Faceoff: Do Horror Movies Desensitize Us To Violence?
YES
Rania Suleiman, managing editor
The Conjuring" and “Scream” are classic American horror movies that come back around the corner during spooky season, but we should be concerned with how much we truly enjoy watching gore and murder on our screens.
When watching horror movies, it desensitizes our minds. The age group 18 to 22 is at the highest risk for negative effects of exposure to this violence. Several studies have reported increased depression and anxiety after watching a violent movie, but these symptoms slowly diminished after several days of repeated exposure to violent movies. Early studies done by Hinchy and Gavelek in 1982 proved that young children exposed to horror and violence documented lower levels of empathy. These numbers will continue to drop as movie producers will create more realistic horror movies.
Many watch horror movies without feeling scared or queasy because they are safe in their homes. For others, this isn’t always the case. The “Texas Chainsaw Massacre” was inspired by a real-life Wisconsin grave robber and murderer Ed Gein, who made trophies and masks out of human remains. This movie does not bring awareness to the victims, but they use their trauma as blockbuster entertainment. When “The Entity” came out in 1982, it was inspired by the case of Doris Bither, a mother who claimed an unseen physical attack and sexual abuse. The film team took her fragile mental state and turned her pain into a supernatural spectacle to enhance the plot. These changes in the movies are disrespectful to the victim since they diminish their trauma.
“I have watched horror movies that have made me feel physically uncomfortable. Not because of the graphic scenes, but because of how some situations could be easy to find yourself in real life,” says senior Marley Ramos.
The casting choice plays a huge role in desensitizing and romanticizing horror. When the audience finds an actor to be “conventionally attractive,” they lose the value of understanding the actual plot. In the movie “Obsession” there were a lot of heavy topics such as toxic relationships, consent and manipulation. The morals and topics from this movie flew over the audience’s head as they started to create memes or rave about how great the actors looked. A study shows that 51 percent of the audience came for the cast and 43 percent came just to see the female main character, played by Inde Navarrette.
Horror movie production and views will never slow down. With the spooky season here, the views increase. But constantly watching gore and suffering happening on the screen desensitizes people. Violence is around us, and it is not something we can fix, but it is something we need to react strongly to.
NO
Tamanna Hoskote, staff writer
A horror movie can show a terrifying attack or a character covered in blood, yet viewers still jump at the next scare. Horror movies don’t desensitize audiences to violence. In fact, the genre is built around making people feel something. Horror uses violence and suspense to create an emotional reaction. Watching a fictional character experience violence doesn’t mean viewers become numb to the suffering of real people.
Desensitization means becoming less emotionally affected after repeated, specific exposure. However, watching violence in a movie is different from experiencing or witnessing violence in real life. Viewers know they are watching a fictional story, and violence is often used to create fear or communicate something about a character or situation.
If viewers are reacting, that suggests the movie is producing the emotional response it was designed to create.
“Horror movies scare me when they’re gory, icky and nasty. I don’t like that,” said sophomore Molly Moore.
Social media can sometimes make horror scenes feel less serious by turning memorable moments into edits, sounds or trends. For example, the characters Nikki Freeman and Bear from “Obsession” became connected to a dance trend. The trend doesn’t necessarily mean viewers were romanticizing violence. Instead, it shows how a serious moment from fiction can be separated from its original context and turned into entertainment.
"I think that enjoying horror movies isn’t always just for blood and gore. It’s often for the plot of the movie,” said sophomore Ella Guggenheim.
The difference becomes clearer looking at real-world violence. The 2022 killings of four University of Idaho students and the case against Bryan Kohberger received widespread public attention. Kohberger pleaded guilty to the murders and was sentenced to four consecutive life sentences. The continued attention and response to cases like this suggests that seeing violence in fictional horror doesn’t make people indifferent to actual violence when real people are affected.
The genre is meant to make people emotionally invested, not to normalize violence. It may change how familiar someone is with fictional depictions of violence, but familiarity doesn't mean a lack of emotion. Audiences can watch a violent movie, enjoy the story and still recognize the difference between fictional entertainment and real-world suffering.
Horror is supposed to scare people. If people are jumping at the screen and reacting to what happens, then the violence isn’t meaningless. Watching horror doesn't make people care less about violence; it reminds people why violence is frightening in the first place.
