Literary Essay
Introduction
The paper will be discussing the impact horror movies have on people’s life. In Steve King’s essay “Why We Crave Horror Movies,” King tries to attract people so that they can view horror movies according to his perspective. The tone used by King and the examples is appealing to the reader as he tries to bring a good feeling to the reader, although he brings out bad characteristics. King states that individuals enjoy horror because they enjoy watching other individuals suffering. According to King, horror movies are films that contain scary content of either death or other suffering caused to humans. He states that every individual is mentally ill and is potentially murderous. Still, when he or she watches horror movies, he develops a sense of satisfaction since it purges his desire for evil.
The essay will also discuss The Masque of the Red Death that involve tales of plagues in a fictional country that causes death to the victims. In the story by Edgar, he talks of how the Prince ignores the people and closes the palace to get to avoid getting the death plague. This paper will critically analyze how horror movies have influenced the human character and whether the movies have other unnoticeable effects on human behavior.
Discussion
Just as King argues human beings, enjoy horror movies for various reasons. Some people watch horror movies for entertainment; others take movies for learning certain things and others as a way of passing the time. Movies offer a great sense of entertainment; some people spend entire leisure time either watching movies from home or some even going to the cinema houses for movies. People purchase expensive tickets to go and enjoy the movies with friends and alone to satisfy their wants. King views this act of individuals choosing to spend time watching horror movies as a way of sustaining the dark side. According to King, every individual has a dark side that can only be purged through watching ugly scenes such as horror movies. Through watching those awful scenes, individuals can satisfy their internal desire for evil.
In modern days, people are spending more time watching movies; some even watch movies overnight and still wake up to attend their duties. This modern trend developing where people find joy in watching movies than in other activities is evident that individual enjoys watching pain and suffering being subjected to others. The cinema houses are an increase in every city across the world, just as King argues that horror movies give viewers a place to bond with other people of shared humanity. In the cinema houses, people can speak of the evil things in movies; one may feel more inclined to evil acts watching alone, but watching together is comforting because it brings the sense of assurance that you not evil alone since one’s actions are small compared to that of the monsters on the screen.
Man, from the South, is a short story by Ronald Dahl on how a man named Carlos and an American naval cadet whom Carlos and encountered during his retreat in Jamaica. According to Dahl, the American cadet boasted how he could ignite his lighter ten continuous times. Carlos bets his Cadillac against the left finger of the American cadet after eight successful ignitions a woman claimed to be with Carlos gets into the room and tells Carlos to drop the knife he was holding ready to cut off the American finger. The woman claims that Carlos is mentally ill since he has been playing such games too often. Just like King argues in his essay that all human beings are mentally ill and potential murderers, it is evident in the scene. Carlos enjoys holding the knife ready to rip off the finger of his colleague without thinking of the consequences of his actions.
Horror movies contain violent scenes that are appealing to the individuals; the terrifying scenes are attractive to some people since they help them learn how to cause pain and suffering to other individuals. Carlos, who was a regular gamble, seemed to enjoy causing suffering to individuals since he was betting on his property but, on return, wanted nothing material rather than cause pain to the American cadet. According to Dahl, Carlos has taken off 47 fingers and lost 11 cars in his entire life in the betting industry. This is evident just as King states that individuals find joy while causing other people to suffer because he has also lost his fingers, Carlos takes this as a revenge mission.
Similar to Man from the South, the Masque of the Red Death by Edgar Poe is a tale given that involves plagues in a fictional country. According to Edgar, when the plagues of death invaded the land, causing many deaths, the Prince ordered the closure of the Palace door so that the plagues cannot get into the castle. People continued dying in the country, and the Prince offered no solution to the red plagues, but instead, he organized for a lavish celebration in the castle. Prince Prospero uses much wealth decorating the palace while people are languishing in death plagues; the Prince’s actions are to enable him to forget about the plagues, according to Poe. During the party in the palace, a man with a scary mask comes into the palace without invitation and kills Prince Prospero.
According to Edgar, author of the tale, Prince enjoyed while his people were dying due to plague invasion. The Prince was evil and enjoyed while his people were suffering but forgot that he, too, was vulnerable just like his subjects. Just like the King States, individuals have an inner side of darkness that no one wants it to be acted. The Prince closed the door to ensure that plagues never got inside the palace, but eventually, the evil side purged back, causing death to the Prince and his servants. Just like horror movies as highlighted by King, in both The Masque Red death and Man from the South all, the plots contain suffering, and someone is enjoying the suffering which feels happy when other people are undergoing pain and suffering.
Conclusion
Individuals who tend to enjoy watching horror movies for long tend to develop specific characteristics. In our essay, both Carlos and the Prince have evil characters since they enjoy causing pain to others without considering the consequences, but through their evil actions, they feel satisfied with their actions. King Equites every individual with a level of illness that is triggered by watching horror movies since they make one comfortable, and their desire is satisfied. Although not all individuals enjoy watching horror moves with some finding the images disturbing, those that find the images comfortable have a high possibility of causing harm to others. Horror movies have nothing positive to offer apart from entertain since they teach individuals how to kill and cause suffering to others.
Work Cited
King, Stephen. “Why we crave horror movies.” Short Essays for Composition (1981): 524.
Poe, Edgar Allan. The Masque of the red death. Strelbytskyy Multimedia Publishing, 2019.
The Haunted Manor House. “Man from the South.” https://youtu.be/Hx8yTU_VOkQ, 20 June 2019,