We are prompting discussions with our new ‘opinion piece’ section titled Shock & Cheese and in this second article the discussion is about inclusion/belonging in the horror community.
The horror genre is thought, among other things (they are always called things) to give its audience a cathartic experience of release. I heard this comment on a recent award program broadcast on a streaming service that went further to say this helped with viewer’s mental health allowing them to cope with the troubles that we all know have manifested because of the Pandemic and other life factors.
I find that a hard sell as I have yet to understand how watching someone plunge a blade into someone or eat someone alive allows someone to cope with the fact that they cannot meet their friends at a park. That is a somewhat simplistic example of what others may feel in their lives as well, all have our own stories both pleasant and not-so-pleasant.
Some horror media people will also say that seeing people overcoming problems and triumphing in the case of ending the threat in the film is uplifting. One would hope that the audience will understand what they are seeing is a created story or something based on the fact that I believe most people no matter how effectively the images appear.
My idea is that these feelings stem from the desire of the audience to belong to something. In watching years of horror media documentaries, one finds the theme that horror fans are outsiders some in their own families. Traumas happen in life be it being laughed at, physically attacked or the online as I call it ‘death by a thousand texts’ that happens today. One of my own family memories is of my enraged father storming in ripping my copy of Warren publications of Monster World issue number 3 magazine in half while seven-year-old me was reading it on the floor of our living room. The mint copy of that issue would be worth a bit more than the astonishing 35 cents I paid for it. I moved past that or at least I think I did although I can still recall it in all its detail. This is not to say that my reconciliation of that moment is something all can do since some incidents go into darker places in people’s lives.
We enjoy the media of Horror because of a sense of community that many don’t want to feel alone, even introverts or the so-called Alpha people not because it allows you to conquer your problems. Conversely, I don’t quite understand this idea of inclusion of race or sexual orientation. I understand I wear what some call the ‘skin of privilege’ as I am a white, Anglo-Saxon heterosexual male that accepts other ways of doing things. I am not a ‘woke’ person as I find literature and art are products of their time. I fail to see how seeing a person of color in say for example Candyman series or someone in a Jordan Peele film shows someone they can do the same. My suggestion is that the fact that non-white people can make films and be on the screen inspires career decisions.
Yes, I understand that there are people that watch the ‘Kills count’ of films and how they are presented. Laugh during gory moments and think it’s fun to put themselves to an endurance test by watching a film such as the notorious German film Nekromantik (1988), A Serbian film (2010) or even moments from Terrifier 2 (2022). They enjoy shocking their non-horror friends and simply want to piss off older folk. Difference for difference’s sake is waste as I see which is the online equivalent of posting on social media simply to inflame. This to me indicates something else in their personalities that belonging would cure in them.
In conclusion wise Horror is all-encompassing and has many aspects of it that appeal to many ages, nationalities, religions, and sexual orientations which is what makes the system work. Stories, folklore, and current events no matter how heinous the sources and will always come from people and society even when the battle of AI is about to begin.
If I may borrow a slogan from a North American print magazine. ‘We all scream in the same language.’
By Terry Sherwood
What are are your thoughts on this subject?
Let us know in the comments.
