Horror Films and Violence Essay

Horror Films and Society as Mirrors

Since the beginning of time, violent crimes have been committed. From crimes of jealously, insanity, revenge, and even crimes of passion, criminals have always found a motive to validate their reason to hurt or kill. These crimes have dated back before the idea of movies, much less horror movies, was thought about. If this is the case, why would one believe that the violence in horror films is influential to society? Although horror movies can be psychotic, gory, and may sometimes give creative ideas to criminals; criminals committed heinous crimes before the television was even invented. The history of violent crimes and horror films show how violence has been influential to horror films, but does not make a connection with horror films increasing violent behavior. The first actual murder can date back to about 4,000 B.C. when Cain murdered his brother Able (Wikipedia.com). Where did Cain get this idea from? It certainly was not from horror movies since the first television was not invented until the 1960s. It was from an act of jealously. From a plan that he thought up and acted on all on his own. Again, this was thousands of years before the television came about. Where is the connection between horror films and its effect on society? The question of whether or not horror movies have an effect on society is an age old debate. To this very day, there has been no proven truth that horror movies make people violent. Professor Jonathan Freeman of the University of Toronto, an independent expert who reviewed the media violence literature in the 1980s and again in 2002, concluded that the research did not “provide either strong or consistent support for the hypothesis that exposure to media violence causes aggression or crime” (Freeman, Jonathan. “Media Violence”. Fepproject.org).The world is a violent place in itself;