Halloween and horror stories are very popular at this time of the year. Throughout the Western Hemisphere (and Westernized pockets in the East), people are going to celebrate the festival of Halloween on October 31st.
Pumpkin lanterns, witches on broomsticks, skeletons, ghouls and ghosts galore are adorning supermarkets, schools and subways. This brings me to the question I have often asked myself, why do people love being scared? What is the attraction of all things horror?
Horror stories &
Horror movies
Horror stories and horror movies have always been popular. They cause excitement, thrill and an adrenaline rush. Macabre stories like Dracula and Frankenstein, popular in their day, have achieved the status of classics now. Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” video with its ghouls and zombies met with unprecedented success in the 1980’s.
The Harry Potter books brought witches and wizards back into fashion. It was very natural for vampires to follow suit. The Twilight series of books and movies made vampires trendy again.
Vampires
Vampires were always dark and bloodthirsty creatures as in Bram Stoker’s ‘Dracula’. The Twilight series has turned them into high school attending American teens. My favourite vampire, however, is the Count in the movie Hotel Transylvania. Voiced over by Adam Sandler, he is not at all scary but is quite funny.
Lucifer
It is common to link horror stories back to the Devil or Satan or Lucifer, whatever you choose to call him. Maybe the popularity of such stories lies in our desire to blame the baser side of our nature on someone else, but let’s not get too philosophical.
Stories based on Satanic or demonic possession like The Exorcist or The Omen were very popular and were also made into extremely successful Hollywood movies. The fascination with demonic possession continues to this day. Later horror movies like Chucky, Carrie and Annabel feature children’s dolls that become possessed.
Kids love to tell horror stories around the camp fire or at sleep overs. My son’s school hosts a sleep over every autumn for seventh and eighth graders. It features various all night activities including a film screening. As you may have guessed the movie of choice is always the latest horror movie.
Whatever the philosophy or psychology behind horror stories, they are very popular especially at this time of the year.
Do you like horror stories and horror movies? What are your favourites?
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Salted Caramel 
It is a mystery to me why feeling scared has that weird attraction, and am marvelled by how ghosts and the supernatural are often part of traditional stories and legends. I used to love ghost stories and movies, but now not so much; I am getting less brave as I get older …
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I think it’s easier to weave stories if you can resort to the supernatural to use plot twists.
Then you don’t need explanations.
That being said I don’t mind the simple kind of magic in children s stories.
I guess that is natural as I grew up on Enid Blyton’s books that had fairies and pixies. I also enjoyed the first three Harry Potter books before they got too intense.
How about you?
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I started with Hans Christian Andersen, then Tolkien, E.A. Poe, Ann Rice … J.K.Rowling with my kids, but now I read mostly non-fiction or historical fiction; as I said, I am becoming less brave he he
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My favourite is the story of Bloody Mary.
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Sorry if I sound like a bore, but horror has never been my cup of tea. I have enough horrible characters around me in real life 😱😱😱
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Omg! I hope you can deal with that 😉
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OMG
Who ate these horrible characters
I wonder
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As for Ambereen, I’ve never been a fan of horror movies, especially those like Saw, I don’t understand violence for free, but maybe I have missed something.
I think magic in stories for children is a little different, it’s not gore as in movies for adults. It’s like with extreme sports, apparently we don’t have the same needs when it come to strong sensations. I prefer celebrating the Saints on November 1st 🙂
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Exactly! Horror movies are all about gore these days. That’s just repulsive. Not scary -_-
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Yes, exactly, repulsive.
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An interesting question. My Mrs and I do enjoy a well-made horror movie (as opposed to things like the Saw franchise that I see as pure gore porn). I am looking forward to seeing the new Halloween flick. OK, maybe I just want to compare how Jamie Lee Curtis and I have aged. 🙂
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Thankfully I have not seen Saw.
I try my best to stay away from the horror genre.
I think Jamie Lee Curtis looks better with longer hair.
Even in True Lies and Freaky Friday she was no spring chicken.
Age catches up with all of us (except those who resort to botox and collagen.
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Don’t want to offend anyone but seriously some people who “resort to botox and collagen” end up looking almost ghostly. I would prefer to look old rather than that 😂😂😂😂
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“Lines of experience “
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Pls check my blog put where I tell horror stories
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