鈥淲e make up horrors to help us cope with the real ones.鈥� 鈥� Stephen King, master of terror/literary giant.
Fear comes in many shapes and sounds, and it鈥檚 an emotion that envelopes a significant portion of society every time October rolls around because Halloween is at the end of the month.聽 Fear is gripping, intense, and a natural instinct built within not only us humans who walk the earth, but all living creatures.聽 It鈥檚 the most gut-checking type of emotion we have that can hit us like a freight train.
But on the other hand, fear is also fun, thrilling, and a way to enjoy yourself.聽 This is obvious whenever Halloween approaches and the general theme of everyday society takes on a darker, more sinister, ghosts-and-goblins visage.
In short, there鈥檚 鈥榖ad鈥� fear, but also 鈥榞ood鈥� fear.
Not many people enjoy being afraid, and no one truly wants to experience a legitimately life-threatening situation, but there are some of us who really enjoy the experience of being scared.聽 First, the natural high from the fight or flight response can feel great.聽 There is strong evidence that this isn鈥檛 just about personal choice, but our brain chemistry. 聽Research that was released four years ago showed that people differ in their chemical response to thrilling situations. 聽One of the main hormones released during scary and thrilling activities is dopamine, and it turns out some individuals may get more of a kick from this dopamine response than others do. 聽Basically, some people鈥檚 brains lack what researcher David Zald describes as 鈥渂rakes鈥� on the dopamine release and re-uptake in the brain. 聽This means some people are going to really enjoy thrilling, scary, and risky situations while others, not so much.
That rush that comes with being afraid and forced to give a fight or flight response is typical among the people who might shell out a few bucks to enter a haunted house.聽 Essentially, you鈥檙e paying to allow strangers to scare the crap out of you.聽 But it鈥檚 also a controlled environment, and your brain realizes that.聽 It鈥檚 the difference of knowing 鈥淭his is safe鈥� and 鈥淭his is NOT safe鈥� that allows us to let go and have fun.
Another obvious element in this 鈥榮eason of the witch鈥� is the horror movie.聽 If you鈥檙e a film buff, then odds are that you have your favorites like I do.聽 The argument can certainly be made that Hollywood doesn鈥檛 know how to truly scare people and give them a fright these days, what with everything being computer-generated and over-produced to the point of being something of a mess, so when it comes to horror movies, the stance typically taken by fanatics is that 鈥渙ld school is still cool.鈥澛� We鈥檙e talking classics such as the old Universal monster movies like Dracula or The Wolfman, but also others such as The Exorcist, Rosemary鈥檚 Baby, Psycho, and Halloween.
My favourite has to be 鈥楢 Nightmare on Elm Street鈥�.聽 Odds are that once you read that title, your mind immediately went to the image of Freddy Krueger, the dream-stalking monster who wore a dirty fedora and a razor-bladed glove to do his victims in.聽 It鈥檚 iconic, it stands up to the test of time, and it still has a way of getting under your skin.
Perhaps what was scarier about the film was that its origin came from real-life events.
Director Wes Craven (RIP) once said that some of the inspiration for Krueger came from a traumatic experience he had as a kid.聽 He and his brother happened to look outside the window of their house one night and saw a dishevelled vagrant walking down the sidewalk, noticing him as he walked under the lights.聽 Out of nowhere, almost as if he knew he had eyes on him, the man looked up and locked eyes with Wes, who immediately ducked under the window.聽 When he and his brother looked up again, the vagrant still looked at them, only he was closer to the house.聽 After he left, the incident stayed with Wes for a very long time.
Not only that, but the essential plot of 鈥楨lm Street鈥� also seemed to come from disturbing, real-life events, as Craven once read an LA Times news report of a young boy who had died out of nowhere while having a nightmare.
To me, watching a movie like 鈥楨lm Street鈥� is what provides that thrilling aspect of fear.聽 For everyone else, it鈥檚 likely something different.
Still, I鈥檓 looking forward to another 鈥榙ate night鈥� with Mr. Krueger on Halloween.
For this week, that鈥檚 been the Ruttle Report.
