Diane Torres Period 6 Fascination for Horror Many are fascinated by horror movies and gothic literature.

Such fascination can be considered weird because of such self-induced fear, and self-induced nightmares. Stephen King in his article Why we crave Horror Movies and King and Chocano both assert that the horror and gothic genre serve a necessary purpose in the psychological sense. King and Chocano pointed out how the fascination for horror fulfilled the psychological purpose of satisfying the dark elements of ourselves. For example in Why we Crave Horror Movies, King stated, It may be that horror movies provide psychic relief on this level because this is invitation to lapse into simplicity, irrationality, and even outright madness is extended so rarely. King states horror films produce psychic relief to the mind, because such relief is given so rarely and because its capable of exploding and destroying. Chocano reiterates this thought, explaining how gothic genre.takes care to cloak these devises in a contemporary guise. In this case, this irrationality King talked about is seen today a contemporary guise like that of famous people being drug addicts, alcoholic, problematic young adults, etc. Both writers agreed that such fascination fulfilled the psychological purpose of satisfying the dark elements of ourselves. King and Chocano explained another reason for peoples fascination of horror: to reestablish morality. King explains how Anticivilization emotions dont go away, and they demand periodic exercise. When watching horror movies then the most anticivilized thoughts are fulfilled and not made into physical reality. This reestablishes morality because it allows for the most inadequate feelings of hate and pain towards others be fulfilled without the need of doing it in the real world. Chocano used celebrities to come across a similar thought: Celebrities in the new

gossip economy are simply the ghostly, gothic embodiments of our shared anxieties: about privacy, identity, social decay and the increasingly blurred line between reality and fantasy. Chocano mentions celebrities as modern gothic heroes who fulfill the nightmares of people: being harassed day and night or trying to survive from a scandalous truth. Either way, it helps to reestablish morality because having such dreams fulfilled takes care people dont worry to really make it happen physically, showing the clear consequence of such actions. The fascination for horror movies may have more innocent reasons, but both King and Chocano assert how it may not just be innocent. It may be psychological relief, either by satisfying the dark elements of ourselves or to reestablish morality. Such self-induced fear even sometimesfeels right. That is why the fascination of horror never seems to end.