Stephen King is a well-known American author of many contemporary horror and science-fiction books. According to King, we crave horror movies because "we're all mentally, ill those of us outside the asylums only hide it a little better" (King, 598).”Why We Crave Horror Movies” was first published January of 1981 in a Playboy magazine, it has now transitioned from a magazine to a college text book. During this time, he proposes three causes of the popular appeal of horror movies. When writing this essay king is conversing with a various group of different people about horror movies. In this paper, Stephen King expresses the rhetorical strategies ethos, pathos, and logos to convey his reasoning that those who engage in horror movies all have …show more content…
The way someone react to different situations can show their real personality. It also shows that everyone is a little bit “crazy” in their own way. King stated that ”Horror movies, like roller coasters, have always been the special province of the young. By the time one turns 40 or 50, one’s appetite for double twists or 360-degree loops may be considerably depleted.” (King, 599). Even though roller coasters can be very scary, from enjoyment to crying within a matter of time, you will still want to continue the flight. People watch them to prove a point to others and themselves that they are capable of facing their fears. He also shows pathos in the following “What’s the difference between a truckload of bowling balls and a truckload of dead babies?”(King, 599). When you think of bowling balls you think about having fun with friends. In comparison to dead babies, that’s an emotional feeling of sadness and fear. Stephen King wraps up the essay with the use of the rhetorical strategy logos to give facts on how much we pay for awaiting nightmare.
Nevertheless, King uses logos to justify “Why We Crave Horror Movies”. He successful does this through examples while incorporating humor. “When we pay our four or five bucks and set ourselves at tenth-row center in a theater showing a horror movie, we are daring the nightmare” (King, 598). This is a fact about those individuals who pay approximately
The American obsession with spectatorship is a phenomenon created by the inaccessibility of timely and relevant knowledge. This oddly leads to an increase in the demand and likeability of terror. In her piece “Great to Watch”, Maggie Nelson explores the origins of this fascination with horror and gives an
“The screen is a magic medium. It has such power that it can convey emotions and moods that no other art form can hope to tackle.” The written word and the moving image have always had their entwining roots deeply entrenched in similar narrative codes, both functioning at the level of implication, connotation and referentiality. But ever since the advent of cinema, they have been pitted against each other over formal and cultural peculiarities – hence engaging in a relationship deemed “overtly compatible, secretly hostile” (Bluestone 2).
In his review of the movie Hotel Transylvania, Ben Kendrick expresses his opinion of the film through different rhetorical strategies. The language used throughout the review support the writer’s judgement that Hotel Transylvania is a “poorly stitched together” kid’s movie. Kendrick is disappointed that Genndy Tartakovsy, the director of Hotel Transylvania and well known for directing Clone Troopers, didn’t deliver an animated fun heart-warming film for all ages. He uses words and phrases such as “underwhelming,” “egregious,” and “awkwardly proportioned” to support this position. Ben Kendrick also uses appeals to logic, or logos, to advocate his conclusion that Hotel Transylvania is a gimmicky children’s movie.
The text writing that was most influential to me was the review by Stephen King, “Why We Crave Horror Movies.” In this review the author was very upfront with his option that was a reasonable one. He explains different events where you might get the same, in your stomach feeling, that horror movies give you. He also states a bold fact that everyone is insane and people cope with it in different ways. He explains how horror movies unchain or our worst fantasies, he says, “It’s like throwing a bucket of raw meat to hungry alligators to feed our dark thoughts and ideas.”
However, film critic, Robin Wood, argues that ‘since Psycho, the Hollywood cinema has implicitly recognised horror as both American and familial’ he then goes on to connect this with Psycho by claiming that it is an “innovative and influential film because it supposedly presents its horror not as the produce of forces outside American society, bit a product of the patriarchal family which is the fundamental institution of American society” he goes on to discuss how our civilisation either represses or oppresses (Skal, 1994). Woods claim then suggests that in Psycho, it is the repressions and tensions within the normal American family which produces the monster, not some alien force which was seen and suggested throughout the 1950 horror films. At the beginning of the 60’s, feminisation was regarded as castration not humanization. In “Psycho” (1960) it is claimed that the film presents conservative “moral lessons about gender roles of that the strong male is healthy and normal and the sensitive male is a disturbed figure who suffers from gener confusion” (Skal, 1994). In this section of this chapter I will look closely at how “Psycho” (1960) has layers of non-hetro-conforming and gender-non conforming themes through the use of Norman Bates whose gender identitiy is portrayed as being somewhere between male and female
Horror films have the capacity to be utilized as vehicles to discuss or address issues of social change and societal transformation. This essay is concerned with the function of the nuclear family in horror films. The question that is the focus of this essay is: how does the horror film use the family to address social issues? Therefore, this essay theorizes that horror films utilize the nuclear family to demonstrate the impact and effect that societal change can have on individuals within the family. In horror films, the father plays a key role in the disintegration of the family, he is driven by the possessing, alienating and isolating force of his environment to destroy his family.
Katie Gallagher Adam Wadenius Film 120 23 September 2015 Don’t Judge a Book By Its’ Cover: A Comparison of the Internal Monster vs. the External Monster
According to Lemony Snicket, “[You should] never trust anyone who has not brought a book with them” and writer Stephen King presumably would agree. In On Writing, pages one forty-seven through one fifty, King uses diction, critical and ardent tones and figurative language, to highlight the significance of reading and how it benefits a writer. King utilizes diction to persuade aspiring writers to read regularly. He writes, “I take a book with me everywhere I go, and find there are all sorts of opportunities to dip in.” (147) “Waiting rooms were made for books—of course!
The Entity Vs. the Joker “The horror genre was born out of a cultural need to confront and vicariously conquer something frightening that we do not fully comprehend.” (Barsam and Monaham) After analyzing the villains from the films, It Follows and Batman the Dark Knight. We see how both It and The Joker are the similar yet so different very different.
Critically assess the claim that secular television shows might be said to perform a religious function. You should select a particular secular television show to illustrate your argument. I believe that secular television programmes may be seen to perform a religious function to certain individuals and may be seen not to to other individuals. It solely depends on how you interpret the said television show and your own understanding and knowledge of the wider context surrounding the programme. As Cowan suggests television programmes are tabula rosa (a blank state)
STEPHAN KING By: cecilia Velarde PD:2 “ People must think I am a very strange person. This is not correct. I have the heart of a small boy. It is in a glass jar on my desk.” These words are said from one of the most famous horror writers in literature history.
Lost Highway, Mulholland Drive, Blue Velvet and my understanding of Media & Culture through David Lynch's lenses. Introduction David Lynch was born in 1946, in a small American town which is quite similar to settings he reflected in his movies. He directed more than 40 short and long movies which got various reflections from his audience. In this short essay, I will focus on his later works, specifically Blue Velvet, Lost Highway and Mulholland Drive. The reason behind this selection is not popularity of this movies among the cinema fans but the abundance of symbolic expressions embedded in these films.
Since the beginning of cinema, horror films have been giving audiences frights and delights. First, the horror genre has inspired fear of scientific advances. Second, the horror genre has inspired us to fear nature. Thirdly, I will discuss how films of propaganda or bigotry impact societies by inspiring fear, which add to people 's already massive feelings of fear and hate to causes people to commit horrible actions.
Warm Bodies is meant to bring and set out it 's own understanding of the mythology of zombies, to understand the transformation of becoming a zombie through out the whole movie. The movie mostly revolves around memories and how much they are worth. Warm Bodies is about a post zombie apocalyptic world. A unique zombie saves a human girl (a warm body) from a zombie attack on her team, the two form an unusual relationship that sets motion events that might transform a whole entire lifeless world at the other side of the wall.
A book by Mascelli, J. V. called The Five C’s of Cinematography reveals the filming techniques of a motion picture. It is one of the most significant and influential book on filmmaking ever printed and the Five C’s which are Camera angles, Continuity, Cutting, Close-ups and composition; helps readers understand why certain visual or technical choice would trump over others. A Research article called Attention and the Evolution of Hollywood Film by Cutting, J. E., Delong, J. E., & Nothelfer has also contributed to this thesis. The authors of this research article have investigated over 150 films with release dates from 1935 to 2005 to study in detail what grabs an audience’s attention from a psychological and scientific point of view.