I have attached the essay. Reread the essay and the comment to fix the grammer errrors, to organize and to add some more points.let me know if you have any question

Merga Gemeda

Instructor Frink

ENGL-201-SP19

18 January 2019

Horror in Gothic

In the article “Why We Crave for Horror Movies,” Stephen King explains the reasons why people like to watch a horror movie even if the acts are said to be uncivilized. Horror movies are in a way connected to Gothic culture and practices. The Gothic is associated with aesthetics, music, and fashion. The culture has been influenced by gothic horror films and Gothic literature of the 19th century. The music that gets preferred for gothic culture includes death rocks, cold-wave, gothic rock, post-punk, ethereal wave, and darkwave (Greven, 481). Also, in their style of dressing, they include dark colors, black hair and pale face makeup. On the other hand, horror movies mentioned in King’s story related to the gothic culture. Most of the actors in the film put on black cloths, with death actions, nightclubs, music festivals and planned meetings. The paper analyses how the text Why We Crave for Horror Movies engage with gothic and anticivilization emotions .

Many people have tried watching a horror movie in their lifetime. The majority even love horror movies more than other movies available in the film industry. Horror movies are scary, but people watch them anyway. In his text, Stephen King explains the social and mental reason why people love and crave to watch those scary movies. He states that , people like watching horror movies because no one is an entirely sane individual. He also agrees that every person is insane, but some people can hide their insanity better than others, According to King’s, watching those scary acts helps individual to live a normal life. People who are living a normal life are considered to be living under insanity asylums within them only that they able to hide their insanity. To prove his statement, King relates to people who talk to themselves or horribly squinch their faces imagining that no one is watching to being insane.

In his approach, he argues that horror movies help to feel the space of insanity in ourselves. For individuals who can hide their madness better than others, their insanity necessity is met by watching horror movies. Horror films are favorite because it is the safest way to feed the insanity in a person. These movies are scary involving deaths and fearful incidents which cannot happen in real life. The fun of horror movies comes when watching menace action take place such as when someone is killed (Greven, 476). As a result, people experience panic, fear, disgust among other negative emotions. These negative emotions lead to a rush of our adrenaline hence feeding the insanity in our minds. King’s confirms that firms take away our civilized and adult point of view and see things in black white as children. It allows us to have psychic relief by allowing lapse into simplicity and irrationality giving our emotions the opportunity to experience free rein.

In associating this story with Gothic culture, I consider the acts of horror movies. Actions of uncivilized matters such as killing using an ax or an arrow are suitable signs of gothic culture. Also, most of the action occurs in a night club or an organized meeting. Actors in most cases are dressed in black and white attire and black air (Butler, 100). More so, the action is performed in a dark room, place or at night. In other horror films, we find a group of young people engaging in sex in dark places. Death is enjoyed as fun in horror movies as it is mentioned severally in the gothic literature. Gothic music also mentions death, for example in Joy Division’s Play Dead rock music (Butler, 100). The core objective of any gothic literature is to produce terror, suspense, horror, mystery as well as the supernatural. Horror movies are dominated with courageous victors, cruel parents, sinister priests, drug addicts, vampires, ghosts, monsters, and demons.

According to Stephen King, horror movies bring the uncivilized way of doing things (King’s,504). When we are young, parent and other adults wish for us to be civilized, loving and well-mannered. Being civilized and showing good behavior lead to rewards from the adult. However, sometimes we tend to be uncivilized and engage in dangerous behavior such as beating up other kids and injuring others. The need to fulfil our insanity brings this. According to King’s periodic exercise of insanity and uncivilized action is supposed to be repeated to achieve normality. These uncivilized emotions enhance our craving to watch horror movies. Through panic, fear, and disgust we experience the excitement of horror movies. People feel and exercise this feeling of excitement by watching horror films. Most of these negative emotions are not experienced in our daily life because people consider them uncivilized. According to King’s (1981), watching horror movies help us experience fear and violence without requiring us to act in real life.

As a child release their anticivilization emotions through violent ways, adults also need to release these feelings. If adults are allowed to release uncivilized emotions in real life, the world will be full of conflict. Conflicts go against social norms and interfere with progress in society. Peace is an essential requirement in society. According to King, releasing the anti-civilized emotion through watching horror movies helps not to let the emotions get out in real life. The release of uncivilized emotions occupied in our mind is called Catharsis . King confirms that people insane because they are afraid of the dark or show horrible squinch of their face. Releasing the insanity would require people to watch a horror movie because some of those emotions are overlooked in a sane society (King’s, 505). Horror movies feed the inner beast which Stephen King believes is in every person as he refers it to the gator. By watching horror movies King’s believes that we feed the gator and maintain normalcy hence ensuring stability in the society.

In the story, “Young Goodman Brown ,” there is an element of fear and terror experienced by the characters. Faith, Goodman Brown’s wife, has a fear of her husband leaving for a journey, but he leaves despite the warning. Walking in the forest alone, Brown starts to experience anxiety, but another traveler joins him ( Hawthorne ). In the process of the journey, two men are heard coming from a distance. Goodman Brown hides in the forest as the two Reverends pass by. In the process, Brown gets afraid and faints. Strange occurrences such as a dark cloud above him and a scream as the cloud escapes occur in the process of the journey. These uncivilized emotions of fear and terror compare to Stephen King’s article on why people love watching horror. In “Young Goodman Brown’s” story, they are gothic occurrences which cause fear and terror. As King’s story agree that we must release the uncivilized emotions, Brown’s story affirms that we should have faith in our religion. These two aspects are essential in society.

In conclusion, Horror movies have an essential aspect of Gothic culture. The actions and the message are related to Gothic culture. They present the behaviors which are termed as uncivilized in the society. Emotions such as killing, which cause terror fear, disgust and panic are experienced. These and other negative emotions are anti-civilized hence not accepted in the society. Horror movies help people to experience these emotions without acting them in real life. When an individual watch in a horror movie someone killing, they tend to fulfil their need to engage in the uncivilized actions. As King’s affirms, there a certain level of insanity in every individual which needs to be fed. To fulfil these uncivilized emotions termed as uncivilized people develop the urge to watch horror movies. It is the only less violent and safest way to release these emotions .

Works cited

Butler, Kristy. "The American Imperial Gothic: Popular Culture, Empire, Violence." The Irish Journal of Gothic and Horror Studies 14 (2015): 100.

Greven, David. "The Southern Gothic in Film: An Overview." The Palgrave Handbook of the Southern Gothic. Palgrave Macmillan, London, 2016. 473-486.

Hawthorne, Nathaniel. “Young Goodman Brown” Mosses from an Old Manse, vol. Edited by Jack Lynch. 1846. 1-72

King, Stephen. "Why we crave horror movies." Short Essays for Composition (1981): 504- 507 .