The Nickel’s 48-Hour Horror Film Challenge ritual is almost upon us, and while unfortunately I personally can’t offer you much in the way of technical filmmaking advice, I can — armed with some pop psychology and key horror movie ingredients — talk a little about why horror scares us and why it’s so fun to be scared, and try to convince you that scaring us with your horror movie is in the public good.
The beauty of horror movies is that they playfully toy with all kinds of dark themes across an endless list of genres and sub-genres — and pick your poison, I say. But I also love how horror movies give such diverse reactions from people.
For instance, I like to think I could have fun with a group of zombies. But vampires? No way. Vampires terrify me. Even thinking about them now I can't even breathe right. But why am I so scared of vampires? The answer depends a lot on deep down what we’re afraid of.
Horror movies can tap into those fears and insecurities, but the great thing about them is they also allow us to confront these fears in a safe environment. We survive being scared, and we know it isn’t real, so it's safe enough.
But why do we go so far as to seek out such unpleasantness? Turns out when we experience recreational or staged fear, our brains release dopamine, a feel-good hormone associated with feelings of pleasure, reward, and motivation. They excite us with their impending scares and motivate us to be vigilant against them. Then, when the big scare comes and we actually survive it, we want more.
Suspense, shock, and terror are some of horror’s key ingredients. Filmmakers use them to build tension and anxiety to keep us on the edge of our seats, waiting to see what happens next. Tension and anxiety aren’t just about what we see or don’t see on the screen though, unseen threats are even more frightening. Take Stephen Spielberg, for instance, when he schooled everybody about this when a certain robotic shark didn't look terrifying enough to show on screen and he leaned into the eerie underwater footage and musical score. Duh-dun, duh-dun...
Relevance is another ingredient that works. Horror movies are surprisingly good at talking about big ideas — social commentary, addressing the unknown, or grappling with death, say. If a filmmaker can get us to connect with the protagonists in any of these ways, that makes it relevant, and that ramps up the fear.
So, ultimately, as long as we know horror movies aren’t real we can heartily enjoy them and laugh in the face of our deepest fears. So now get out there and scare us good with the Nickel 48-Hour Horror Film Challenge this weekend — October 3-5! We’ll all leave the public screening at the LSPU Hall the following Saturday awash in feel-good dopamine, knowing we safely survived together.
Elling Lien
