I’ve heard the argument that there’s no need for horror movies because there’s enough horror in this world already.  Perhaps, but perhaps not. What is horror?  Bing’s search engine defines it as an intense feeling of fear, shock, or disgust.  Okay, that doesn’t really help.  What is horror as a genre?  To cheapen a genre I love, we could say that horror is fiction-stuff marketed to manufacture fear, shock, or disgust.  But horror movies do this by departing from reality, by placing us in far-flung scenarios that aren’t emotionally troubling – at least not in the long run – because they’re so blatantly fictional.  The horror we see in movies really has nothing at all to do with the horror we see in real life.  There are very few witches, vampires, and monsters traipsing about North America, and while there are murderers, there aren’t many methodical, superhuman, Michael Meyers-esque serial killers like the ones we see in slasher movies.  People will say that we’re an apathetic nation, desensitized by horror and violence.  But often times, entertainment violence is grounded in pure fancy; it bears no semblance to the problematic, and often violent scenarios we find in the real world.  If I were concerned with avoiding real world horror, I would be more likely to cut myself off from action movies or any movie involving any kind of war – whether it be The Force Awakens, The Hunger Games, or Saving Private Ryan.  Continue reading “In Defense of Horror” →