Why Horror?
We’ve made it to another Tuesday and Mutilated Mohawk Media is here again with some spicy sweet content to get you through another grueling week. Throughout almost all of the interviews I’ve held with Mutilated Mohawk Media, I’ve usually been able to ask those that create horror one question; why horror? What about the horror genre is so enticing? Why do we as creators, fans, and friends cling to this rickety ship for dear life? It’s definitely not for any sort of prestige. Tell a non-horror fan that horror is your favorite genre and you will most definitely get all sorts of shit about how people can’t watch horror because it’s full of terrible acting and cheap jumpscares. So why do we like horror?
That is a question that I’ve been curious about since I started Mutilated Mohawk Media. As a person who is enthralled with the genre I know my answer, but do you? The many people I have interviewed have said all kinds of different things in response to this question. As I can’t answer for the readers, I have done the best to conjure the words that describe why this genre is so important to me personally.
What Is Horror To A Horror Fiend?
Horror to me is many things, however the journey into the darkness started as a kid. I was a very terrified child. I hated anything scary, which was most things as I was easily scared. My imagination was absolutely wild and there were many nights I would stay up absolutely terrified because I could have sworn that I saw something in the dark shadows of my room. To calm myself I remember telling myself that the monsters weren’t at my house yet because they were too busy at my neighbor’s house. I suppose I believed that monster’s were on a set schedule for which houses to scare people and on the nights I was the most frightened I would calm myself by reciting that said schedule was for my neighbors house that night. I wouldn’t have to worry about the monsters for a whole other day. By that time I’d forget all about it.
My first horror movie, or really the first movie that scared the absolute shit out of me was Gremlins. I watched it at my grandma’s house thinking it was a movie about cute little creatures that helped the son of a zany inventor. While that was kind of the flow of the movie, I could have never guessed the horrifying green monsters that would spawn from this. I think I was seven years old when I first watched this movie and holy shit did it not leave my mind for a while. The scene where the mother discovers all the green slimy eggs in a mess and goes back downstairs with the gremlins hiding around in the house scared the hell out of me. The music would play in my head at night and all I could think about was how these little green monsters were definitely hunting for me.
Feelings of Long Ago Frights
Also as a kid, although I hated things that I knew would scare me, like movies and the halloween section at stores, I’d still push the limits. Books were my sort of buffer zone in that domain. I would read children’s horror books and ghost stories because if at any point I felt the scene was getting scarier I could just stop reading. For me, it was a whole lot easier to read horror than see it on the screen. Maybe it was a control thing. I remember loving to read the Goosebumps books, however when I saw the show for the first time when I was like nine or ten I was creeped out. I couldn’t handle it.
I never really took the time to appreciate that feeling. When you are a kid it doesn’t matter how many times you are told or given hard evidence that monsters don’t exist, there is still that sliver of your brain that would think that they definitely do exist. As an adult it blows. I know there are no werewolves or vampires running around in the night. I know that gremlins are only on screen and Michael Myers only comes around when Hollywood runs out of ideas and needs a quick cash bump.
However, it was the summer between 8th and 9th grade that I really got into horror. We spent some time up in Buffalo that summer. My cousin and I watched a ton of horror and b-movies. For some reason it just clicked there. The sparks of movie monsters, slashers, and all sorts of on screen frights gave me a nostalgic feeling of being scared. Halloween has almost always been a favorite holiday of mine, so horror movies just felt like the likely next step.
Horror is strange though. To me, the genre is a comfort genre. Nothing is better after a long day of work than flicking on some super fucked up film of people getting ripped to shreds by some terrifying antagonist. It’s oddly relaxing. Laying back into the couch while monster’s take the screen is one of the most satisfying things around.
But even then, I sure love a good horror movie. They seem to be comfort movies to me, but why horror? Why wouldn’t comedies or action movies fill this same kind of void of content. Why horror? It’s a question I’ve wondered about for quite a while. While there are answers like horror author Kristopher Rufty’s that seem to describe a good bit of what I am talking about, I still feel like there is more.
Yes, horror is a perfect place to sort of experiment with our fears in a safe environment. It’s a place where the dark fantasies of monsters and mayhem come to life for just a moment of time. That answer, while perfect, I feel is only part of it.
I believe wholeheartedly that for me horror is not only this sort of safe zone for terrors, but also something more. Watching a horror movie, or reading a horror novel, both put you into this fantasy world of horrible mayhem. Suddenly, the idea of monsters and creatures becomes real just for that small window of time. While there aren’t that many movies that will genuinely scare me anymore, seeing monsters, slashers, and all sorts of other frights on the pages or screen reignites that childhood dark curiosity. All sorts of questions roam around in my head of how wild these creatures can get. The idea that the creators of these horrifying things built out a fictional world, and set loose an antagonist that is in some way extremely overpowered compared to the protagonist entices me. How will the protagonist survive, and what will be left of them?
So, Then, Why Horror?
I think that horror opens up with a sort of playing field that enables anything. Where most genres have their limits, horror has none. Sure, within each story there are certain rules and boundaries that the creator of said story has established. This is why Ghostface doesn’t fly or Michael Myers doesn’t turn into a poltergeist half way through the movie. However, horror is one of the few genres where everything is on the table. You can go from the sort of cozy October movie that is Halloween 3 Season of The Witch to the more frightful and intense experience of I Spit On Your Grave. Everything is allowed and as an adult that is very appreciated.
Overall, horror is a genre that I enjoy very much because of its reflection of a crazed childhood. Its way of building the ultimate dark fantasy is adored by many. Its gloves off approach to content allows for insane amounts of unique stories to be told. I do feel that this is just a sort of introductory post in this ‘Why Horror?’ I may continue this series in the future with different smaller articles to go in depth on this genre that we love so much. Stay mutilated.
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