A Study on Horror by Sean H.
Evil Dead remake, super scary apparently. While I’m no movie buff, I enjoy the study of the human mind. So the new popularity of a horror movie in a way sets the stage for a study of sorts. Why are horror movies so different country to country?
Yes they all have similar elements, homicide, torture, brutal violence (the list could continue for some time), they all have different locations. And while that may seem like a small piece of the puzzle, it actually is a lot of the “fun” in horror movies. It’s usually not so much that a character is being chased, it’s where there being chased to or from that spices things up. Hey faceless and annoying writer, what makes a successful horror movie location then you may be asking? Well it’s not as black and white of a question as it may seem.
Back to what I was saying earlier, locations tend to very country to country. Of course things like plot, budget, and other things are variables, but usually there is one that a country uses morbidly. For example, we’ll compare the U.S. and the U.K. Usually, American horror films happen out in the middle of nowhere (like a campy area). And British horror films usually take place in a city environment (like London). Well a common hypothesis is that it has to with historical events that the culture finds shame in. Like with the city environment in British horror movies. Industrialization is what caused many depressing things in Great Britain’s history (such as child labor and extreme poverty), and as you may have guessed, industrialization took place in cities. And as for American horror taking place in campy areas (and or out in the middle of nowhere), that’s where we murdered the Native Americans, and built plantations for slavery.
However, that’s just one theory, and I’m sure there are just as many that are as good.
Yes they all have similar elements, homicide, torture, brutal violence (the list could continue for some time), they all have different locations. And while that may seem like a small piece of the puzzle, it actually is a lot of the “fun” in horror movies. It’s usually not so much that a character is being chased, it’s where there being chased to or from that spices things up. Hey faceless and annoying writer, what makes a successful horror movie location then you may be asking? Well it’s not as black and white of a question as it may seem.
Back to what I was saying earlier, locations tend to very country to country. Of course things like plot, budget, and other things are variables, but usually there is one that a country uses morbidly. For example, we’ll compare the U.S. and the U.K. Usually, American horror films happen out in the middle of nowhere (like a campy area). And British horror films usually take place in a city environment (like London). Well a common hypothesis is that it has to with historical events that the culture finds shame in. Like with the city environment in British horror movies. Industrialization is what caused many depressing things in Great Britain’s history (such as child labor and extreme poverty), and as you may have guessed, industrialization took place in cities. And as for American horror taking place in campy areas (and or out in the middle of nowhere), that’s where we murdered the Native Americans, and built plantations for slavery.
However, that’s just one theory, and I’m sure there are just as many that are as good.