Why? Why? Why?: The Paradox of Horror

Why are some people so naturally drawn to such a spectacle that is otherwise so displeasing to our senses? The horror genre is one of these things to which we seem morbidly and despicably drawn. Theoretically the horror media should not exist. In theory the following scenario should unfold: A horror book or movie comes out, the public is repulsed by the idea of what the book or movie is about, it receives no fan base, and fades out without so much as a single reader or viewer. However, this does not happen, this class of media maintains a relatively large fan base and has movies such as The Exorcist that grosses nearly $750,000,000. As we can see not only does this genre have a fan base but it flourishes.

A philosopher that tries to explain this phenomenon is H.P. Lovecraft. Lovecraft's theory is that in our psychology we are somehow hardwired to enjoy horror. However, to be enabled to enjoy it you must be sensible to unknown forces and beings. While we know that in reality these beings are not real, we have to have something in our minds that tell us if only for a second that there is a possibility that these things could be real. While Lovecraft has his theory on why we enjoy horror, I prefer to adopt Burke's theory on the sublime and use it to describe the paradox of horror. Burke's theory on the sublime is that we can find something that is threatening beautiful/fascinating because we can gaze at it from afar and not be immediately in danger because of it. For example: if we go outside and look out into the sky and see a tornado off in the distance we are compelled to look in awe at it, but if that same tornado becomes too close and begins to cause destruction around us we immediately forget the beauty of the tornado and hit fear mode. Like storms I feel that we are drawn to horror stories for the same reason. We are instinctively intrigued by these things that are deemed undesirable. As long as we can stay well away from harm, we maintain a fascination with it.
In conclusion, while we do not know for sure why the exact reason we find horror so fascinating, something about us is simply drawn to the rather undesirable spectacle. Simply the idea of horror dumbfounds the mind, but we cannot get enough of it. While there are some theories to explain why we like such a thing, we may never fully understand why, but who cares! This is something that people enjoy and one day we may know the real reason why are drawn to this type of media, but until then I say "Bring on the Horror!".