The Allure of Tragedy and Horror – Happy Halloween
Friday, October 31, 2014 by Jonathan R. Gibbons in
Halloween provides an excellent example of the popular allure of the grotesque, which has transcended time. This is a photo of a traditional Irish Halloween Jack-o’-lantern from the early 20th Century. Photo Credit
Why do so many people enjoy watching horror, slasher, and psychological-thriller films? Is there a danger in watching such depictions of violence and trauma? Could it be that there is an unconscious desire within each of us to witness– or even worse partake in –violence and other tragedy; a sort of latent primordial trait (the attraction to violence and the grotesque) that was common among our most ancient of ancestors? Unfortunately, there has not been a great deal of research into these questions. Hence, the majority of information addressing them is limited in scope and/or entirely hypothetical. They also tend to have authoritarian agenda’s backing them up, such as the banning of horror films, heavy metal music, and other similar forms of art. Additionally, as is true of all the social sciences, such questions involving the complex psychology and behavior of human beings is going to be, at best, only true for the average or majority, but it’s never applicable to everyone. Everyone is unique and broad stroked assumptions about human behavior are limited. This writing is no different as it too makes assumptions that are clearly not true for every single individual; obviously not everyone enjoys horror films, or stops to observe the scene of an accident hoping to catch a glimpse of the devastation.
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