There are many aspects of life that inspire fear, horror and general dread. Unfortunately, the idea of fear and horror falls upon college students fearing student loans, being horrified by
controversial issues and dreading the uncertain future. That's not horror. That's life. It seems as though people have forgotten what true fear is like and what horror really is. What follows is a small dose of horror and fear in the form of real bone-chilling music, film clips and the horror of a real life serial killer.
1. The unsettling
The most effective horror, in my opinion, is not the amount of entrails someone can have removed from them in a "SAW" movie. It's the unsettling horror that creeps along your skin, raising the hairs. It's the horror that makes you cover your eyes in fear. It's the way something can fill you with such unease that it redefines what horror truly means. Christopher Young, the composer for the first "Sinister" movie, managed to bring together some of the most unsettling, eerie musical pieces to lure the viewer of the movie into the gruesome videotapes that the film revolves around. This soundtrack is one of the few movie soundtracks, aside from the one from "It Follows," that I believe is what makes the movie the effective horror film that it is. That's unsettling.
2. The horrifying
The accomplishment of bringing true horror to a film is one bestowed upon few films, such as "Halloween," "Psycho," and, more recently, in "The Witch." Now, the method of achieving true horror, I believe, is to place the viewer in a narrative that is absolutely pragmatic. To involve the viewer in a film that features believable people put in a horrifying story is the goal of horror films, in general. Movies such as "Final Destination," "Insidious," and the "Paranormal Activity" franchise all fail to do so. Are they disturbing? In some aspects, yes. Do they have suspense? Yes. However, that is doesn't seem that horrifying. "Halloween" puts very believable characters in the vicinity of a homicidal Michael Myers, supported by a very simplistic, yet chilling musical theme. The shots of Michael Myers standing in a scene, stalking Jamie Lee Curtis? That's horrifying.
"Halloween"
"Psycho"
Norman Bates running a hotel under the guise of an innocent man, while his true horror lies so close? Alfred Hitchcock artistically shooting the shower scene so that the impending fear is first visualized as a dark silhouette on the other side of the curtain? That's horrifying.
"The Witch"
This film has a premise still not entirely understood beyond a 1600s-era piece that looks to be the love-child of "The Crucible" and "The Village," but with a far darker, twisted horror afoot. The trailer alone instills horrifying visuals and a bleak tone to the movie, made all the more horrifying by what seems to be the sound of a human mimicking the noises of a goat eerily. Seeing as it's only being released next weekend in most theaters, I can't say anything more besides that it's shaping up to be quite the film according to reviews and the critical acclaim it received at the Sundance Festival.
Horror and fear are most prominent when introducing the unseen into a film or piece of literature...or real life. Jack the Ripper, name unknown, was a serial killer in the late 1800s. His killings revolved around the brutal murders of prostitutes in the White Chapel district of England. The mystery remains today as to who he truly is, with his horrifying methods of murder having shown what true fear is to the people of England.
Interestingly enough, a professor of English from Australia, Richard Patterson, believes he has identified Jack the Ripper as poet Francis Thompson. Thompson, apparently wrote poetry dealing with anatomy and violent material. This is the most recent article on the reveal.
Horror is a feeling of many things, dread, fear, disgust and the rejecting of disturbing images, videos, or general circumstances. However, there is a morbid curiosity to understand this feeling in its entirely. It's something that, like many horror icons, just keeps coming back to give us more scares, goosebumps and nightmares.
