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Why We Crave Horror Movies

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Why We Crave Horror Movies
Feeding Our Gators: A Response to Stephen King’s Why We Crave Horror Movies

Stephen King writes very accurately on how we, the public, desire the need “to put away our more civilized and adult penchant for analysis and to become children again” by watching a horror-themed movie. In the article Why We Crave Horror Movies, written by Stephen King and published by Playboy Press in Chicago, Illinois in 1981, King suggests that horror fiction meets an important and critical human need that endeavour the dark impulses and socially unacceptable desires that are present in everyone. Being a graduate of the University of Maine where he studied English and received a Bachelor’s of Science degree, King can easily be called an Educated Man. He has held many job positions before becoming a mystery writer including a knitting mill worker, janitor and a high school English teacher where he taught at Hampden Academy. Stephen King received The National Book Foundation’s Medal for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters.

King is one of the most successful American writers of horror stories, and many of his books have been made into blockbuster movies such as LIST MOVIES HERE. The audience Stephen wishes to direct his attention to are the people who aren’t afraid of being afraid. King yearns for his audience to be fulfilled by the gruesome, extended truth that is horror. The average person of society doesn’t necessarily get to see a Jason or Freddy hack the head off of a woodsman with an axe every day, or as King says, “The fun comes from seeing others menaced-sometimes killed.” The intention of King’s horror novels or movies is to give the average person a taste of what they’ll probably never see in real life. "The potential lyncher is in almost all of us... " King says. He also suggests that "emotions don’t go away … they demand periodic exercise," and to exercise these emotions, the world has brought us Stephen King, a master in giving his audience what they want;



Bibliography: Maker - MLA, APA, Chicago Citation Styles. Web. http://www.easybib.com/cite/view. King, Stephen. "Why We Crave Horror." Playboy Jan. 1981: 1+. Print. MzKeddieB. "Why We Crave Horror Movies - Essays - Mzkeddieb." Free Term Papers, Research Papers, Custom Essays, and Book Reports OPPapers.com. 10 Aug. 2008. Web. .

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