The Extraordinary Stephen King's Why We Crave Horror Movies

Adrenaline. It’s the chemical that courses through a person’s veins whenever their body thinks something is particurally exciting. In acient times, it was deployed when a sweaty caveman was being attacked by a predator. Today, however, it is used when comfortable viewers watche scary images on their televisions in their cushy chairs. In Stephen Kings’s essay “Why We Crave Horror,” Stephen King challenges the sanity of mankind becaude they like to watch scary movies. However, humans may actually have other reasons.

There are many people who enjoy watching horror movies and many others who hate horror movies; personally, I’m one of those people who just dislikes horror movies. Both Stephen King and Chuck Klosterman have similar opinions on why we watch horror movies which is for that electrifying feeling. As well as, both Stephen King and Chuck Klosterman analyses differently why we watch horror movies. As King states that we are all mentally ill which is true. We all build up anger and frustration that creates an insane side of us. We can’t act like were okay all the time as if we didn’t have any problems of our own because than sooner or later we’ll have to let them out. We might not know how to deal with our anxieties and fears. That’s why King believes that the horror movies help us with them. We are able to portray ourselves as the monster, letting us have some sort of psychic relief. Klosterman gives an example with horror as to how our society is turning. He believes we are becoming just like zombies doing the same repetitive stuff. Our society has become so attached to their electronics, social media accounts, and technology that we have become so unaware of our surroundings. We don 't seem to ever get a break from the internet, that 's why we don’t even realize that it is destroying us. With King, we are able to use horror as a mechanism for our problems we are going through and our fears and anxieties we have within us. As with Klosterman he makes us realize with horror movies how our society is turning us into zombies. Both King and Klosterman did a great job explaing to the readers why we need horror

In Stephen King's essay,“Why We Crave Horror movies,” King describes the reasons why people desire to watch horror movies. King elaborates on the fact that we are all mentally ill in our own way; going to horror movies just provokes those terrors. The young are more inclined to admire the excitement and thrill; however, as people grow older they lose interest. Horror movies, King describes, are for making oneself feel normal by comparison to the mentally insane. For entertainment and joy, people see horror movies, but the fun is morbid. The horror film is used to tap into the childish behavior of simplicity and extinguish the civilized behavior of an adult, King argues. “If we are all insane, then sanity

In the excerpt, “Why We Crave Horror Movies,” written by Stephen King, he argues that that we all have a little bit of insanity in all of us, and we all express it in different ways, from the chills to the guilty pleasure. It’s like we are attracted to horror movies, but we never really knew it. So, King uses a variety of rhetorical strategies to support the allure of horror movies. He uses these strategies to describe what horror movies make us feel like and it’s impressive.

Stephen King was born September twenty-first, 1947, in Portland, Maine. (Baughan 13). His parents were Ruth King and Donald King (Baughan 13). Before King was born his mother was told she would not be able to have children (Baughan 13). this led to the adoption of David, King's older brother, in 1945 (Baughhan 13). The Kings were a typical family until one night, Donald king abandoned the family with no justification, king was two years old (Baughhan 13). with no warning, Ruth King was left to care for the family alone (Baughan 13). They traveled around many different states in order for Miss King to provide for the family, in 1958 they settled down in Durham (Baughan 13).

Humans tend are entertained by the most iniquitous things. Stephen King makes many significant points, one point being “the horror film has become the modern version of the public lynching” (paragraph 6). This is agreeable because all humans have some type of psychological problem, an evil and a good side, emotions that need satisfaction, and the similarities between horror films and public lynching. People may not recognize these things, but it does exist in everyday life. Stephen King’s article helps point these things out to readers.

Stephen King was born in 1942 during the post World War II of United States history. This age influenced King throughout his life, especially in writing. Susan Kraft states in her book that, “King sees parallels between the popularity of alien-invader movies and 1950s Cold War anxieties.” (1997) King had a mostly unhappy childhood, he experienced first hand

There are multiple people who are intrigue and love horror movies without knowing the reason. In Stephan Kings essay, “Why We Crave Horror Movies” he does his best to find an answer to the question “why do people crave horror movies?” Throughout his essay he came up with certain key points to answer the question. At the beginning of his essay, he makes a bold statement that “we are all mentally ill.” He motions that people just watch horror movies to portray their fearlessness while suppressing their true emotions. He also mentions that certain people find horror movies pleasurable because they enjoy seeing others suffer. King also explains our mental insanity through “sick jokes” in which he explains jokes that are harsh although we find them funny. King believes that watching horror movies and stating sick jokes allowed us to release our insanity. I do not believe that horror movies help us stay lucid. I actually believe that horror movies can lead to violence and affects a person’s mental status.

Spooky things exist to feed off people’s emotions. People normally view these spooky things using a set rules or scale to judge these type of monsters. This is how people are aware of the situations that they are in. In order to escape this situation, people must think about it to themselves. Due to these situations, people of our community watch horror movies in order to simulate the idea of spooky things for the future. In the articles of “Why Do We Crave Horror Movies” by Stephen King and “My Zombie, Myself: Why Modern Life Feels Rather Undead by Chuck Klosterman, both author argues have similar ideas to why the human being crave horror movies because of the emotions we get from them.

Why we crave horror movies by Stephen King. King states how everyone is mentally ill in there own way and we crave the tempted desire to be scared. When approaching a roller coaster we look for the best one. The one with the most turns and the biggest drops we also do this when choosing a scary movie, we daire the nightmare to be scared. As humans we always try and seek for the violent, hence why people like watching Football and UFC for the thrill of the roller coaster ride with the ups, downs, and the unknown of what will happen next. Stephen king implies how we need to keep our alligators fed. In order to seem okay everyone thrives to see the scary, gruesome, sexual things we aren't meant to see. We crave the need to be scared for the adrenaline

In the reading "Why We Crave Horror Movies," Stephen King writes about why we enjoy watching good horror movies which frighten us. He discusses how our emotions get to the point that we can not handle anymore, and they have to be released. These emotions make us feel anxious and challenge us to do more in life. Horror produces anxiety, but the decisions that we make in life challenge us more. There are many decisions in life that make us challenge ourselves.

Horror keeps our insanity, “down there” and our average selves, “up here” (King, “Why We Crave” 4). As we hear of a serial killer slaughtering a college student and taking “her head with them” (King, “Strawberry Spring” 5), or smearing, “HA! HA!” in human blood all over a car windshield (King, Strawberry Spring” 8). Due to the morbid side of our Human Condition, we satisfy our, “nastiest fantasies” because of horror (King, “Why We Crave” 3). Horror supports Stephen King’s third claim on why humans hunger horror for the reason that we need to, “keep the gators fed” (King, “Why We Crave” 4).

Writer of more than twenty-six successful novels, “Stephen King is one of the most influential American writers of horror fiction of the latter half of the twentieth century, he is certainly the most popular” according to American Novelist (Barth 1753). He mainly wrote on the genres of American horror and fantasy with a different life focus in each of his books such as “Misery in 1987” which focused on writer and reader relationships (“King, Stephen” The Concise). Stephen King is in a way a family man. He had a rather difficult family life, but he never abandoned them. Even though Stephen King has written many popular books, the majority of his popularity today is from the movies based on his books (“King, Stephen” The Author). As a well-known

In the introduction to Kendall Phillips’ book, “Projected Fears,” he discusses “horror films that made such an impression on American culture that they became instantly recognizable and, indeed, redefined the notion of what a horror film is.” (Phillips 3). This list of movies includes many favorites, such as Halloween, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and Scream. Phillips later states his thesis, “...my argument in this book is that these [movies] are the most ‘successful’ and ‘influential’ in American history and that their level of success and influence can be correlated to broader cultural anxieties into which they somehow tapped” (Phillips 3). These movies on this list mimic real-life fears and allow some viewers to find catharsis in the mimicry.

Alfred Hitchcock’s 1960 film Psycho redirected the entire horror genre, and in doing so dismantled the prudent 1950’s societal barriers of cinema. Although unseen for its potential by the large studios of the time, Psycho became one of the crowning achievements of film history. While based partially on a true story of murder and psychosis from Wisconsin, the widespread viewing of this tale made way for a new era of film and ushered in a new audience of movie goers. The use of violence, sexual explicitness, dramatic twists, sound, and cinematography throughout this film gave Hitchcock his reputable name and title as master of suspense. In 2018, reviews of films often are headlined with “the book was better.” But, in 1960 there was no such thing