Thinking About Fear

Grey: Me

Green: Nicole

Pink: Katie

Blue: Jack

 

The purpose of this research was a beneficial aid of our coursework, which is in this case to create a 120-second long opening of a teen horror movie. It helped us have a wider understanding of how fears are utilised in movies. During the task, we discussed our fears together and explained how they developed through the years. The purpose of that was to have a solid idea of what a fear actually is, how it makes you behave, and see how different people's fears are compared to yours. We all wrote our fears down and then we all added ideas on the sheet to show basic understanding of each other's fears. We also briefly thought of ways of how we could conquer our own fears. According to Psychology.about.com, the ten most common fears are:

 

• Fear of spiders
• Fear of snakes
• Fear of heights
• Fear of big spaces
• Fear of dogs
• Fear of injections
• Fear of social situations
• Fear of flying 
• Fear of germs and dirt

Fears in popular culture

 

Hemophobia, the fear of blood, is extremely common, which makes it frequently exploited in popular culture. Horror movies and Halloween events prey on our natural aversion to blood, often featuring large quantities of fake blood in full Technicolor glory. As the 1980s slasher genre proved, it is easy to become emotionally numb to such images, particularly for those who have a fear but not a full-blown phobia. Part of the reason that the shower scene in 1960s Psycho is still considered a masterpiece is the relative lack of gore. The scene was shot in black and white, and the knife never actually pierces the skin. Yet the mind fills in all of the details of a gruesome knife attack.

 

Acrophobia is also quite exploited quite a lot in movies. For instance in Mission: Impossile II, there is a famous scene where Tom Cruise is climbing atop the Utah's Dead Horse Point. The camera suddenly cuts to a long shot of Tom Cruise on a rock with massive mountains in the background. This cut (plus several instances shown below) can make the viewers, especially the acrophobics, uncomfortable and nauseous.