The chemical cocktail that floods the brain when consuming horror is oftentimes cited as the explanation of society’s notable attraction to the haunted genre. The conversion of scared adrenaline to pleasure endorphins occurs as the body realizes it is not experiencing fear at the hand of a palpable threat. Simone Oduola, a psychology major and philosophy minor at the Macaulay Honors College at Hunter College, explores her relationship to a horror-thriller film: “Funny enough, as I was just watching it a couple weeks ago, my favorite would be The Purge: Election Year. I think I can watch it with a certain level of comfortability because I know it’s manufactured for entertainment, not reality.” This affirmation to a physical endurance also reveals the inclination to engage in media that produces a familiar result or feeling.
The perception of control is as explained by the National Library of Medicine, “Choice allows organisms to exert control over the environment by selecting behaviors that are conducive to achieving desirable outcomes and avoiding undesirable outcomes…humans alike demonstrate preference for choice over non-choice…” Included is the suggestion that control can be considered vital to humanity, necessary for survival. Expectantly, when experiencing a surge of terror, that sensation is being externally inflicted upon oneself. Oduola shares, “Inherent to human nature, people don’t want to wake up in a frenzy of fear.” These ideas propose that the intentionality of indulging in frightening content works to minimize the feeling of danger and therefore provide a sense of control – a power that has historically been used to tame uncertainty.
Social collectives are formed in the presence of the unknown. Individuals identify with a cohort to make navigation of life simpler – as humans find similarities among one another, the world appears more definitive. However, this fragile possessiveness is threatened by the natural differences between social groups; foreign individuals and experiences directly contradict what led to the original formation of those cliques. In Elaine Pagels’ Origin of Satan, she states, “Now he stands in open rebellion against God and in his frustrated rage he mirrors aspects of our own confrontations with otherness. Many people have claimed to see him embodied at certain times in individuals and groups that seem possessed by…even our better qualities…but turns them toward destruction and takes pleasure in inflicting harm.” In reference to Satan, Pagels describes the process of demonization that can manifest as humans interact with contrasts to themselves.
Furthermore, horror – as it is an exaggeration of natural fears – has the ability to project these insecurities and the “othering” process onto consumable media. For example, Wes Craven’s film, A Nightmare on Elm Street, features Freddy Krueger – a disfigured, inhuman entity – as its origin of evil; the visible defect of Krueger’s look causes distress to protagonists. The choice to portray a character of such an appearance as a vile creature speaks to the societal perception of who and what should be considered horrid – a determination, across certain media, based on an individual’s exterior presentation.
Oduola expresses the following, “The Purge is an example of this type of demonstration. Think of how the Bloody Stranger, a Black man, is depicted in the movie. He’s arguably the victim – but also the primary source of fear for the wealthy, White family.” Considering the historical prejudice people of particular racial backgrounds experience(d), this reveals how the horror genre can work to reaffirm the positions of social groups in society through the mirroring of very real, unnecessary disdain. From a reflective perspective, the persistent streaming of this media shows the attempt at confrontation of societal guilt. By exposing oneself to the hard truths of everpresent power dynamics and hierarchies – within a controlled circumstance – they show that consumption of the genre is not purely for mindless entertainment, but can serve as the ignition to discussion concerning the complexities of human nature.