Who Needs Monsters?

Some of my favorite monsters from some of my favorite horror films include: The wolf man, Michael Myers from Halloween, Leatherface from The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, Jason from Friday the 13th , Freddy Krueger from A Nightmare on Elm Street, Chucky from Child’s Play, Jack from The Shining, and the demented and mutated families from both The Hills Have Eyes and The Devil’s Rejects. These monsters are typical monsters as defined by Noel Carroll in that they do not exist according to contemporary science but do have the possibility of existing in our society. These monsters are also very disgusting according to my accounts and are impure due to either fusion of multiple organisms into one being, fission of multiple personalities or alter-egos, the magnification or massification of revolting things, or metonymy as stated by Carroll. But the question is, are these monsters a necessary entity for a piece to be included into the Horror genre?

Think about everyday life and how often we are not only afraid of actual objects like spiders or snakes but are frightened by certain situations which may arise and are not caused by any monster or supernatural power (excluding The Almighty, of course). Our fear of certain situations can often be much more horrifying to us than any monster can be. These are situations like being stuck in an elevator or any tight space or hanging from a rope 700 feet in the air, etc. These are phobias that will cause an involved person the same ‘Art-Horrified’ feelings both physical (raised heart-rate, extreme nervousness, nausea, etc) and cognitive (the mind acknowledging the presence of both the phobia and the danger in the situation) that Carroll states a horror film monster would.

Here, proposed is the theory that the only necessary property of a horror film is that it gives its audience the feeling of horror. It should be irrelevant how the film accomplishes this goal. The inclusion of a monster can, from now on, be considered an added bonus to viewing a horror film, but not a necessary component. If the audience gets the feeling of being horrified or ‘Art-Horrified’ according to Carroll during the viewing of the film then it should be considered a horror film.

Next, it will be attempted to create a subject for a horror film using the theory proposed above and without using a monster but still horrifying the audience. One day a man named Steve decides he will climb the Red Rock Hills of Arizona. Steve loves rock-climbing and is very good at it. This time; however, he decides to venture alone since no one else is willing. Here Steve is breaking the number one rule of climbing, be he is confident nothing will happen. Steve arrives at the hills early in the morning and begins his journey across and over the hills. As he is climbing he slips and falls and lands in a grotto between the large boulders. To his surprise, his arm is stuck in between these two massive rocks and he cannot move. Hours pass by and Steve is still stuck. It’s impossible to dislodge his arm from between the rocks, his water is running low, his food is eaten and his cell phone has absolutely no service. To make matters worse, nighttime in Arizona is often frigid for the unprepared. Steve has two options, sit and wait for passers by to hopefully come and save him before he dies from dehydration, or amputate his arm with the small pocketknife he carries with him. Now tell me this situation wouldn’t make even the noblest of the all even a little uncomfortable.