The Appeal of Fear in Media
The growing sales of horror games such as the Resident Evil franchise, and the success of horror shows and movies indicate the appeal of the genre. The reasons behind this appeal have been investigated through many studies. First, we must distinguish between the terms “horror” and “terror”, which tend to be erroneously used interchangeably. According to Dani Cavallaro, horror is the fear linked to visible disruptions of the natural order, sudden appearances, and identifiable objects. Horror causes intense physical reactions and provides us with surprise and shock. On the other hand, terror is the fear of the unknown. It is the feelings of tension and unease proceeding a revelation [1].
“The difference between Terror and Horror is the difference between awful apprehension and sickening realization: between the smell of death and stumbling against a corpse… Terror thus creates an intangible atmosphere of spiritual psychic dread… Horror resorts to a cruder presentation of the macabre” [2].
While playing horror games or watching horror movies, we constantly oscillate between terror and horror. One is willing to endure the intense fear (horror) because of its less subtle modulations (terror). In fact, a study done by the Institute of Scientific and Industrial Research at Osaka University reveals that players were more likely to experience intense fear when they were in a suspense state and then faced a surprising appearance [3]. From a biological perspective, once the human brain detects a potential threat, dopamine is released into the body, and once that threat is identified as false, the body feels pleasure and the person wants to repeat this cycle by seeking scary content [4].
Although one can aim for a long psychological experience by having a good combination of terror and horror, what causes terror and unease is individual and varies from one person to another. Individual characteristics, traumas, and phobias must be taken into consideration to assess the level of fear and manipulate future gameplay accordingly.
[1] D. Cavallaro, The Gothic Vision: Three Centuries of Horror, Terror and Fear. New York: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2002.
[2] Varma, D. P. (1988) The Gothic Flame, Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press. Vico, G. [1725] (1968) The New Science, trans. T. Goddard and M. H. Fisch, Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
[3] V. Vachiratamporn, R. Legaspi, K. Moriyama and M. Numao, "Towards the Design of Affective Survival Horror Games: An Investigation on Player Affect," 2013 Humaine Association Conference on Affective Computing and Intelligent Interaction, 2013, pp. 576-581, doi: 10.1007/s12193-014-0153-4
[4] A. Damasio, Descartes error: emotion, reason and the human brain. New York: Avon Books, 1994.
