AS OCTOBER 31ST ROLLS AROUND, THE STREETS ARE FLOODED WITH COSTUMES AND OUR TVs ARE FILLED WITH IMAGES OF GHOULS, GOBLINS, AND GHOSTS. HALLOWEEN’S ORIGINS COME FROM THE ANCIENT CELTIC FESTIVAL OF SAMHAIN (SAH-WIN) WHICH IS A PAGAN RELIGIOUS CELEBRATION THAT WELCOMES THE HARVEST AT THE END OF SUMMER. NOW, WE HAVE SPIRIT HALLOWEEN, JACK-O-LANTERNS, AND TRICK OR TREATING.
[music: “Halloween”]
THE HORROR GENRE AND HALLOWEEN ARE NATURALLY INTERTWINED FOR THEIR SCARY NATURE.
THE GENRE OFTEN INCLUDES SEMANTICAL ELEMENTS SUCH AS ISOLATED SPACES, KNIVES, MONSTERS, VICTIMS, AND BLOOD IN ADDITION TO SYNTACTICAL THEMES SUCH AS SURVIVAL, AND EXTERNAL THREATS, AND OFTEN HAVE RELIGIOUS AND ETHICAL UNDERTONES SUCH AS PURITY. BUT WHAT HORROR FILMS SCARE NORTHWESTERN STUDENTS THE MOST AND WHY? I TOOK TO THE STREETS TO ASK SOME FRESHMAN THEIR THOUGHTS. FROM THESE INTERVIEWS, I DEDUCED THAT THERE ARE FOUR MAIN CATEGORIES THAT PEOPLE ARE MOST TERRIFIED BY: GORE, JUMPSCARES, INTROSPECTION, AND CHILDHOOD FEARS.
[music: “Halloween”]
[Alyssa Rubin] What’s the scariest horror movie you’ve ever seen and why
[Angelina] My name is Angelina and I mean, I’d say it’s just like super gory and I was like, kind of disturbed the entire time but like House of 1000 corpses.
[Anais Duewel] Okay, I’m Anaise Duewel. The scariest movie I’ve ever seen was probably the first Saw because I was not expecting to watch a horror movie and then it was just like very gory and it was terrifying.
[James] My name is James and I like can’t stand watching horror movies from my favorite like horror movies ever seen is Alien? Probably just because it’s you know, it’s creepy and it looks scary.
[music: Saw theme music]
GORE IS AN INDICATION OF DANGER. IT SIGNIFIES SOMETHING POWERFUL ENOUGH TO OPEN UP OUR BODIES AND PAINFULLY END OUR LIVES LITERALLY. NOT ONLY DOES IT CONJURE FEAR, BUT DISGUST AND EVEN NAUSEA OR A DROP IN HEART RATE OR BLOOD PRESSURE. GORE SUMMONS SOMETHING VISCERALLY DISTRESSING IN MOST PEOPLE. THERE’S EVEN A TERM FOR THE FEAR OF BLOOD: HEMOPHOBIA. GORE IS A SEMANTIC STAPLE OF HORROR, BUT SPECIFICALLY THE SUBGENRES OF SPLATTER OF SLASHER FILMS. THE SECOND CATEGORY IS JUMPSCARE.
[Levi Gillis] I’m Levi Gillis. The scariest movie I’ve ever seen was Sinister. Because it has like 10 jumpscares in it. And I was literally cowering in the couch when my friend laughed at me.
[Brandon] The scariest horror movie I’ve seen is It. I think that the way that they set up the jumpscares is really, really really scary. And I remember the first time I saw it with friends I was horrified.
[Anna] I hate horror movies. But I watched A Quiet Place and it was scary because there were many jumpscares and I’m Anna.
[music: It theme music]
A JUMPSCARE IS A SCENE IN A MOVIE THAT SHOCKS YOU SO ABRUPTLY THAT YOU FLINCH OR JUMP OUT OF YOUR SEAT. THINK OF FREDDY KRUGER’S MOST TERRIFYING MOMENTS IN NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET OR THE RED DEMONS IN INSIDIOUS. JUMPSCARES ARE TERRIFYING BECAUSE THEY CUE YOU TO GET ANXIOUS. THE MUSIC BUILDS SLOWLY, THE TENSION RISES, AND THEN BAMB, THE MUSIC SPIKES, AND SOMETHING HORRIFYING POPS OUT OF NOWHERE. JUMPSCARES REPRESENT THE FEAR OF THE UNKNOWN. YOU ARE BEING WATCHED BUT ARE UNAWARE. YOU ARE IN DANGER BUT DON’T KNOW IT UNTIL IT IS TOO LATE.
WHILE GORE AND JUMPSCARES ARE MORE SEMANTIC HORROR ELEMENTS, THE LAST TWO GENRES ARE SYNTACTICAL AND CONCENTRATE ON THEMATIC IDEAS.
[Dylan Deshelski] Dylan Deshelski and Us because I think yourself can be the scariest thing that you can think of.
[Grace Demarest] My name is Grace Demarest and the scariest horror film I’ve ever seen is Us. I think just because they did everything right. And it still wasn’t enough and that that prospect terrifies me
[Sequina King] My name is Sequina King. I guess the scariest movie I’ve seen is Get Out only because I’m like from really like, conservative town. And so like when the protagonist was captured by people and then they’re gonna do the surgery. It kind of like scared me I was like, Oh, this is why you should go to like a stranger’s house like or someone you don’t really know.
[music: Us theme music]
INTROSPECTION IS THE INVESTIGATION OF ONE’S OWN EMOTIONAL, MENTAL, AND SPIRITUAL STATE. OFTEN, HORROR MOVIES WILL FORCE THEIR AUDIENCE TO EXAMINE THEIR BEHAVIOR AND THE SOCIETY IN WHICH THEY LIVE THROUGH THEMATIC ANALYSIS OF HUMAN NATURE AND SELF. THIS TYPE OF INTROSPECTION CAN BE FRIGHTENING BECAUSE WE SEE OURSELVES OR OUR SITUATION IN CHARACTERS WHOSE SITUATIONS ARE BEING EXPLOITED, WHICH CAN BE A TERRIFYING EXPERIENCE. THE LAST CATEGORY IS CHILDHOOD FEARS.
[Shreya] I’m Shreya and the scariest movie I’ve ever seen is Coraline. I don’t know why they call that a kid’s movie like The buttons haunted me as a child and haunt me to this day.
[Sonny] My name is Sonny. And the scariest movie I’ve ever seen is Coraline. And that’s because I watched it as a child and couldn’t even get through it and still had nightmares about it for the next year.
[Brody] My name is Brody and the scariest horror movie I’ve ever seen is probably It or the It franchise. Just clowns just show me to the core and I cannot handle it. So those films would be probably the scariest thing I’ve ever seen.
[music: Coraline theme music]
CHILDHOOD FEARS INCLUDE MOVIES TARGETED AT KIDS OR YOUTHFUL ITEMS, SUCH AS CLOWNS OR DOLLS. THIS CLASSIFICATION FOCUSES ON THE IDEA OF CREEPINESS. WHILE GORE AND JUMPSCARES ARE A MORE VISCERAL REACTION, CHILDHOOD FEARS OFTEN MUSTER A MORE UNCOMFORTABLE, EERIE FEELING. DOLLS AND CLOWNS ARE INTENDED FOR KIDS, YET ARE SOME OF THE MOST COMMON FEARS THAT TRANSITION INTO ADULTHOOD. THIS IS DUE TO A LACK OF EMOTIONAL UNDERSTANDING FROM THEM AS THEY ARE NOT QUITE HUMAN, BUT REPLICATE SOME OF THE ELEMENTS. THEIR FACES ARE REMINISCENT, YET CERTAIN COMPONENTS ARE NOT QUITE RIGHT, MEANING WE CAN’T READ THEM FOR EMOTIONS OR POTENTIAL THREATS WHICH CAN BE DEEPLY UNSETTLING AND CREEPY.
[music: “Halloween”]
AS YOU GET READY FOR OCTOBER 31ST THIS YEAR, TRY WATCHING A HORROR MOVIE OR TWO. SEE WHAT SCARES YOU AND TRY AND FIGURE OUT WHY.
FROM WNUR NEWS, THIS IS ALYSSA RUBIN. HAPPY HALLOWEEN!
Royalty Free Music from Tunetank.com Track: Halloween by VictorWayne https://tunetank.com/track/5580-halloween/
