What lay behind those doors were cages and cages of quivering silhouettes, stripped of their humanity, lowered to the status of performing animals. People with missing or abnormal limbs, Dwarves, Siamese twins, Giants, all seen as dire monstrosities, yet today viewed as mere disabilities.
Visitors would be horrified at such unusual sights. They’d turn away in disgust or look on in wonder. They’d feel shock and relief simultaneously, as they gaze at the spectacle of these ‘freaks’. Part of the reason for going was to feel better about themselves and feel glad at how lucky they were to be ‘normal’.
Similarly, most of the exhilaration of fear and the amusement of horror is in the suspense, for instance Horror Movies. All horror movies follow a simple recipe; a handful of naïve, unsuspecting victims, a murderer, a dark night and a twist of a superstitious old ghost story. We all know the simple format most Horror movies take, how the murderer awaits his victim, how people always enter a dark room and never switch a light on and how the killer is always “behind you!”. We know that they’re made to scare the ‘living daylights’ out of us, but we willingly watch them! Why? Simply because we love the rush, we love the feeling of adrenaline pulsing through our veins, of our heart beating out of our chest in anticipation.
At the same time, we shield ourselves from what we know is coming, we cover our eyes for protection, in spite of which we spread our fingers and peer at the action unfolding, and when it does happen, we jump out of our seats, screaming, scared out of our wits.
Nevertheless we’re happy because we survived the horror. That’s also part of the thrill, knowing you survived, getting an overwhelming feeling of conquering our fears. Of overcoming the beast.
The same feeling is felt by those who participate in ‘extreme sports’. They are fully aware of the consequences they will face should the worst happen, but that adds to the thrill. They’re pushing their body to the limit and are doing things humans weren’t built to do, such as sky-diving. “If we were meant to fly we would have been given wings” believes Dr Tom Middleton of Lincoln University, Nebraska. Sky-diving was invented to give us the chance to experience a feeling that before we never thought imaginable. Thrill seekers who take part in ‘extreme sports’ are seeing how close to the edge they can get.
They’re taking fear as a drug, it fuels their enjoyment, like alcohol would mine our yours. They get that indescribable rush only felt through fear.
In conclusion, horror has a large role to play in entertainment, it excites us through movies, lets us feel better about ourselves by shocking us with the sight of those much worse of than us. Fear provides a buzz that is unlike any other, and is unattainable except through shock and fright. People pay to be frightened and shocked because after the climax of fear, once the movie has ended, the ‘freak show’ has left town, and once your feet are firmly back on the ground, you realise that your life isn’t so bad after all, it’s pretty boring actually. But that boredom can soon be extinguished though a little fear-therapy! Fear in all its forms lets us escape from reality and live a little on the ‘wild side’.