Genre Tropes: The Horror, the horror …
Horror and terror always scare me. The discovery of the abnormal, or the disgust of a dismembered body, is unbearable. However, I can never stop watching the movie. Why? Is it that humans are sick and we find happiness in other people’s misery? The only reason I can find is that we get a surge of adrenaline rush, like what we seek for in roller coasters. The endorphins being released give us a temporary high.
Is Horror and terror actually frightening or pleasurable?
It depends on how well your imagination works. People with wild imagination conjure up things in their minds. For example, shadows at night can be conjured to an actual man hiding in the shadows. If I am walking alone in the dark with shadows around me, I will have quickened my footsteps and raised my awareness. The uncertainty of the real and the unreal will mess up my mind. However, if the imagination is not strong, the mind will assume reality as it is. It will just be shadows at night. So then, if you actually watch a horror movie, depending on your imagination, the movie can make you be afraid of your surroundings or you can enjoy the “action” happily thinking it is never real.
The real horror and terror now is terrorism. The fear seen is in movies is not unreal anymore. We live in a constant threat of terrorism, and we have to be aware that the safety when watching horror movies is gone in reality.
The 3 movies I have watched are The Dark Knight (Heroic Mythology), 20th Century Boys (Science Fiction) and Alice in Wonderland (Fantasy).
The first thing I noticed was that most films across all genres have the Heroic Mythology in it. The hero tends to undergo some psychological or physical changes and emerge a better or stronger man, or does a self-sacrificial act for the sake of others. In one of the scenes in The Dark Knight, Bruce Wayne, Batman, has to choose between doing what he wants, saving his love, or doing what is right, saving the hero district attorney of the city. He chose to save the district attorney instead, killing his love. In 20th Century Boys, Kenji Endo, the protagonist, started out as a cowardly man who was afraid of the villain’s plan when he discovered it, choosing to escape from it. Nearing the end, he chose to face the villain with his team and stop his killings. In Alice in Wonderland, Alice Kingsleigh, the protagonist, started out as someone who liked to escape whenever she met with problems, like a sudden marriage proposal. In the end, she decided to take charge of her own life instead of running away
However, there are some differences in the genres. The settings in Heroic Mythology tend to be in the past or the present. It is very similar to a modern city, and at most times is a peaceful city met with a problem. This spurs the hero to rise up. The settings in Science Fiction, however, takes place in the future with more advanced weapons which in turn will create more wars. So the setting in Science Fiction is a more war-torn kind of place, which causes many deaths from weapons. Fantasy has a more unrealistic and different setting than our world, making it a more unexpected and surprising kind of place. It could be a mixture of both peaceful and war-torn scenarios, but the inhabitants uses magic or monsters to battle, and tends to live a different way like us. There are definitely some crossovers across all settings, making a movie unique in its own way. I will try to mix the different genres for my future story/game creation too, like the realistic city of Heroic Mythology, so that the people can relate to it, or the unexpectedness of the fantasy world so that people will be drawn into the different world I have created. The possibilities are endless depending on how to mix and match the genres. I will try to put the different characters from each genre into an environment from a different genre, and have them interact with tools or weapons from another genre. It is absurd to imagine the scenario but by getting into the character’s feelings, the feeling of confusion and the unknown, we can think up of how he will react to the differences and link them together to solve the problem.
A genre is expressed differently across different media, simply because of the different senses being directed on the same genre. For example, the feelings from watching a horror movie are different from when playing a horror game. The feelings evoked from watching one is that you are mostly viewing from a third-person perspective, so the feeling of the person watching is not as “into” the character. Even if the movie is shot in first-person perspective, we are only using our sense of sight and hearing to enjoy the horror. However, if we actually play a horror game, we are using our sense of sight, hearing and touching (Mouse, keyboard). Also, in a horror game we have to make choices and choose paths, putting more of “us” into the world. So, the more senses we use and more human interaction the media has with us, the more we will be part of their reality. However, since the images from movies and games are predefined, as in created by others, the person using it might not fully immersed in their reality. This is where words come in. A story although is told in words, the reader who is the one imagining the world, can imagine up of the reality he wants. Horror stories make the reader imagine their deepest fears just by reading the words. This is because of the experiences each person has gone through, which will create different horrors each people has. Someone who is scared of the dark might not be scared of insects, but for someone else it might be different. By using both images and words, with the participation of the person in it, the effect will be more realistic.
So, for a genre to be fully enjoyed, the mind and the body have to be fully in the game. In this way, we can then in the shoes of the character, and act out his life for him. The usage of the sense of sight, hearing and touch can be improved upon, and there is a possibility of sense of smell being introduced. The introduction of the 4D experience has bridged the distance between reality and the unreal, creating the illusion of the unreal in our real world. With greater technology in the future, 3D movies or TV can be so realistic that it will be confused with the real just by looking. The surround sound system tries to create sounds from the surroundings so that our human ears can pick up from any direction. Future technology might have sounds which are crystal clear just like it is heard from reality, mimicking the ear and the sense of hearing. The shaking chair in 4D experiences makes us think that we are in a moving vehicle. In the future, the sense of touch might be improved with robotics so that touch is not limited to just sitting down on a shaking chair or touching buttons. The feeling of walking, being punched or slashed (Weakened to maybe sliding or touching) could be created. Different conditions can also be achieved with the use of light and wind. Emission of smell can be easily created just like the way air freshener works. The sense of smell is essential in making the mind think that we are in the environment they are portraying.
Is Horror and terror actually frightening or pleasurable?
It depends on how well your imagination works. People with wild imagination conjure up things in their minds. For example, shadows at night can be conjured to an actual man hiding in the shadows. If I am walking alone in the dark with shadows around me, I will have quickened my footsteps and raised my awareness. The uncertainty of the real and the unreal will mess up my mind. However, if the imagination is not strong, the mind will assume reality as it is. It will just be shadows at night. So then, if you actually watch a horror movie, depending on your imagination, the movie can make you be afraid of your surroundings or you can enjoy the “action” happily thinking it is never real.
The real horror and terror now is terrorism. The fear seen is in movies is not unreal anymore. We live in a constant threat of terrorism, and we have to be aware that the safety when watching horror movies is gone in reality.
The 3 movies I have watched are The Dark Knight (Heroic Mythology), 20th Century Boys (Science Fiction) and Alice in Wonderland (Fantasy).The first thing I noticed was that most films across all genres have the Heroic Mythology in it. The hero tends to undergo some psychological or physical changes and emerge a better or stronger man, or does a self-sacrificial act for the sake of others. In one of the scenes in The Dark Knight, Bruce Wayne, Batman, has to choose between doing what he wants, saving his love, or doing what is right, saving the hero district attorney of the city. He chose to save the district attorney instead, killing his love. In 20th Century Boys, Kenji Endo, the protagonist, started out as a cowardly man who was afraid of the villain’s plan when he discovered it, choosing to escape from it. Nearing the end, he chose to face the villain with his team and stop his killings. In Alice in Wonderland, Alice Kingsleigh, the protagonist, started out as someone who liked to escape whenever she met with problems, like a sudden marriage proposal. In the end, she decided to take charge of her own life instead of running away
However, there are some differences in the genres. The settings in Heroic Mythology tend to be in the past or the present. It is very similar to a modern city, and at most times is a peaceful city met with a problem. This spurs the hero to rise up. The settings in Science Fiction, however, takes place in the future with more advanced weapons which in turn will create more wars. So the setting in Science Fiction is a more war-torn kind of place, which causes many deaths from weapons. Fantasy has a more unrealistic and different setting than our world, making it a more unexpected and surprising kind of place. It could be a mixture of both peaceful and war-torn scenarios, but the inhabitants uses magic or monsters to battle, and tends to live a different way like us. There are definitely some crossovers across all settings, making a movie unique in its own way. I will try to mix the different genres for my future story/game creation too, like the realistic city of Heroic Mythology, so that the people can relate to it, or the unexpectedness of the fantasy world so that people will be drawn into the different world I have created. The possibilities are endless depending on how to mix and match the genres. I will try to put the different characters from each genre into an environment from a different genre, and have them interact with tools or weapons from another genre. It is absurd to imagine the scenario but by getting into the character’s feelings, the feeling of confusion and the unknown, we can think up of how he will react to the differences and link them together to solve the problem.
A genre is expressed differently across different media, simply because of the different senses being directed on the same genre. For example, the feelings from watching a horror movie are different from when playing a horror game. The feelings evoked from watching one is that you are mostly viewing from a third-person perspective, so the feeling of the person watching is not as “into” the character. Even if the movie is shot in first-person perspective, we are only using our sense of sight and hearing to enjoy the horror. However, if we actually play a horror game, we are using our sense of sight, hearing and touching (Mouse, keyboard). Also, in a horror game we have to make choices and choose paths, putting more of “us” into the world. So, the more senses we use and more human interaction the media has with us, the more we will be part of their reality. However, since the images from movies and games are predefined, as in created by others, the person using it might not fully immersed in their reality. This is where words come in. A story although is told in words, the reader who is the one imagining the world, can imagine up of the reality he wants. Horror stories make the reader imagine their deepest fears just by reading the words. This is because of the experiences each person has gone through, which will create different horrors each people has. Someone who is scared of the dark might not be scared of insects, but for someone else it might be different. By using both images and words, with the participation of the person in it, the effect will be more realistic.
So, for a genre to be fully enjoyed, the mind and the body have to be fully in the game. In this way, we can then in the shoes of the character, and act out his life for him. The usage of the sense of sight, hearing and touch can be improved upon, and there is a possibility of sense of smell being introduced. The introduction of the 4D experience has bridged the distance between reality and the unreal, creating the illusion of the unreal in our real world. With greater technology in the future, 3D movies or TV can be so realistic that it will be confused with the real just by looking. The surround sound system tries to create sounds from the surroundings so that our human ears can pick up from any direction. Future technology might have sounds which are crystal clear just like it is heard from reality, mimicking the ear and the sense of hearing. The shaking chair in 4D experiences makes us think that we are in a moving vehicle. In the future, the sense of touch might be improved with robotics so that touch is not limited to just sitting down on a shaking chair or touching buttons. The feeling of walking, being punched or slashed (Weakened to maybe sliding or touching) could be created. Different conditions can also be achieved with the use of light and wind. Emission of smell can be easily created just like the way air freshener works. The sense of smell is essential in making the mind think that we are in the environment they are portraying.
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