that when a guy and girl go to the horror film. They both either dislike or like the movie depending on how their partner would react. Maybe I would be similar to this example because I can't take it when a guy gets frightened. It's just not cool. Music is also a frightening play on people! I hate it when the suspense builds and it just terrifies before the actual scene.

Interesting post on the zombie phenomenon