Halloween And Scary Movies
Jul 31st, 2009 by Benedict Fisher
No other reminder of Halloween is more visible than Hollywood movies themselves. In addition, we’re not just talking about high-budget horror movies here. Even the budget movies (B-movies) or “splatter” films are firm reminders of the strangeness and utter mystery of human life itself.
After all, movies are simply mirrors of real life. While it’s not reality itself, it’s still a fun idea if Halloween was more than just the age-old tradition of giving kids and adults their yearly good scare.
Horror movies & Halloween
Cultural issues often complement each other. They develop beside each other, offering each other a sort of synergy that helps them survive. This is the main reason why the movie industry continues to slowly define (and redefine) what “horror” really is.
To find out what scares people, Hollywood goes deep into the imagination of the general public. They take note of the desires, fears, and motivations of groups and individuals. This is how they come up with truly scary movies — those that remind people of what they truly fear, such as the absence of freedom.
How Things Started In The 70’s
It was in the 1970s that horror movies really took off and became associated with the celebration of Halloween. The stock images of scary scarecrows and Jack-O-Lanterns were integrated and given a new life.
Before then, these two items had more genial identities. After all, they were symbols of a good harvest. But as Hollywood changed the perception of Halloween over the years, thees seemingly harmless items suddenly became very scary.
That’s pretty much what Halloween is — even the cutest rodents can become zombies out for human blood. It’s a way of giving people a good scare without putting them in any real harm.
Wild, Contradicting Emotions
Nobody likes to be scared, but many Hollywood films seem to achieve immortality owing to a constantly growing fan base. The reason for this is that movies take fear and bring it to the people in a more tolerable way.
That’s the difference between movies and real life — when tragedies happen in real life, it’s often out of the hands of people. This is why people would much rather not deal with real life tragedies — they don’t like the idea of not being in control.
But when the same terrible events become something you can pop into your DVD player and enjoy in the comforts of home, they become under your total control. They are suddenly less frightening, and even kids can appreciate the scare they bring.
For the kids
This is the reason why many adults still want to celebrate Halloween. Without a celebration with death and the unknown as its main motifs, how can an adult teach a child about fear, horror and death without cringing?
How do you make something as horrible as death less intimidating? You use Halloween, masks and parties. Parades are good, too. By dressing up the unknown, a message is being communicated.
In the end, Halloween gives us a measure of control over what would otherwise be out of our hands. It also lets us have a little fun while looking for ways to exert even more control over death.
