Why we love horror stories

It is often under-appreciated how many of the stories that trace back to oral tradition—including those that we refer to as fairy tales—are actually horror stories.

(I actually wonder if all of them were, to an extent, and whether the completely horror-free story experience is a relatively modern development.)

Thought experiment: take the plot of a modern horror film (such as one of my recent favourites Nope) and imagine retelling it in a simplified fairy tale style, preserving the horrific events. What you end up with is much more like an original fairy tale, before the modern adaptations that made them “safe for children”.

https://archive.ph/tylO3

I effing hate horror movies/stories. I am not sure whether i am too psychologically sensitive or what, but i am different in this from most people i know. How people could produce and enjoyably watch slasher/Halloween/Scream/pointless-murder movies is beyond me.

All of us have a nameless fear of the dread and a darkness inside and it seems to me these sort of movies/stories over-stimulate this part of our mind/brain which i don't think is healthy for the society and the individual.

I like horror stories because you can never truly predict the story. I am an avid reader, and well written horror stories (both paper and film variants) scratch that itch of novelty and "anything can happen". Most other fiction stories are often overly predictable, or heavily foreshadowed that I can kind of feel what's going to happen next.

Some people thrive on routine and familiarity, and I'm the opposite (neophilia).

Here's another perspective, from science fiction writer James H Schmitz, in the introduction to his book, A Pride of Monsters: https://web.archive.org/web/20010727131117/http://www.white-...

Extract:

"That was a period vastly longer than the civilization which has brought us a growing security against the beast that prowls by night. And the beast remains part of our heritage, unforgotten; it pads through the dark back-ways of our minds, peers out into our dreams. There is a kinship, a bond, between it and us. It's part of the raw substance of life; if necessary, we'll create new forms for it. As the original monsters of the environment dwindled into relative insignificance, man invented mythological terrors to replace them, new heroes to confront his inventions. It was as if he sensed a lack-and dragons and griffins, werewolves and vampires were born to hunt the outer dark again and restore to it what was missing."

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