Horror As Entertainment

Since the dawn of time, and through human evolution and development, fear has caused us to grow. Fear kept us in our homes at night, fear protected us from heights and depths, and fear saved us from making rash decisions. In short, fear has kept humanity from going extinct, or at least has prevented humanity from perishing prematurely. Even if one is not necessarily a fan of horror as a genre, they have, without a doubt, been exposed to it more than they think. From scary stories by firelight at summer camp to a sudden jumpscare by the Jeff the Killer creepypasta on an urban legends forum, horror is present at every turn. The age of analog creation and the unity computers have granted humans has only amplified this. As any genre of entertainment goes, media is capable of being anywhere, especially when one knows where to look for it.

In early forms, horror was relatively tame. Scary media was just that; scary. The times for shock horror and gore were not yet present. Media was scary because it was new. Many times, if the average bum on the streets of London began spouting nonsense about a man made from dead people who was truly good, he’d be carted off to an insane asylum, or to prison. But when a meek woman who was odd to begin with presented such an idea, it was accepted and analyzed. Such were the beginnings of horror books. Popular older tales include stories like Frankenstein (written in 1816 by Mary Shelley) and Dracula (written in 1897 by Bram Stoker), These stories were mainly about physical monsters, abominations of flesh, creations that were wrong to exist.

One other creation written around this time that didn’t exactly fall into these set parameters was The Yellow Wallpaper (written in 1892 by Charlotte Perkins Gilman). This story was geared more around the popular ailment of the time, female hysteria. It was scary in a different way, as the protagonist of the story focused more on what she thought she should be doing. It was one of the first examples of an audience set apart from a horror character, uselessly screaming at them to “Stop! Don’t go in there!”. This form of storytelling is what started horror media on its way; by causing the viewer to realize how insignificant their choices were, and how hopeless a situation without warning became from their point of view.

In 1934, a new medium of horror surfaced. This was the radio program Lights Out! created by Wyllis Cooper. The idea for Lights Out! was developed in 1933, and was devised for the late night, horror loving members of America. This spooky, midnight radio show was one of the first iterations of horror as a medium outside of words and written stories. After Lights Out! aired, one after the other, more visual representations of horror were developed and released. These included but were not limited to movies like Eyes Without A Face (1960), The Birds (1963), and Pet Sematary (1989). These movies are not anywhere near the most popular or the earliest creations of horror as a movie medium, but they are decently well known. It was with these movies that horror started becoming more visible, not just on paper or over sound waves.

            Present horrors have grown with the times. A newer form of horror is known as analog horror. This is defined as “a subgenre of horror fiction and an offshoot of the found footage film technique often cited as originating online during the late 2000s and early 2010s”. Examples of better-known analog horrors in the media today are creations like Local 58 (Kris Straub, 2015), The Mandela Catalog (Alex Kister, 2021), and The Backrooms (Kane Pixels, 2022). These horror creations touch not just on visual horror, but psychological horror as well. The stories within these creations harness deeper fears. The Mandela Catalog for example covers extreme Cronos Syndrome, or a fear of being replaced, while Kane Pixel’s Backrooms series has an overarching theme of being abandoned or alone, known as athazagoraphobia.

            Horror movies have also begun picking up speed, with certain films developing their own franchises. These include franchises such as Halloween (1963 - present), Saw (2000 - present), and The Conjuring (2013 - present). Unlike their 1960s parents, these franchises and movies focused less on silly monsters and more on psychopaths and paranormal activity, two focuses that were slightly harder to just brush off. Unlike Dracula, who suddenly became an attractive, misunderstood, lonely boy.

Finally, video games evolved enough to become deserving of their own spotlights. Games like Alan Wake (2010 - 2023), Silent Hill (1999 - present), and Five Nights At Freddy’s (2014 - present) covered a new form of horror known as survival horror. In Alan Wake, one follows the descent into madness of a grieving man and the confusion of time skips. Silent Hill, according to its executive producer Andrew Mason, “is a story about what happens in the moments between death and fate”. In these two games, the stereotype of “video games bad and evil” is strong, but by reading into the true story behind these creations, eyes can be opened to new forms of entertainment. Silent Hill has its own T.V. series and Alan Wake, though it was on a hiatus for several years, released its second iteration of the game recently and is still going strong.

If I could, I would go on for hours about Scott Cawthon’s indie horror creation “Five Nights at Freddy's (FNAF)”. The story of Cawthon’s last attempt at a horror game creation blowing up into the super franchise it is today is not only incredible but has inspired many creative minds to follow their own dreams. This game has been growing since 2014, and recently (finally) got its own movie. When one states the insignificance of horror or video games on the greater populace, it only takes a few examples from FNAF’s backstory and in-game lore to sway them. In the game, one plays as an underpaid night guard trying to survive the night in a haunted pizzeria with possessed animatronics stalking them and ultimately attempting to kill them. As more games in the franchise are released, more and more well-made lore and curated, canon stories come to life, building and developing this ever-expanding universe.

            In the future, one may wonder, if the aforementioned creations and development in horror media have come this far, where else can one go? Even now, newer forms of horror have been pushed to the surface. One of the newest creations is the development of ARGs, or Alternate Reality Games. Unlike video games, alternate reality games require a dedicated fanbase, as the mysteries that unravel within them require serious focus and determination. One decently well-known ARG that is currently still active is known as Welcome Home. Based on a mixture of Sesame Street and Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood, Welcome Home is an art project by its creator Clown, who describes this work as “an experimental multi-media horror project “. The ARG is centered on the project’s website, which has many hidden secrets, such as clickable assets that take you to separate pages, eerie artwork, and colorful characters with dark backstories. This form of horror involves creations based off things that are already scary, such as Welcome Home’s themes of scopophobia (the fear of being watched) and pupaphobia (the fear of puppets).

            Another newer form of horror is virtual reality (VR) horror. To return to the FNAF franchise, on Dec. 14th, Help Wanted 2 will be released from the Steel Wool Studio. This experience is the newest installation of the FNAFverse and will include a recreation of the Sister Location game from 2016, now adapted to VR. With VR game and movie adaptations, the viewer is being placed INTO something that was already scary being in front of. This makes the fear factor of the game ever heightened. With a PC game, the player can look down or away from oncoming scares, but with immersive VR, one is truly in the game and cannot escape. 

Finally, and possibly the most well-known, is the concept and creations of Artificial Intelligence (AI). Already, society has experienced the nagging fear of AI from the recent WGA writer’s strike that lasted 148 days. In that time, very little new content came from studios, and no behind-the-scenes content aired. During this time, AI generated content was flourishing. The newest Disney movie “Wish” was even rumored to have been almost completely AI generated. The villain’s song “This Is the Thanks I Get” was even made into a TikTok meme. With the endless minds filling the internet with newer media, there is therefore an endless slew of media AI algorithms can pull from. In other news, and as no surprise, AI is also scary as is.

All the horror creations and fear-mongering content that the history of humanity has seen has grown and changed with time. It is unknown what a caveman would think if he was confronted with the idea of doppelgangers, nor what the average college student would consider to be remotely frightening in Transylvania. One thing that is a constant horror is Xenophobia. This is a fancy word for the fear of the unknown. It doesn’t matter where one comes from or what one believes, the sight of a hallway with a gaping, hollow, dense void of lightless nothing sparks primal fear into anyone’s heart, young or old. Why is this so horrifying? There is something behind that darkness that can see out and is hidden from the other’s sight. The human brain is constantly working. Because of this, the brain is going to want to prepare and be ready for anything that isn’t a part of the regularly scheduled programming. Ergo, the brain wants the body to be prepared. If the brain doesn’t know what is at the end of that hallway, it is going to want to find out. However, if the brain doesn’t know, the outcome could be good or bad. If it’s good, the brain will simply have the satisfaction of knowing. However, if it’s bad, there are too many options for bad and potentially dangerous outcomes. Just like the monster safe in the shadows, the viewer of the horror movie is safe from sight, watching events from afar. But like the protagonist, the viewer does not see nor know what is in that dark, which makes them feel unsafe. The situation is not only on screen but in the viewer’s cranium as well.

Horror is visceral, it is primal, it is from our caveman brains keeping our species alive. Horror is a taboo topic in many places; neither the Academy Awards nor the Oscars recognize them, books are hidden in dark library corners or simply filed with the rest of the content in libraries, and video games are shamed for horror because they “encourage violent behavior”. What is overlooked is the storytelling within this genre that is beautifully done. Horror, when created and developed correctly, can tell a well done, memorable story, all while getting a few screams out of the viewers.

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