Task:
Film is an excellent way to explore and illustrate sociological concepts, principles, and theories. Perhaps this is because some films are highly successful in identifying and examining the significant, complex issues that confront the human condition. Entertainment lore has gone the way of silent movie, music hall, and Carry on films. The new films of Hollywood that shocked the insiders were seen in the first week of January when it was released. These became the best-selling films in the US. The latest revival of the Western films was back. This was after the 1969 movie released by starring Wayne John, which was more stylish than the modern films. Therefore, Hollywood films replaced the Cowboys and Aliens, which were stopped due to the introduction of Western civilization. Films can be categorized into several groups, one of them being the horror type.
A horror film is fearsome in nature just as the name suggests. However, overtime, the filmmakers have continued to produce less frightening films thus resulting to hybrid horror films, and pure horror films. The pure horror films are produced with an intention of terrifying the viewers. On the other hand, horror films of hybrid type are less frightening. In other words, hybrid films are a combination of comedy, and cold feet. From a general perspective, horror films aims at leaving the viewers in cold feet. Some of the common elements in horror films include strange places, fearsome situations, strange characters, or supernatural beings. In the discussion that will follow, the focus will be an argument on different characteristics and definitions of horror films.
Indeed, horror movies are usually horrifying in addition to the typical elements of these types of films. For example, the movie The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is a perfect illustration of horror film. This film is based on Leather face, a supernatural creature. This creature acts as the centerpiece in this film, and is a subhuman character, and monstrous in nature. Owing to his deformities on the face, he uses the face of a human being to cover them. Additionally, the creature is heavy and possesses an ultra sensitive smelling sense. This creature exhibits incommensurable fear while the movie is in progress (Jancovich 32). In other words, this horror movie aims at terrifying the viewers. The scenes in this film elicit disgust and fear emotions, an element very common in horror films. Although it is characterized by suspense while viewers are watching, they remain all set just in case something appear from nowhere and scare them.
Horror films are capable of providing sleepless nights, besides entertainment. They mainly strive to elicit dread from the viewer, apprehension, and foreboding. In some cases, horror films do not have ghosts and other scaring creatures, provided whatever the movie presents elicits some aspect of dread or fear. The viewers should always expect the unexpected. The setting of horror films is usually nightmarish, eerie, chilling, and dark. In the horror movie Halloween 1978, the producer has designed it in a manner that it elicits suspense and tension (Prince 24). While the movie is in progress, the viewers are kept under thrills and there is much tension especially when characters are placed in a mystery or menacing situation. When the main character engages in a fight with the monster, the viewer feels that life is threatened and this puts them in a lot of agony.
While some people might perceive horror movies as a source of entertainment, others associate them with torture and agony. The main intention of a horror film is to terrify the viewer. Throughout the film, the viewer is kept under fear and thrilling suspense. In most cases, the monstrous creatures used exhibit supernatural powers, thus becoming a threat to characters in the movies, who are normal human beings. Owing to their nightmarish setting, the viewers always experience the unexpected and it is impossible to predict what next.
Works cited:
Jancovich, Mark. Horror, the film reader. London: Routledge, 2002. Print
Prince, Stephen. The horror film. New Jersey: Rutgers University Press, 2004. Print
