Impacts of Hollywood Horror Movies on Teenagers

Movies are a major source of entertainment for the people. The first Movie was made in the late 1800s. Like all other films, horror films are also made to entertain people. Horror films are liked my all age groups. People watch these movies especially for the suspenseful visuals, terrifying sound effects and the supernatural characters. Horror movies also include murder, massacre, physical abuse and other genres that are disturbing to the minds of the audience. These kinds of movies are made to induce the feeling of shock, fear and disgust in the minds of the audience. This causes major impacts on teenagers and kids in very chaotic way. Horror movies have more negative effects than how much entertaining they are. The history of this genre and effects of these movies on the teenagers are to be seen further in this essay. Even though many domestic horror movies are made, Indian audience prefer Hollywood movies more because of the extraordinary sound effects, creative story and super realistic visuals.

Brief History

Horror films often aim to evoke viewers’ intense feeling and causes an adrenal rush through their body. Horror movies are mostly inspired from the horror literature as of Edgar Alan Poe, Sydney Sheldon, Jack Ketchum, Mary shelly etc. The first supernatural events are depicted in the late 1890s. On record Le Manoir du Diable (1896) is the first horror movie, created by Georges Méliès, one of film's earliest visionaries. In the very old days the visual effects were not that developed. They used mostly make ups and partial models for effects. It was in the early 1930’s that Universal Studios, created the modern horror film genre, bringing to the screen a series of successful gothic-steeped features including Dracula, Frankenstein (1931) and The Mummy (1932) – all of which spawned numerous sequels.

The Exorcist (1973) broke all records for a horror film, and led to the commercial success of The Omen. After the development of visual effects technology in the 2000s and 2010s more realistic and visually frightening and disgusting scenes were created with ease and were liked very much by the audiences. The latest top grossing horror movies are Insidious (2011), The Conjuring (2013) and Anabelle Creation (2017). During the 90s the audience for Hollywood horror movies were less. After the urbanisation of cities and building of multiplex theatres which show Hollywood movies, the rate of audience is very much increased for these types of films. And after the introduction of high speed internet in 2010s people started to download and watch every Hollywood horror movies with ease.

Problem and Reasons

Research says that the movies we watch play a vital role in our psychological traits, emotions and behaviour. The teenagers and kids are the wide range that falls under the category of people who are affected by such movies. They tend to show high amount of emotional stress and outrageous behaviour.

Typically, the teenagers are more emotional, rebellious and independent. They like to take risks, be energetic and adventurous. This type of behaviour makes them to seek for the horror movies as they get all the excitement when they get to watch those type of films. But watching these kinds of movies also causes more negative effects such as anxiety, phobia, insomnia, nightmares etc.

My Personal experience was while watching the film THE CONJURING 2 (2016). Every single scene where “the nun” comes has scared the devil out of me. I was sleepless for days after watching that movie in Theatre. My mind was disturbed on a different level and it took days for the effects to wear off. Watching horror movies even sometimes causes depression and brain fog which interrupts the productivity in a person’s activity. They also affect the subconscious mind and cause negative thinking and plants bad ideas in the audience’s mind, which are not psychologically good for them. These kinds of mental stress further lead to physical weakness and other health issues. There have been many instances of a particular horror film being banned from cinema exhibition because of the effect film classifiers assume that it might have on an audience. This was particularly true of the ‘video nasties’ (such as Child’s Play 3). Most recently the teenage killers at Columbine were said to be followers of Marilyn Manson, who borrows heavily from the iconography of the horror film in his videos. It is interesting to note how quickly some media organisations and politicians try to blame the horror text whenever certain outrages occur (this is known as a ‘moral panic’) but how frequently these are found to be red herrings.

Michael Ryan, who went on a killing spree in Hungerford in 1987, was accused of being influenced by repeated viewings of the Rambo video – although at the inquest it was discovered he did not possess a video player. The list of ‘video nasties’ was very long at one stage and contained several notorious titles, though interestingly most of them are now available for home consumption. In 2001, Thierry Jaradin, a 24-year-old truck driver living in Belgium, stabbed 15-year-old Alisson Cambier over 30 times while wearing the iconic Ghost Face Killer costume from the Scream films. Jaradin was inspired by the movies, and his crime was premeditated, with Cambier serving as his chosen victim. Daniel Gonzalez went on a three-day killing spree in September 2004, taking the lives of four people by brutally stabbing them to death. He was reported to have been inspired by A Nightmare on Elm Street villain Freddy Krueger. The way the children were raised can also be a key factor for the bad influences of the horror movies. The children who were raised with full security and protection from their parents will be softer hearted in nature and when they watch these kinds of movies they get frightened more and become more traumatised. The children who were raised with complete freedom and who are rude in nature will tend to do crimes and murders, by getting influenced from the horror films.

Current Scenario

According to WebMD, torture films are potentially desensitizing to real-life violence. Rather than trying to prevent children’s exposure to violence altogether. Teenagers who watch more horror movies tend to be more aggressive and violent. The group also points out that graphic violence mixed with sexual circumstances is often confusing and potentially harmful to adolescents wrestling with their own developing sexuality. Most older teens can handle complex, disturbing plots, but you are the best judge of where to draw the line.

The further presence of fear’s involvement in anxiety disorders includes Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and General Anxiety Disorder (GAD). These movies are already not recommended for the persons who suffer from insomnia, cardiac problems, ladies who are pregnant, people who are too young and too old, as they are too vulnerable to these types of movies. And I would also suggest that people who are weak hearted, easily scared, people who get suicidal thoughts often and people who live alone. It is also recommended not to binge watch more horror movies or develop an addiction such movies which causes changes in a person’s day to day behaviour. There are people who collect all horror movies and watch only horror movies and they tend to exhibit violent behaviour like arguing with parents, bullying at school, etc. The extreme cases even lead to suicide, murder and Homicide. So, watching horror movies very rarely is advisable, if people consider them as just entertainment, there might be no problem. Don’t do it to impress people, don’t get addicted to them. Have a positive and controlled mindset while watching these kinds of films.

Web Reference

1. http://robertjrgraham.com/a-brief-history-of-horror-films/
2. https://www.ranker.com/list/scared-to-death-by-horror/christopher-shultz
3. https://www.livestrong.com/article/1004470-lasting-effects-horror-movies-children-teens/
4. https://www.livestrong.com/article/1001615-personality-characteristics-teenagers/
5. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horror_film

Article Reference

1. http://cw.routledge.com/textbooks/asmediastudies/downloads/case-studies/horror.pdf
2. http://staff.kings.edu/stephenhousenick/ENG%20101/101--EXAMPLE_King_HorrorMovies.doc
3. https://digital.library.txstate.edu/handle/10877/3220