Horror Cinema: An Obsession with the Forbidden and the Unknown
To venture into horror is to walk willingly into the darkness. It’s an invitation to confront what we are told to ignore. For over a hundred years, horror films have dared us to explore the forbidden, to face the unspeakable, and to revel in the strange and unexplainable.
Do you feel drawn to movies that confront what’s hidden in the dark, or do you prefer to stay where the light is?
Do you find yourself more on the side of the villains in horror movies, or do you always root for the survivors?
Whether masked or monstrous, the horror antagonist can be more than a killing machine. Characters like Michael Myers in Halloween or Jason Voorhees in Friday the 13th are icons of terror precisely because they are so single-minded in their pursuit of destruction. They don’t speak, they don’t negotiate, and they don’t stop.
They aren’t human, not really—they’re forces of nature. Then there are the anti-heroes, characters who straddle the line between victim and monster. Take someone like Jack Torrance in The Shining. At first, he’s just a man trying to do his job and take care of his family, but then descends into madness…
Do you prefer villains with a human backstory, or those who are more like supernatural forces of nature?
What about the survivors? Think Laurie Strode in Halloween or Sidney Prescott in Scream. These characters are not just survivors—they’re the moral centre of the film, the ones who face unimaginable terror and come out the other side.
How important to you is it that we can watch their psychological or emotional growth? Or do you just like to focus on the physical action?
Which do you enjoy most… movies where the villain plays with psychological fears, or who are more about physically terrorising their victims?
Do you prefer horror characters that are morally complex, or do you enjoy clear-cut villains and heroes?
The 1960s and 1970s marked a descent into more intimate horrors. Psycho (1960) stripped away the supernatural, showing us that the most terrifying monsters could be human. Rosemary’s Baby (1968) and The Exorcist (1973) whispered of secret covens, forbidden rituals, and forces that lurked just beyond our perception, waiting to tear apart the fragile veil between reality and nightmare.
Do you find the horror of the supernatural more terrifying, or does the darkness within humanity frighten you more?
Do you have any final thoughts or comments you would like to add?
If you have none, submit your answers to move on.