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But have you wondered that what makes horror movies scary might be... us?
"We are the monster," said James Kendrick, Ph.D., associate professor of film and digital media in Baylor's College of Arts & Sciences. Kendrick has authored three books: Darkness in the Bliss-Out: A Reconsideration of the Films of Steven Spielberg; Hollywood Bloodshed: Violence in the 1980s American Cinema; and Film Violence: History, Ideology, Genre.
He believes that the themes of horror films have changed and developed over the years to capture the zeitgeist and adapt to societal fears.
"Character and story, atmosphere and the monster. That’s all you really need," Kendrick said.
"Interesting, engaging characters in an effective setting pitted against some kind of monstrosity. That is the core of the genre, and anything and everything else grows from and functions to support those three elements."
The audience must be able to relate to characters and empathize with them. The atmosphere must engage the audience and provide an effective platform for fear.
According to the professor, the 2017 film “Get Out,” written and directed by Jordan Peele, is a good example.
“The film intelligently mixes its various horror conventions, including stalk-and-slash scares, fears about secret cults and medical horror, with both comedy and social satire to make a point about troubled race relations in our ‘post-racial’ nation,” Kendrick explained.
"The protagonist is an African-American who finds himself increasingly concerned about the intentions of all the white people around him. In effect, polite, wealthy white society becomes the film’s raging monster."
In the same way that characters and settings have developed throughout history, so has the monster. Kendrick pointed out that a great monster will capitalize on the existing fears of society and use these for a greater scare factor.
"The monsters are more often than not simply an extension or elaboration of what we fear due to our mortal condition. At the heart of horror is always the fear of death – physical or spiritual."
Fear is so effective because it is able to play with human empathy, Kendrick said. By using current trends, directors and producers are able to generate characters and settings that their audience can relate to.
"The best films, the ones that really stand out in our memory, are the ones that we connect with emotionally through characters and that we sense have a deeper purpose than just causing anxiety," Kendrick said.
