Why We Crave Horror Movies

I think that King hits the nail right on the head with this essay. Surely each one of us can relate to one of the reasons he gives for, why we "crave horror movies." He did a great job explaining each one of those reasons. Although I do believe he is kinda the pot calling the kettle black when he writes about people being insane, if you have ever read some of his writing I'm pretty sure you would agree with me on that.  

I believe that his look at how society shapes us from infancy is very insightful. King explains how from infancy we are praised for expressing emotions such as happiness, kindness, and love, and when the twisted side of us comes out and intentionally slams our siblings fingers in the door we are punished. Thus society only allows us to show certain "acceptable" emotions, if we show the others we will end up in the loony bin. So we watch these sick horror films to almost exercise our hidden emotions. I find this to be completely true, we are clay in societies hands from the time we are infants up until we have the ability to think for ourselves. 

For me the last few sentences do a great job of explaining why many of us crave horror films. "... good liberals often shy away from horror films. For myself, I like to see the most aggressive of them-Dawn of the Dead, for instance- as lifting a trap door in the civilized forebrain and throwing a basket of raw meat to the hungry alligators swimming around in that subterranean river beneath.

Why bother? Because it keeps them from getting out, man."(King 313)

Reid, Steven. Purpose and Process: A Reader for Writers. Prentice Hall, New Jersey 2004.

Stephen King P.311-315