The Allure of Horror Films

We love horror films because they’re harmless…right? The supernatural isn’t real so what’s the risk in indulging the fantasy? But the “what if?” is what gives us the thrill, is what charges the air on Halloween. The ghosts, vampires, werewolves and witches, we love being scared by the possibility of their existence. And so, we watch horror films.

Supernatural horror has always been a staple of cinema - silent films like Nosferatu (1922) come to mind but, even earlier, there was an interest in the macabre with the Lumiere brothers and George Méliès making extremely short films of dancing skeletons and the like. Audiences have always been fascinated by what scares them. But why do we do this to ourselves? While audiences in the early cinema period may have had more of an inclination to believe the supernatural than audiences today, the reason remains the same. We love being scared stupid in the comfort of our own homes.

Image: Auguste & Louis Lumière: Le Squelette joyeux (1897) : YouTube

The supernatural horror has always been there in everyone’s lives if you think about it. Even from childhood, we had witches being thrown in ovens by children, vengeful ghosts mistaking us for her children and drowning us or talking wolves eating grandmothers. It’s there in every cautionary tale told down to us - the hint that, if we don’t follow in line, something hidden away in the dark will come to get us. These fears stick with us – even at nineteen, I have a deathly fear that La Llorona will come to find me and drown me, despite being a grown woman. There is always an underlying threat of the supernatural in our lives, the irrational fear that chokes us every once and a while when you lie in bed at night.

And when can someone not enjoy being scared if not on Halloween?

Halloween is the time for ghost stories, after all. Its origins are so firmly rooted in the supernatural, it would almost be remiss not to tell of a dark, stormy night.

Films have only served to exacerbate this. While you have the fun, spooky supernatural films (such as your Hocus Pocus (1993) and The Little Vampire (2000), you also have your run-of-the-mill more adult films like Ouija (2014) and The Conjuring (2013). These jumpscare-filled films play with your heartbeat like a toy, they’ve upped the ante from childhood fairytale and enjoy making your entire body as tense as a guitar string, as you remembered what scared you so much about them in the first place. Or they’re just super cheesy and a bit of fun.

Horror can be scary for other reasons, though. The supernatural has always been a metaphor for trauma, for the inner demons that people are too afraid to confront, which comes to haunt them. Just take Netflix’s The Haunting of Hill House (2018-), for example. The tragedy of the Crain family is that in Olivia’s twisted attempt to save her beloved children from the cruelty of the world, she exposed them to it. Every mother has the fear of her children being destroyed by the world and not being able to do anything about it, and ever since Alfred Hitchcock’s mommy issues in Psycho hit the silver screen, audiences have always had a fear of their mothers harming us.

Women have a large place in this – not just as heroines but as the unhinged villainesses. These women are somehow terrifying to all of us. Women who act solely for themselves, for satiating their own desire, who will listen to no reason and sometimes even revel in their madness. These women appear in horror as cannibalistic, seductive demonesses. Because, what could be scarier than a powerful woman? These women started out as the brides (of Dracula, of Frankenstein etc.) but have slowly become main characters in their own right.

Image: https://morbidlybeautiful.com/digging-deep-cat-people/

Recently I watched Cat People (1942) and tried to imagine how audiences in the 40s would’ve reacted to the main character Irena – a woman frightened of becoming intimate with her new husband, due to a long-held belief that the women in her Serbian village were cursed to become cat people and eat their lovers once they were kissed. She is a “bride” in the loosest sense of the term, but she’s no supporting character. She is the hero and the villain – now we as the audience can empathise with her and almost support her as she starts to use her ability to become a panther to scare and hurt her adversaries (in the form of a romantic rival and a psychiatrist who should definitely have his license revoked). However, a contemporary audience may have had a different viewing of her due to social and cultural norms.

Women in horror stand out if they challenge social norms. Even in non-supernatural horror films, woman such as the iconic Laurie Strode and Sidney Prescott do this simply in the fact of fighting back.

Halloween has always been my favourite holiday, and films have been a big part of that. I was never allowed to go trick or treating but watching Halloween films (Disney Channel Original ones, in particular) gave me the spooky feeling needed on such a special night. Halloween is the night where the veil between the two worlds is at its thinnest if you’re superstitious, and is a night where you can pretend to be something you’re not.

P.S. I don’t know who needs to hear this but if you’re doing a group costume as the Sanderson sisters, you cannot be Sarah again! You just can’t! Let someone else be Sarah.

BONUS CONTENT: If you’re looking for recommendations of non-scary but still spooky films to watch on Halloween while staying in, here’s a little list.