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Show 2ar: 3j& terror we love to hate By JUDY JENSEN You're alone, outside a storm howls as the wind crashes against the windows. The lights dim, flicker, and go out. You stumble through the cold, dark house searching sear-ching for a candle and then you hear it! A strange noise is coming from the basement, something eerie, something menacing, something inhuman... Scenes like this are repeated thousands of times during thunderstorms thun-derstorms and psychologists say that the reason for it is that we are all born with a fear of the thunder. Babies come into the world with only two well-established fears, the fear of falling and the fear of loud noises. Therefore, the anxiety anxie-ty we feel during a thunderstorm is an inborn response. Other fears that develop are learned responses. Humans quickly and easily learn to fear snakes, spiders and cliffs, fears that helped our ancestors survive, but we have no pre-disposition to fear cars, electricity and bombs, which in modern society are far more dangerous. Fear is not always a bad thing. It prepares our bodies to flee danger. dan-ger. Fear of enemie hinds us together, children with their parents, pa-rents, and adults with one another. The fear of injury protects pro-tects us from harm. Psychologists have said that we can learn to fear almost anything. Studies show that a child's fears of imaginary creatures and fear of the dark is very great. In a survey of children between the ages of six and twelve, the majority major-ity said they were most afraid of ghosts. Ghosts ranked above nightmares, being alone and fear of the dark. Psychologists feel that many of these childhood fears are transferred transfer-red from the parents. Are adults afraid of ghosts and monsters? Everyone knows there is no such thing, that they are only make-believe. make-believe. ..or are they? Hollywood has done its part over the years to tie us to our childhood fears. The ghoul has been alive and well in such classics clas-sics as the "Phantom of the Opera," released in 1923 and the "Hunchback of Notre Dame" in 1939. The movie "Frankenstein" created perhaps the most well known monster of all. He is still terrorizing audiences today. More Terr f ick include the "Halloween" series, "Nightmare "Night-mare on Elm Street," and "The Changling." Each of these films has employed one key element to entrap the audience, the sense of the unexpected is the prime horror allure. In a horror film, reality is transformed trans-formed into a series of winding staircases. Anything could be waiting for us at the top of the stairs, and even though we know it may be terrifying, we can't help wanting to climb the stairs. Great horror movies generate lasting horror images, those that will haunt you after you've left the theater. These movies take our deepest fears from childhood, (ghosts, monsters under the bed, etc.) and through those images, the movie provides a pipeline to our subconscious minds. There has been some controversy con-troversy over the effect horror movies have on the viewers, but most psychologists agree that with the exception of a few people horror movies provide a harmless attraction. "As one psychologist said, "There can always be someone some-one among the millions of viewers that could be adversely affected, but that person could find bad influences in-fluences in anything." Scary movies make a great date, and as one teen put it, "Guys love to show how "cool" they are by laughing at the scariest scar-iest part or saying they are "stupid." "stu-pid." One psychologist believes that this behavior is a normal reaction for men. Throughout history his-tory man has always had some rite in which men could prove his mastery over fear. "The horror film may be the last opportunity for that," he said. Horror movies are big business. busi-ness. Last year there were 113.9 million American movie goers. Teens made up 36 percent of that total and their percentages were even greater at horror movies. As long as these movies make a "great date," Hollywood will continue to keep females screaming, scream-ing, throwing their popcorn in the air and covering their eyes, so the big, brave male beside her can protect her. Where else but in America, could one well placed hockey mask provide males an opportunity opportun-ity to help to carry on the theory of anthropologists, and make new millionaires of movie moguls in the process. They do it all in the name of science. V. I |