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So yesterday we talked about zombie movies and what makes them tick, and I learned something new about our readers: you people love the walking dead! I was expecting a few people to pipe up and argue that horror movies are disgusting and unnecessary; after all, isn’t there enough pain and suffering in the world as it is? All ya gotta do is open up the newspaper, and there’s your horror story! Which would’ve given me the opportunity to provide the counter-argument to that, which is: I think that’s exactly why we need them.
Let me explain by providing a recent example from my local newspaper, the LA Times. For those of you who haven’t heard (I’m not sure how far news like this travels), we’ve had a strange and bloody couple of weeks here in angel city:
Sunday, Feb 24: Two People Stabbed While Watching Horror Movie
This is probably my worst nightmare; I often think of how vulnerable we are in movie theaters, sitting essentially alone in the dark surrounded by strangers. (Heck, Lincoln died that way, and John Dillinger was shot and killed by police coming out of a Chicago theater where he was watching a gangster flick.) Here’s the scoop:
Half an hour into “The Signal,” a man seated in a back row stabbed a lone moviegoer in front of him, police said. As the victim fled, a witness told police, the man walked toward the screen and stabbed a second man. The victims apparently did not know each other or the suspect, “leading us to believe this is just a completely random assault,” Basham said. At the time, there were only two moviegoers in the theater in addition to the stabber and victims, police said.
Here’s the creepiest part: “After the suspect fled, Basham said, the movie resumed: It is a slasher film about a mysterious electronic signal [broadcast through TVs and radios] that compels people to kill.”
Wednesday, Feb. 27: A man shoots repeatedly into a crowd
There are still plenty of gang-related shootings in South L.A., but this one most certainly stood out from the pack:
Five children and three adults were shot Wednesday afternoon by a gunman who opened fire at a busy South Los Angeles bus stop minutes after classes were dismissed at a nearby school. In a scene of chaos that authorities were still trying to piece together, witnesses described a gunman who seemingly appeared from nowhere and began spraying the crowd indiscriminately. As bystanders dived to the ground, some adults swept up children from the path of gunfire.
As if that weren’t enough …
The article about the bus stop shooting concludes with this:
“Wednesday’s violence comes after a month of high-profile shootings that began Feb. 7 when SWAT Officer Randal Simmons was killed during a siege with a San Fernando Valley man who had killed his family members. Less than a week later in Oxnard, a 15-year-old boy was shot by a classmate. In Northeast Los Angeles on Feb. 21, Avenues gang members got into a shootout with police that left two dead and paralyzed a large swath of the city for much of the day. Two days later a Yorba Linda man killed his wife and three children before turning the gun on himself. Monday night, a Baldwin Park man allegedly killed his mother and two neighbors.”
What I’m getting at is this.
Apparently, I live in a city gone insane, where murderous patricidal rampages and indiscriminate killings are becoming the norm. We read about this stuff in the newspaper, and after a moment of oh, that’s horrible, we turn to the comics page. It’s not because we’re insensitive; it’s because we have no way to process or really grapple with the information we’re presented with — it just seems, in a word, evil, and beyond our comprehension, so we stop trying to comprehend it. It reminds me of the bafflement captured by Tommy Lee Jones’ opening monologue in No Country for Old Men:
“The crime you see now, it’s hard to even take its measure. It’s not that I’m afraid of it. I always knew you had to be willing to die to even do this job — not to be glorious. But I don’t want to push my chips forward and go out and meet something I don’t understand. You can say it’s my job to fight it but I don’t know what it is anymore. More than that, I don’t want to know. A man would have to put his soul at hazard.”
If sometimes life seems like a horror movie, it’s one that’s playing in the next house, in the next town — you know it’s going on somewhere, but statistically speaking, unless you’re a gangbanger or a cop or something, you’ll never be tangled up with it in any real way. So how do you deal with that creeping feeling that the world is turning evil? How do you prepare for what seems to be coming? Exorcise it? I think we tell ourselves made-up stories about evil. Ones in which we can identify with the protagonist, who’s fending off hordes of zombies or staking the vampire or appeasing the ghost; our best horror movies are stories about evil that has no explanation.
When horror movies try and make sense of the motivations of the demons or serial killers who are menacing the regular folk, they get all mucked up, because we don’t want to know; because the stories in the newspaper about the guy who murders his family or sprays a bus stop with his 9mm or stabs strangers in a darkened theater all seem, at their root, to be stories about evil, perpetrated by souls so twisted as to be unrecognizable. So the perpetrators in our horror movies are usually perversions of the human form: their flesh is rotted; they wear freaky masks; they are translucent and move about in an unnatural way. Because that child killer I read about can’t be human — not human the same way I am — so our horror movie villains are not-quite-human, as well.
Art imitates Life imitates Art. We’ll go round and round forever.
My theory is that these things are not happening more than they used to. I think these things were always happening, its just that we have more people now.
So if 1 in a million people was born to be a killer back when there were only a million people on Earth, wouldn’t it stand to reason that the same number would hold true today but with 6.5 Billion people?
That along with the media (I think) is the reason why we think it is happening more now than it did before.
posted by Kevin on 2-29-2008 at 11:29 am
I took a course in college that centralized around this exact theme. It was entitled “The Superhuman (or Ubermench): German psychoanalysis of hero’s and villains”. It consisted of ten weeks reading Freud and watching the entire X-MEN trilogy just to make the same point you did in two pages. Kudos.
posted by Earp on 2-29-2008 at 11:39 am
Excellent post.
posted by Ira on 2-29-2008 at 11:41 am
It’s clear that in our culture we’re all under too much stress: too much crowding, economic and social pressure, etc. Folks living near the edge fall over…
posted by Michelle on 2-29-2008 at 11:59 am
Interesting post but I kind of disagree. I think it’s important to note the distinction between us *thinking* these killers are “evil” and “can’t be human”, they of course are and there are usually psychological motives for what they do. With the exception of true sociopaths, that is. I think it’s dangerous to say the people in the papers committing those crimes are evil and can’t be human, because that a) limits our ability to recognize and help people who need it before they “go postal” and b) too easily sets up an “us” vs “them” scenario in which we have no empathy for people driven to act irrationally.
posted by Lisa on 2-29-2008 at 12:04 pm
@Earp:
Sounds like an interesting class, but I’m curious as to why the prof chose the X-Men trilogy. (I don’t have anything against the movies, just wondering).
@Ransom:
Awesome post. Makes complete sense to me! It’s like we’re no different from the more primitive cultures who used myth and storytelling to understand the world around them. We use the horror myths/storytelling in attempts to make sense of the evil around us.
posted by nutmeag on 2-29-2008 at 12:33 pm
I agree with what you’re saying, but I’d also have to say that these things aren’t happening now more than any other time. A good example is when we found the Newspaper with my grandfather’s birth announcement in it a few years ago, that my grandmother had in a box. The obituaries were on the same page, and in one day in this little paper from rural Indiana, there were something like 8 murders in one month.
posted by Ian EBH on 2-29-2008 at 12:44 pm
I guess in NH you are statistically more likely to be hurt by your roof or your underwear than a stranger.
Good to know.
posted by Amy on 2-29-2008 at 1:12 pm
I think that people who are barely holding on to their sanity, morality or their grasp of reality just sometimes let go. ‘Regular’ folk just plain reach a tipping point and lose it. Some are evil, some are ill, they all just snap
posted by JaneM on 2-29-2008 at 1:29 pm
Death is fascinating because there is no escaping death. And the thought of someone murdering you,or your family, is scary. But it seems the things we do to ourselves can be more deadly: smoking, drugs, heart disease (caused by eating habits), obesity…
Now Zombies on the other hand. BRAINS!!!!!! Those movies tend to gross me out and make me laugh. I think the closest we get in reality to Zombie movies are riots.
posted by Ella Blue on 2-29-2008 at 1:47 pm
True Story!
Way back when I worked for a top movie chain, I was alone at the concession counter one afternoon, on the top floor, where the older movies were shown. A boy about 10-12 came up to me, his hair was wet, he had a gash on his head, and he was crying. I asked if he had tripped, but instead he said he’d been stabbed! His hoodie moved and I saw a gash across his throat… we called 911. Apparently it was totally random, not for sex or money… and the stranger tried to drown him in the toilet!
Parents, watch your kids, watch them like hawks. There really is such a thing as stranger danger.
I agree that there’s always been trouble out there, but now that we have the Internet and technology, pervs and psychos are empowered and emboldened by their networking.
posted by Marion on 2-29-2008 at 1:54 pm
I read this article. Several times. I’m still not sure what the argument is for why we need horror movies (which is the title).
I should note I disagree with the comment regarding our lack of comprehension of horable crimes. I don’t feel people lack the ability or willingness to comprehend crimes, but rather, there is inability to do anything about the crimes themselves. For example, recently there was a mass shooting at NIU. Gunman killed a bunch of people then himself…Certainly can comprehend it, but what exactly am I supposed to do about? Pass a law? seems a law against murder already exists here in IL. Buy some flowers for dead people I don’t know? I mean, really, what are you supposed to do???
posted by Florida on 2-29-2008 at 1:58 pm
@Florida:
Well, the simple facts of each case are pretty comprehensible. But try to put yourself in the shoes of the killers — the NIU guy, for instance. It’s nearly impossible. What’s it like to lose your mind? I wouldn’t know. It’s easier to imagine people like that as something else, something other, an alien or a demon, than to admit that we are ourselves capable of committing such acts (even though we clearly are). I think most horror movies reinforce that: the people who do horrible things are OTHER, and what they’re doing is EVIL … now that’s a lot easier on the ol’ moral compass.
posted by Ransom on 2-29-2008 at 2:10 pm
I couldn’t agree with the main point more. But I agree with Kevin that the world isn’t more evil. We’re just more aware of said evil.
posted by John P on 2-29-2008 at 2:20 pm
I believe you are absolutely right that people don’t like to look at their hearts to try to comprehend evil in our world.
“It’s not because we’re insensitive;”
Exactly, we have become desensitized, we don’t want to admit we live in an evil fallen world so we “turn to the comics” instead of understanding the source of evil.
I think you hit the nail on the head that we rationalize an “us and them” mentality to make ourselves comfortable. We fictionalize and dramatize it in the movies to feel safe(r).
This raises a huge topic that people can’t seem to understand what defines good and evil in a world of moral gray. Most will say morals, laws and social morays keep us “in line” and abiding. We are born with this sense of right and wrong, true and false, and evil people have had this “damaged” some how causing them to lose their moral compass.
I think, to truly comprehend evil, requires an honest look at who we really are and what keeps us from crossing that “line” losing our compass. I think the answer is, suprisingly, our heart is depraved and evil at its root.
I am a Christian man who believe its by the grace of God that has set up and defined these intrinsic feelings of morals and truth. We all are born with a bad heart but by the commonly unacknowledged grace of God we are able to live and function as society. I realize this stirs a million questions about why then does God allows others to commit evil and why bad thing happen, to which I say google it for lack of space here.
But, for us non-killers, it is grace that keep believers and non-believer alike keep us from “going there”. I think we all can admit we all have evil or feel evil to a degree in our lives and these questions about the existence evil in our lives are tough to address but neccesary. If nothing else it will bring us back to feeling for mankind again.
posted by Andrew Thompson on 2-29-2008 at 2:34 pm
@Andrew
I guess I’m unique, I’ve never had the urge to shoot into a crowd, and I don’t need a supernatural explaination to keep me from doing so.
posted by Scott on 2-29-2008 at 3:04 pm
I want to give humans the benefit of the doubt and say that people cannot be born “evil.” I think that people are born psychologically imbalanced and the environment that they live in, among many other factors, can also stimulate an even greater disposition toward violence.
I agree with the idea that the world has not become more evil, but that these sort of episodes are being covered by the media more.
& I also agree to the “It’s not because we’re insensitive” statement because people can never desensitive themselves to death and killing. Never.
So, in conclusion: Good article. I am living in Boston right now, but I’m from LA, & it made me really disheartened to hear this.. not just about LA, but about the sanity of humanity in general.
posted by Meliza on 2-29-2008 at 3:10 pm
@ Ransom
@ Nutmeg
We create characters [like the ones in x-men and every other comic/horror media] to associate and give reason to evil. Magnito’s motive is created out of childhood trauma. I would argue that is the case for most villains on or off screen. It’s all very philosophical why we feel the need to understand and emulate terrible things on film to try to explain the irrationality of some, or maybe even all of us. We haven’t all become mass murdering serial killers but I would imagine a majority of us have irrationally hurt someone in one way or another, or at least contemplated it. So the question rises: is man intrinsically good or evil? What is accepted as an act of good or evil is entirely contingent on the perspective of the subject. The act is then judged by those witness to it and classify it as good or evil from an entirely different stance. The reasoning is an attempt to align the act with a moral majority to establish a standard of moral so that people don’t run about putting babies on spikes, because that is just not okay [unless your name is Vlad and you have a castle to back up your actions].
Every night the television is littered between newscasts of atrocities which are brought to our attention as a matter of importance, then exaggerated, rationalized, and glorified into elements of the next season of C.S.I. the same way they are in Horror/supernatural films.
Throughout the ages people have been killing each other for all kinds of rationalized or irrational reasons maybe putting it out on film gets it out of our systems and allows us to emotionalize with how horrific an act is… maybe it gives homicidal maniacs new and creative suggestions. Take from it what you will. If you don’t find a use for it or entertainment in it, don’t watch it.
I’d also like to suggest that we should all make a concerted effort to refrain from irrational acts of violence.
Your blog is my Pandora’s box of morality.
posted by Earp on 2-29-2008 at 4:39 pm
In regard to horror films, one of the things that’s almost always a constant is that our victims have “sinned”. It’s usually teenage sex that unleashes a horrible slashing monster, but it can also be the sin of greed as in Jaws or Alien or Jurassic Park, or adultery (not far from teen sex) as in Fatal Attraction. Sometimes it’s as upfront as the old “Don’t do this or else” kind of thing that of course our characters do (Adam and Eve?) then unwavering death and destruction send them to their demise. Perhaps we watch this films because it satisfies some primal need that we have to feel safe. We can always say to ourselves on some subconscious level “at least I didn’t do THAT”, and feel safe knowing the monster won’t come after us.
Perhaps our need for horror is also the primal need for fear. It’s the state of fright that has aided us in our evolution and something that maybe deep down we need to feel from time to time in order to reassure us of our status quo.
Personally, I hate horror films.
posted by Pete on 2-29-2008 at 4:54 pm
Great post.
I noticed a pattern between those crimes in L.A. Gun crime. All but one was Gun crime.
It perplexes me how America can still have laws that allow people to own and carry firearms. I live in the UK and i never worry about gun crime, because its just so rare over here.
Although Knife crime seems to be on the rise over here, the government states its at it lowest in years.
I know, I know Guns dont kill people, people kill people but I do feel more able to defend myself in a knife incident than i would a gun incident.
Guns relinquish all control over a situation for everyone in it.
posted by Martyn on 2-29-2008 at 5:47 pm
Working for the coroner’s officer I see my fair share of death and there are so many times where I just look at things and question what was going on in people’s heads.
We’ve had some freak shootings lately, 31 in July of last year, and surprisingly only 1 person died that month. We’ve also had 2 people die in fast food drive thrus over the past 6 months, and both were shot. This area was also the location of a mall shooting, Von Maur, which completely surprised me. I never would have expected anything like that to happen in Nebraska.
posted by Casimira on 2-29-2008 at 6:25 pm
Michelle’s post (4th one) reminded me of the premise of Desmond Morris’ book “The Human Zoo”. He talks about how, biologically, we evolved to relate to a tribe of about 300 to 500 people and how our culture and environment have left our biology behind. We’ve still got ape brains just trying to make sense of the modern world.
In his work as a zoologist, he saw animals in captivity (and presumably inadequate enclosures for the most part, given the book was written in the 60s) commit violent acts never observed in the same species in their natural habitat. Think infanticide, incest, rape, murder and cannibalism.
Then he relates this anti-social, abnormal behavior in animals to our modern human existence, saying that most of us are now living in situations that are not healthy for our biology, i.e. cities that contain too many people, which allows us to have more anonymity.
Think about it…
When we only knew and saw 500 people, there was easier accountability. If tribesman X was abusing his daughter, other people knew about it and either killed him or ostracized him from the village. If tribeswoman Y was slowly going crazy, she had tons of relatives and neighbors who noticed and got her some day-to-day help. Not that bad things didn’t still happen but I bet you didn’t have many serial killers, if any.
Nowadays, we’re so isolated from our “natural” support systems that it’s easy to fall through the cracks. Some of us have great family support; others create their own support systems. But many many people can stray beyond “civilization” and never get missed by anybody willing to do something about it.
That’s why I think it’s so important to reach out to your neighbors and community groups and stay involved. We have to rebuild our own “tribes” and “villages” within these too-big cities and we have to hold each other accountable and, yes, mind each other’s business. :)
posted by frodopal on 2-29-2008 at 7:53 pm
Everytime I go in a movie theatre I have the same fear of someone stabbing me in the back. I think it started after I saw some crime show where it happened.
posted by Rachel* on 3-2-2008 at 6:22 pm