The Summit of Safe Horror: Defending Most Horror Films
Many people regularly watch horror films. While it seems clear that sporadically watching horror films will not make us bad people, if it is the main type of media that we consume, then are we still safe? I will defend most horror films from Di Muzio (2006), who worries that we are harming our moral...
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University of Rijeka. Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences
2024-01-01
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| Series: | European Journal of Analytic Philosophy |
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| Online Access: | https://hrcak.srce.hr/file/466114 |
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| author | Cara Rei Cummings-Coughlin |
| author_facet | Cara Rei Cummings-Coughlin |
| author_sort | Cara Rei Cummings-Coughlin |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Many people regularly watch horror films. While it seems clear that sporadically watching horror films will not make us bad people, if it is the main type of media that we consume, then are we still safe? I will defend most horror films from Di Muzio (2006), who worries that we are harming our moral character by watching them. Most horror films (e.g., Candyman, Get Out, and Scream) fall into what I call the summit of safe horror (SoSH), the inverse of the uncanny valley effect, wherein almost-but-not-quite-human robots elicit discomfort from viewers rather than empathy. In the SoSH, violence elicits excitement rather than pity for the victims because the violence is mitigated by, among other things, comic relief and foolish choices by the characters. These narrative features allow most horror films to be intense enough to cause excitement and terror yet not so intense as to cause a negative moral attitude to form in our soul, because we feel what Aristotle would consider the appropriate amount of fear. Torture porn, a subset of horror films lacking plot and focusing solely on gore (e.g., the Saw sequels), falls outside of the SoSH because it lacks these narrative features, making the violence depicted too intense to be entertaining. These films outside the SoSH will not necessarily cause an inappropriate amount of fear but are simply the only ones that could possibly do so. Caution: spoilers ahead! |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-7d1952d0329e4e2d86df6ce1acf11adb |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 1845-8475 1849-0514 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2024-01-01 |
| publisher | University of Rijeka. Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences |
| record_format | Article |
| series | European Journal of Analytic Philosophy |
| spelling | doaj-art-7d1952d0329e4e2d86df6ce1acf11adb2024-11-18T12:45:23ZengUniversity of Rijeka. Faculty of Humanities and Social SciencesEuropean Journal of Analytic Philosophy1845-84751849-05142024-01-0120232334310.31820/ejap.20.2.4The Summit of Safe Horror: Defending Most Horror FilmsCara Rei Cummings-Coughlin0Morgan State University, USAMany people regularly watch horror films. While it seems clear that sporadically watching horror films will not make us bad people, if it is the main type of media that we consume, then are we still safe? I will defend most horror films from Di Muzio (2006), who worries that we are harming our moral character by watching them. Most horror films (e.g., Candyman, Get Out, and Scream) fall into what I call the summit of safe horror (SoSH), the inverse of the uncanny valley effect, wherein almost-but-not-quite-human robots elicit discomfort from viewers rather than empathy. In the SoSH, violence elicits excitement rather than pity for the victims because the violence is mitigated by, among other things, comic relief and foolish choices by the characters. These narrative features allow most horror films to be intense enough to cause excitement and terror yet not so intense as to cause a negative moral attitude to form in our soul, because we feel what Aristotle would consider the appropriate amount of fear. Torture porn, a subset of horror films lacking plot and focusing solely on gore (e.g., the Saw sequels), falls outside of the SoSH because it lacks these narrative features, making the violence depicted too intense to be entertaining. These films outside the SoSH will not necessarily cause an inappropriate amount of fear but are simply the only ones that could possibly do so. Caution: spoilers ahead!https://hrcak.srce.hr/file/466114comic reliefcouragefearhorror filmtorture pornuncanny valley |
| spellingShingle | Cara Rei Cummings-Coughlin The Summit of Safe Horror: Defending Most Horror Films European Journal of Analytic Philosophy comic relief courage fear horror film torture porn uncanny valley |
| title | The Summit of Safe Horror: Defending Most Horror Films |
| title_full | The Summit of Safe Horror: Defending Most Horror Films |
| title_fullStr | The Summit of Safe Horror: Defending Most Horror Films |
| title_full_unstemmed | The Summit of Safe Horror: Defending Most Horror Films |
| title_short | The Summit of Safe Horror: Defending Most Horror Films |
| title_sort | summit of safe horror defending most horror films |
| topic | comic relief courage fear horror film torture porn uncanny valley |
| url | https://hrcak.srce.hr/file/466114 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT carareicummingscoughlin thesummitofsafehorrordefendingmosthorrorfilms AT carareicummingscoughlin summitofsafehorrordefendingmosthorrorfilms |