In Defense of Horror
Mia Farrow in Roman Polanski's Rosemary's Baby Oftentimes I find that the horror genre is greatly misunderstood by those who know little about it outside of its gorier and less meaningful films (of which there are many, unfortunately). So often is the genre deemed disgusting and trashy, dismissed as snuff or even referred to with such vulgar phrases as torture porn , a phrase which is offensive in the fact that it connotes a sort of sick and sadistic pleasure the viewer must receive from watching a film such as Saw . Horror is a genre which I hold near and dear to my heart in all its forms, and it is because of this fact that I humbly offer a defense of the genre. Horror is a poignant and moving medium of film in the way that it communicates one of humanity's most primal emotions: fear. Not only that, but many horror films are layered in the way that they demonstrate the true deepest fears of the audience as being something tangible, typically a monster or enemy of so...