Franklin D. Roosevelt said in his First Inaugural Address: "We have nothing to fear but fear itself". That may explain why you don't like the idea of scary movies, but doesn't explain what drives the fear you experience when you're watching one. Fear is your body's way of getting you out of the way of a perceived threat - much like disgust, which is the body's way of avoiding exposure to diseases. You may have questions regarding this, and I myself have posed some question I intend to address succinctly and analyticaly.
- What is fear?
- Why do our brains, which evolved to run from large cats with big teeth, enjoy being scared?
- Is thrill seeking purely a group activity?
- What sub-genres of scary thrillers exist?
- Why does each affect us the way it does?
- Which techniques generate the biggest "scare" factor?
- What are some examples in movies and games?
Why should you care?
Knowing the underlying factors of fear is of prime importance in creating art and narrative, especially manipulating the emotions of your audience. As artists, we are expected to convey our thoughts to our audience; to do this, we must first understand what they feel, and why. Of course there is already a large amount of literature on the subject, but this method aims to succinctly unify the various sub-genres of horror and thriller using a set of basic, primordial fears, and identify why people enjoy them.
How am I going to do it?
By comparing the success of movies and games to their various sub-genres and methods of terror, I am expecting to find general, though perhaps not perfect, equations for creating successful thrillers. By observing factors that make a thrilling story, it will also be interesting to see how the equation can be used to break the mold, and create more innovative thrillers.
What can you look forward to?
To figure out what we are most scared of and which of these things thrill us the most, you can expect a series of breakdowns of each sub-genre and aspect of fear, compared to the success of popular films, games, and stories. I'll attempt to do this with around ten posts, the aid of charts and infographics, interviews, and podcasts.
