Why We Crave Horror Movies

In the essay, “Why We Crave Horror Movies” Stephen King attempts to explain why we love horror movies, and he gives a few different reasons why people go to see horror movies. People want to show that they are not scared; people want to have fun; but the main reason that he suggests is that we are insane and we need to watch horror movies to keep that insanity locked up in society. He uses a variety of argumentative strategies and literally decides to prove his thesis. On the other side, King surprised me by the reasons and comparisons he made and gave about why people watch horror movies, but then, the essay went off into tangents that I did not expect. Conversely, Stephen King gives his first thesis that “I think that we’re all mentally ill…” King presents a case that every person intentionally watches horror to keep one’s under control--- well fed, but under control. “It deliberately speaks to all that is worst in us. It is morbidity unchained, our most base instincts let free, our nastiest fantasies realized…and it all happens, fittingly enough, in the dark.” King says the basic reason why people will pay money to watch gore is like riding a roller coaster, “to show that we can, that we are not afraid…to re-establish our feelings of essential normality…and we go to have fun.” King tries to make the case that murderous insanity is in the same category as public nose picking. The potential lyncher or saint needs to be “let loose to scream and roll around in the grass.” Why over-work the good emotional muscles and neglect the muscle-tone of those less desirable? There is a logical fallacy in the title of his article, because not everyone craves horror movies. King eventually tells the truth concerning horror movies, which becomes the key to understanding why certain people crave. First, he says,” the horror movie is innately conservative, even reactionary.” What is being held back? What is being reacted against? All that is