Why do people watch horror/gore movies??

[flyingkitty]

Thanks to Zepher08, I modified the question. This is quite uh.. quite a bit easier.

What drives people's behavior of watching scenes that they consider "horrible?"
Does anyone have an opinion?

so for example, you would imagine that violent murder scene in a movie or an music video clip where they show people eating human  should invoke negative feeling but people seem to enjoy it.
They don't only enjoy it but they demand more and more increasingly provocative imagery and the media is making a fortune out of this.

Do we derive pleasure from watching these "horrible" scenes?

[SWM]

what negative emotions are you thinknig of?

[Zepher08]

Just that, negative emotions. People identify with the emotional experience projected on the screen or with in a picture and come back for more. It become habitual as in pattern.

I never can figure out why people like to watch gory / horror movies. I have good friends that swear by night of the living dead. I figure at best they are dealing with feelings that are other wise not acceptable. Unacceptable feelings do turn into scary monsters and do rip the heads off of dolls. If not in 3-D but in dreams or in this case, on the screne.

There are many ways to look at the subject you , flyingkitty, bring up. How much of what we see is telling us how to see and what to think/feel about what we see?

I usually figure people watch gore because it represents something with in that is unclaimed and unsolved. I am open for other ideas though. A reflection of ones own unclaimed demons. Such as to view it externally is a good way to keep a distance from the reality with in.

When I see violent images I see a picture of what lives inside of some one else. It is not about me unless I identify with it etc.

Thinking projective identification would be fitting here.

[SWM]

what you describe as negative may not be negative to other people.

is a ride on a roller coaster exciting or scary or boring? would that ride make you feel exhilarated, terrified or want to vomit?

[gone]

Usually the 'gore' is an element of a narrative. The narrative is why people watch, if not they would just watch gore clips or snuff.

You seem to emphasise 'violence' 'negative imagery' and 'media'...  This is where your focus is at the moment and wanting to explore this further.

I wouldn't class movies like 'Night of the Living Dead' as gore but as comedy, which are tongue in cheek (to me at least) - think thriller video Michael Jackson they are living dead.. But I watched a German drama the other day which showed a womans naked murdered body with her breast removed, THAT WAS GORE!! even I euuuked at that... I wondered how they achieved such an effect (with latex etc) and continued to watch (even though it was in german with subtitles) just to see if they showed imagery of the vagina mutilation they talked off. I wasn't so much intereted to see what it looked like, more if Germans would project such imagery into drama, as in the UK it would only be talked off, not shown, so my motivation for continuing to watch was to gain understanding of barriers of different countries.

Canabilism you mention, when I see a person eat meat, I see them as a canibal almost, certainly animal like, so I experience this daily. If I saw a person eat another person I wouldn't bat an eyelid, it's consuming flesh & blood and organs I see not difference.

My gore is not the same as your gore. gore is subjective.

Enjoyment derived from it.
 It depends on the 'feel' of the imagery. A person eating another person can be sexy (vampire-ish) or sickening (Hanibal)... Note again these are 'narratives'... narratives are music videos and movies and news and what resonates with people and what makes money..

[flyingkitty]

Yes, that is exactly what I'm focusing on in the media right now because that's the issue I'm raising.
Thanks for your replies but frankly horror/gore as comedy or thriller or even amusement is a little irrelevant.

No matter how subjective, there are basic human instincts that are associated with negative emotions. And these instincts are shared by practically everybody. I mean for example, we don't have to teach children to be afraid of death. Yes we could almost brainwash kids to not be afraid of death and say fear of death is subjective but that's not the issue i'm raising.
When we see a horribly damaged dead body, "generally" our immediate emotion is fear which "generally" causes us to stay away(let's not talk about how one can be different through conditioning and dismiss it as a subjective matter). But large public seems to be attracted to watch these scenes.

Zepher brings up an interesting point, and I agree with his view to a large extent. If projective identification is based on Freud's model of id, superego and ego, you are saying that there are deeper unresolved desires to be violent/victimized that we project onto the characters in the movie. then we would watch these movies because our satisfaction of this projection overrides fearful feelings. I don't like to go with freud, but assuming this is true, would this be a healthy way of dealing with people's unresolved desires? because projective identification isn't generally regarded as a healthy defense mechanism. (Yes I'm asking for your guys' personal opinion.) Any thoughts?

Or could it just be dopamine? or a form of schadenfreude?

[Zepher08]

Flyingkitty, the way I read your post is that you are raising an issue about the people having some sort of enjoyment or compulsion to look at violent images such as body mutilation (human body).

No one considers it healthy to actually enjoy cutting up body parts of humans so why would it be healthy to enjoy watching? Something like that.

As far as negative emotions go perhaps for those that enjoy watching mutilation they actually receive positive emotions like power and control or even the sense of destroying and with in that there is a good thing happening.

I now in my own dreams my brain can get violent enough that I need not see others imaginations. So, what is behind the violence may not understood on a universal level. Then again when there is more violence then non violence as in out of balance I myself wonder what is that attention about?

I have non violent friends how enjoy watching movies that are graphic in violence. I have no idea why I can not tolerate the sight of body parts flying and the other person doesn't flinch.

All I am saying is that there is probably various ways of experiencing violent images. Some folks are more or less desensitized is another way of looking at it.

[sakoz]

Horror movies are a technologically sophisticated version of the ancient lore of storytelling.(around the camp fire?) This does not answer your question; but keep in mind,during the story or movie, the audience know they are safe, they sought the "entertainment".  But change the context, put one of the audience in a jungle, next in line on the menu of a cannibal 'feast'.

[flyingkitty]

Zepher, thanks for your reply, assuming projective identification is largely why people watch horror/gore movies, yes that is exactly what I'm asking.

If you do take this theory, projective identification as a defense mechanism serves to "defend" against anxiety coming from inner conflicts between id (unconscious urge to be violent/victimized/superior) and super-igo(social norms of virtue).
Projective identification is an attempt to transfer these unresolved desires onto other people trying to make them look like they are the ones with these desires correct? And since movie characters portray these desires very well and they identify with these characters, and feel more or less justified, their anxiety resolved.

I have non violent friends who watch scary/gore movies too. Maybe when they watch someone commit murder, they feel power over others. Maybe they identify with victims (which I've seen quite often).
I'm not necessarily suggesting people will become more violent watching this kind of movies, but personally i do not think that this is one of the better ways of resolving inner conflicts especially those regarding violent urges or other unhealthy urges. There is a whole other bunch of defense mechanisms I'd personally recommend but this getting a bit off the point. I guess I should post another question regarding if this is a good way of resolving unconscious conflicts at all.

Sakoz, that's a good point. As long as people know that they are in a safe environment, it might be a matter of dopamine. I certainly do think dopamine is also  big element.