Diego Lopez

Professor Peggy Hach

English 170/01

March 27, 2023

Teenagers’ interest in horror stories

When I was 15 years old I became interested in horror stories because I had to do an assignment focused on reading some horror stories from my country El Salvador. One was the story of La Siguanaba, an evil spirit who shows up to unfaithful men and even kids. At first, La Siguanaba takes the form of an attractive woman bathing in the river, then she makes men get close to her and into the water to then scare them to death or make them go crazy. But with children, she shows like the child’s mother; when they touch her, she leaves the child lost and insane. That is one of the most famous stories in El Salvador the country where I was born.

Fear brings more than just a fun, natural high. Doing things that we are afraid of can give us a nice boost of self-esteem. Like any personal challenge, when we make it through to the end, we feel a sense of accomplishment even if we are not in any danger (Kerr).

Teenagers like to feel indestructible and capable to watch a horror movie without getting scared or not too much, which could help them to build some self-confidence and make others trust and feel more secure when they are around that person. People enjoy horror stories so much because in a way they enjoy fear. When watching a horror movie people get very into the story almost as if they were the main character of the story and thinking about how they can overcome the situation that the characters from the story are facing.  Fear feels so real, so when people make it to the end of the story, the satisfaction of accomplishment also feels real.

Teenagers also like to be fearless that’s why they like horror stories so much because they can give them the courage that they want and also boost their confidence when they come across something that terrifies them.

When we pay four or five bucks and seat ourselves at the tenth-row center in a theater showing a horror movie, we are daring the nightmare. Why? Some of the reasons are simple and obvious. To show that we can, that we are not afraid, and that we can ride this roller coaster (King 1).

It also helps people to feel that they are capable of figuring out how to escape from a similarly dangerous situation. Teenagers like to be the main character and horror movies allow them to become the main character, trying to get into the mind of the main character and try to find out the best way to solve or escape the problem. For example, when a character is trying to hide from something and they go to a basement, people say do not go in there or just run to that side.

Teenagers like to watch horror movies because they can help them to feel brave and show others that they can handle a horror story and that nothing scares them.

When teenagers go to the movies with their friends or with a girlfriend they want others to think that they are brave. Watching a horror movie is a good way to do it because if they watch the movie without getting scared their friends or girlfriend would say that he is not afraid of anything and it is also a way to prove themselves that they can handle anything.

Stephen King says that people watch horror movies to show others that they do not get easily scared, that they can handle strong emotions, and can deal with anything. This also helps teenagers to trust themselves because they could say that if they handle a very scary movie they can also handle doing other things that scare them.

Teenagers like to have scary places near where they live or study. An example of that is the Instagram account @liminal.newpaltz which was created a couple of months ago by New Paltz students, and in such a small period of time, it has developed very fast.

This account has over 800 followers and growing more and more every day.

Many students from New Paltz take pictures and videos of places in SUNY New Paltz that look scary or creepy. One of the most liked videos was the one of the tunnel between Coykendall Science Building and Wooster Hall with over 100 likes and over 1800 plays (Liminal.newpaltz). This is a video that resembles the ones of the backrooms and even has the same scary sound and there is a stain that looks like there is blood coming from the ceiling, teenagers enjoy this page because there are many other pictures and videos that resemble the ones of the backrooms.

The backrooms are places that are or were usually busy but now are displayed as unnaturally empty/ abandoned and many people believe that is a kind of alternate dimension where people get transported and are being hunted by the monster also known as skinwalkers, so they are trying to escape but the monsters will eventually catch them.

This account helps SUNY New Paltz students interact and show their interest in horror things. This shows that teenagers like to make see how their environment can turn into something scary when the night hits and that they enjoy it because they are not in a dangerous situation but they can feel that their environment is similar to one of scary movies/stories.

 

 

 

When teenagers watch or read horror stories they are facing some fears that they might have, such as ghosts, evil clowns, or just darkness. They challenge themselves to get over their fears and keep them there so their fears do not affect them.

For myself, I like to see the most aggressive of them – Dawn of the Dead, for instance – as
lifting a trap door in the civilized forebrain and throwing a basket of raw meat to the hungry alligators swimming around in that subterranean river beneath. Why bother? Because it keeps them from getting out, man. It keeps them down there and me up here. It was Lennon and McCartney who said that all you need is love, and I would agree with that. As long as you keep the gators fed. (King 2)

Teenagers should face their most important fears, which are the ones that stop them from doing something that they might like, such as fear to talk to someone they like/ are attracted to. If they do not talk to the person that they are attracted they would never find out if that person feels attracted to them too. So that person would live the rest of his life thinking if they had the courage to talk to that person they might be in a love relationship

Stephen King says that he likes the scariest stories and it is one of the best ways to keep his fears down. People must face their fears to keep them from growing because if people try to avoid them; Their fears will keep growing until one day they will not be able to overcome them even if they try to.

Everyone likes to overcome their fears which are barriers that we put because we do not want failure in our lives, but people cannot live in fear, and that’s when horror stories help them because those stories scare people for a moment but also help them to become braver after they go past a scary moment. Teenagers use horror movies to get used to scary things and stop their fears from growing past where they cannot control them.

Also, teenagers are interested in these types of stories because they like to learn about something that not even science can explain. After all, many horror stories are based on true events that no one could figure out the origin of or the way it works.

Movies such as Annabelle or The Conjuring are based on true events and tell the stories of the demonologists Lorraine and Ed Warren whose work could not be explained not even by science.

There are some people might not like horror stories because they think that they can suffer from nightmares or hear and see things that are not real, so they prefer not to watch or read them to avoid having to face fear in their lives and having nightmares that could make them feel that they are going crazy.

For example, when people that get easily scared watch horror movies, going to sleep might be a very difficult task because they might see some figures in the dark that are not real. A hanging coat in the dark might shape someone standing in the dark or houses that have cracking noises can make people think that someone or something is approaching them, turning off the lights and going upstairs feeling that someone is walking behind them.

Those are some of the possible causes of why other people do not like/ hate horror movies, but for me, that is not the case.

My love for horror stories started when I became a teenager, and I enjoy goosebumps when I am watching a horror movie. When reading a horror story, I enjoy imagining how all the events would have happened or would that horror story could be represented in a movie.

People have different ways to face their fears, but teenagers use horror stories as a way to overcome their fears because they can challenge themselves to get to the end no matter how scary or intimidating the path is.

 

Works Cited

Kerr, Margee. “Why is being scared so fun?” YouTube, 21 April. 2016,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oetVvR5RQUs

King, Stephen. “Why we crave Horror Movies” Models for Writers: Short Essays for

Composition. 12th ed. Ed. Alfred Rosa and Paul Eschholz. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2015.

Liminal.newpaltz.Instagram, February 17, 20223,

https://www.instagram.com/p/CoxtWNOAVJf/.

 

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