Opinion: Embrace the scare
Horror novels generate about $79.6 million per year, making it the fifth most popular genre.
These past few years have seen an intense increase in high-budget horror films, as the genre has become more popular. For decades, scary movies have been some of the most financially successful film types because they can be cheap to make and usually bring back a ton of box office success.
Horror movies make greater returns in turns of financial success for investors and special effects don’t even have to be that great.
Alex Huntsberger, a financier for Oppo Loans, wrote, “The original Halloween from legendary director John Carpenter only cost a paltry $325,000 to produce. And when you add in the fact that it made $47 million at the box office — almost 150 times what it cost to make.”
It’s no wonder that the genre is so popular — people love to be scared. Scary movies, especially today, usually reflect our society and cultural norms of the time. Directors like Jordan Peele, for instance, work on stories like “Get Out” and “Us” to reflect some of the social disparities in the United States.
Psychology Today explained we love scary movies and experiences like haunted houses and jumpscares because of the feelings we take away from it. Romances and slice of life stories are meant to be an escapism from the real world. Meanwhile, scary situations that are set up are meant to let a person experience danger or fear without any real consequences.
Even months before or after Halloween, fear is a very fun activity. It’s what thrill seekers seek and what movie-makers have so much fun with. It’s much better than focusing on real life horror like politics and death. It’s kind of what we need right now.
The last year and a half has been pretty scary, with political polarization and lack of public discourse, along with the coronavirus pandemic and other global threats. Not to mention all of the fear that minorities live with every single day. It’s no surprise that horror movies are making a comeback.
As long as they’re not about viruses.
We need to make the Halloween season scarier and embrace what freaks us out. We should instill more Halloweenish activities and holidays throughout the year, make more scary movies that don’t just come out in October and have more fun with fear.
Yes, it’s fun to be silly, go party and get candy, but Halloween is first and foremost a holiday about the dead and a holiday about dread. Let’s all try to embrace the fear with our decorations and costumes, so we can face the real, much scarier world, a little braver than before.
Megan Cowdell is a second-year communications student. She loves going on bike rides, reading mystery novels and watching cheesy movies.