27 pages 54 minutes read

Stephen King

Why We Crave Horror Movies

Nonfiction | Essay / Speech | Adult | Published in 1981

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Index of Terms

Anarchy

This term describes circumstances that lack organization, control, or government. Anarchy can also refer to the act of fighting against authority, or a situation that is chaotic or free-spirited. In the essay, “anarchistic” refers to fighting against the norm; King uses the term in Paragraph 11 to explain that quality horror movies contain elements that interrogate norms but are also revolutionary, promoting a radical type of change to the status quo, and are reactionary because they assert social norms.

Anticivilization

This term refers to opposing aspects of a society that is advanced and socially developed. In the essay, anticivilization is used in terms of emotions, those emotions that oppose civilized ones like love and kindness and keep society balanced and orderly. Too many opposing negative emotions like hatred, anger, or cruelty produce a kind of anticivilization, yet these emotions need to be expressed, and horror movies are one way to do so.

The Cleveland Torso Murderer

This serial killer is known to have killed at least 12 people between 1935 and 1938 in Cleveland, Ohio. The killer dismembered victims and left their body parts in Kingsbury Run, an economically disadvantaged neighborhood of the city. Only two victims were identified, and the killer was never caught, although researchers believe it was Francis E.