Why We Crave Horror, By Stephen King

As children everyone has, or maybe even now in their adulthood, had a fear of something completely irrational whether it be clowns, the dark, or slightly cracked open closet doors. Though fearing such, people still subject themselves to horror movies, novels, and so on. Why is this, and is it part of our human condition? The famous author, Stephen King, wrote an article “Why We Crave Horror” explaining exactly that; why humans as a race feel the need to subject themselves to the gruesome scenes found in modern day thrillers. King correctly claims that humans crave horror as a way to feel ‘normal’ again, as a way of cathartic release, and as a way people face their own fears. Humans do indeed crave horror as a way to get back that sometimes lost feeling of normalcy. Seeing one horrific scene from the modern day
Normally no one in their right mind would willingly throw themselves into a spider pit if they’re arachnophobic, so there’s those people who will pay a ridiculous amount of money to see a horror movie about it as a way to get over or face that fear instead. When someone willingly succumbs to their own fear and get used to it, it might make someone realize that maybe what they’re scared of isn’t actually so scary after all. In the ending of Strawberry Spring starts to think about a walk he went on after he heard of another murder taking place years later than the first ones, “And I’ve been thinking about the trunk of my car - such an ugly word, trunk - and wondering why in the world I should be afraid to open it...She thinks I was with another woman last night. And oh dear God, I think so too.” Here in the end Springheel Jack was actually quite the normal man; he had a wife and a new life in town, most likely the average man no one would reasonably fear upon first impression. Even so, he was still the murderer everyone was scared