Can disgust be a key component of horror?












13















The feeling of disgust is often used in horrors, exspecially visual medias (where is arguably easier to shock the audience with great effect).
Often horror stories revolve around one scary element (a villain; a monster; a disease) that carries along a lot of repulsive traits.



The alien in Alien is slimey and it drools a lot; the ambience in Silent hill movies and games presents often narrow corridors, covered in filth; in Stephen King's Insomnia the protagonist has to explore the crampled, dirty nest of the main antagonist, and so on.



Disgusting elements often leverage our natural instinct; e.g. I remembered reading that seeing internal organs up close evokes repulsion since evolution has thaught us that it's not good if those things get out of your body.



This said, is disgust - rather than fear - enough to be used in an horror story?



Probably some genres of horror have a higher component of repulsive elements (I'm thinking of body horror), but my question holds.










share|improve this question



























    13















    The feeling of disgust is often used in horrors, exspecially visual medias (where is arguably easier to shock the audience with great effect).
    Often horror stories revolve around one scary element (a villain; a monster; a disease) that carries along a lot of repulsive traits.



    The alien in Alien is slimey and it drools a lot; the ambience in Silent hill movies and games presents often narrow corridors, covered in filth; in Stephen King's Insomnia the protagonist has to explore the crampled, dirty nest of the main antagonist, and so on.



    Disgusting elements often leverage our natural instinct; e.g. I remembered reading that seeing internal organs up close evokes repulsion since evolution has thaught us that it's not good if those things get out of your body.



    This said, is disgust - rather than fear - enough to be used in an horror story?



    Probably some genres of horror have a higher component of repulsive elements (I'm thinking of body horror), but my question holds.










    share|improve this question

























      13












      13








      13








      The feeling of disgust is often used in horrors, exspecially visual medias (where is arguably easier to shock the audience with great effect).
      Often horror stories revolve around one scary element (a villain; a monster; a disease) that carries along a lot of repulsive traits.



      The alien in Alien is slimey and it drools a lot; the ambience in Silent hill movies and games presents often narrow corridors, covered in filth; in Stephen King's Insomnia the protagonist has to explore the crampled, dirty nest of the main antagonist, and so on.



      Disgusting elements often leverage our natural instinct; e.g. I remembered reading that seeing internal organs up close evokes repulsion since evolution has thaught us that it's not good if those things get out of your body.



      This said, is disgust - rather than fear - enough to be used in an horror story?



      Probably some genres of horror have a higher component of repulsive elements (I'm thinking of body horror), but my question holds.










      share|improve this question














      The feeling of disgust is often used in horrors, exspecially visual medias (where is arguably easier to shock the audience with great effect).
      Often horror stories revolve around one scary element (a villain; a monster; a disease) that carries along a lot of repulsive traits.



      The alien in Alien is slimey and it drools a lot; the ambience in Silent hill movies and games presents often narrow corridors, covered in filth; in Stephen King's Insomnia the protagonist has to explore the crampled, dirty nest of the main antagonist, and so on.



      Disgusting elements often leverage our natural instinct; e.g. I remembered reading that seeing internal organs up close evokes repulsion since evolution has thaught us that it's not good if those things get out of your body.



      This said, is disgust - rather than fear - enough to be used in an horror story?



      Probably some genres of horror have a higher component of repulsive elements (I'm thinking of body horror), but my question holds.







      horror emotions






      share|improve this question













      share|improve this question











      share|improve this question




      share|improve this question










      asked Mar 22 at 7:31









      LiquidLiquid

      7,98121867




      7,98121867






















          3 Answers
          3






          active

          oldest

          votes


















          17














          TL;DR:



          * Fear (or equivalent shock) followed by disgust -> horror



          * disgust alone -> disgust



          A significant effort in analyzing the concepts of horror, terror and sublime times back to the XIX century. From what I recall, they are connected to a sense of fright and fear, with horror being the disgust felt after a deep a profound scare.



          That being said, the mere sight of a slimy pond of garbage, while disgusting, may not be enough to cast a sense of horror in the onlooker. On the other hand, if an arm stretched out of the pond of garbage mentioned above, barely missing to grab a character in your story, and if the character was utterly frightened by the experience, then the sense of revulsion would be what we call horror.






          share|improve this answer































            12














            As a component of "horror" it has a role to play - and it can be quite effective. On it's own? No.



            Seeing internal organs up close can as you say invoke a disgust/repulsion response. But context will determine whether we are likely to have a horrified response as well.



            A dish in an operating theater containing say an appendix that has been removed in an appendectomy could reasonably trigger some disgust. But it's not horrifying in of itself - the organ has been removed but we know that it's likely to be as a result of a relatively routine medical procedure.



            Finding the same organ in a chipped bowl on the floor of a dingy bathroom spattered with blood however is likely to be both disgusting and horrifying - because we know that not only objectively is performing surgery in that sort of environment inherently more dangerous to the subject but it's also something that heavily implies it was done under some pretty worrying circumstances.



            Essentially disgust can be viewed as a spice - you add it to your horror scene to alter/enhance the flavor, but you can't just put a load of it on a plate and call it dinner.








            share|improve this answer


























            • Love the analogy and phrasing of the last paragraph!

              – CompuChip
              Mar 22 at 17:39



















            4














            People want a wide gamut of emotions in their movies. Even horror movies have their moments of joy. Even children's movies have their moments of terror.



            There's an interesting theory which can help explain the answer, called the Lövheim cube of emotion. It is a rather untested scientific hypothesis from 2012 (read: nobody has evidence that it is accurate, and they aren't doing much testing on it), but I find it to be sufficiently useful for exploring emotions in a fictional setting.



            Cube of emotion



            The cleverness of the cube was tying the three monoamine neurotransmitters in the brain to emotion -- particularly the 8 base emotions from affect theory. This is, of course, the untested part of the hypothesis, but it points us in useful directions. The monoamine transmitters have some very coarse behaviors that can be used. Consider these to be very approximate behaviors. Any neurologist would giggle at the oversimplification, but it suffices here for studying how movies affect us.




            • Noradrenaline measures how unpredictable things are on the short term. A roller coaster causes a surge of noradrenaline because the path it takes is hard to predict.

            • Dopamine measures whether there is a reward nearby. We often talk of it as being "the reward system," but its more accurately a measure of nearby value worth searching for. Dopamine is the itch for an addict that says "there's value near by... all you need to do is inject it."

            • Seratonin roughly measures how happy the body is. When our stomach is full, seratonin is used to signal that.


            Now again, these are tremendously oversimplified, but we can use them to look at these base emotions and study how they relate. Consider the one in question here, disgust. This is low noradrenaline, low dopamine, and high seratonin on the cube. If I map that using those oversimplifications, we see that means that your mind sees no real reward to be had, the situation isn't really changing, but the reptillian part of the brain seems pretty happy.




            • For many, body parts cause disgust. Practically speaking, there's no reason for the reptillian part of our brain to mind. After all, internal organs are food. But our higher brain is going "nope nope. Nothing to be gained here. Just stop looking. stop, okay? Just move on!"

            • Consider the famous alien scenes with the slime. How do they play out?


              • Reptile brain sees nothing wrong. The alien is just sitting there, posturing. It's not successfully evoking a flight response. But the brain gets a disguist feeling. You can't rip yourself away. Your higher order brain says "Nothing good can come of this, it's time to leave... now," but your lower brain is saying "but watch it... let's see what could happen. It's interesting."

              • Then the alien does something sudden. This wasn't predicted, noradrenaline spikes, and you get surprised. "Oh. It has a second set of jaws. Well that wasn't expected."

              • "Good feeling's gone." At this point, your lower brain realizes its mistake. This is not the place the inner reptile you wants to be in. Anguish ensues.

              • Now there's a choice. If your realization of what's going on stagnates first, noradrenaline goes down. If your reading of the situation is "yep, we're screwed. yep... still screwed. Not changing... Oh why did I get myself into this mess," You shift to shame/humiliation. I do find some people get this response in horror. I know I get it from gore movies like Saw. Why did I think it was a good idea to watch this movie?* From there, there's often a chase scene, where one travels to fear/terror. There is a path out, so dopamine surges, but the badness isn't going away any time soon... still predicted.



            • Alternativly, we see some travel straight to fear/terror. As the unpredictableness dies down, the brain starts seeing the path out. It skips shame/humiliation entirely.


            The key to that last point: you don't always travel along the edges. Skilled movies can take you anywhere in the cube volume.



            Again, this is a very oversimplified model. However, I find it effective for analyzing the rollercoaster you take a viewer on. If you decide a situation needs more anger, it suggests what you need to do (a fast changing situation where there's a chance of reward if you do something fast). Once that coarse analysis is done, then your skill as an author can look at the scene at a deeper level, and find your voice.



            So to that end, can disguist sell a horror movie alone? The answer is generally no. People want a wide gamut. Thats why even the most happy-go-lucky movie has some surprise or anger in it. Indeed, I find the worst movies for my taste grind me into the ground with shame/humiliation, where I feel there is no escape (particularly those where I feel that even hitting the stop button wont free me from what my mind is doing). But moving around the cube brings spice to a story.






            share|improve this answer























              Your Answer








              StackExchange.ready(function() {
              var channelOptions = {
              tags: "".split(" "),
              id: "166"
              };
              initTagRenderer("".split(" "), "".split(" "), channelOptions);

              StackExchange.using("externalEditor", function() {
              // Have to fire editor after snippets, if snippets enabled
              if (StackExchange.settings.snippets.snippetsEnabled) {
              StackExchange.using("snippets", function() {
              createEditor();
              });
              }
              else {
              createEditor();
              }
              });

              function createEditor() {
              StackExchange.prepareEditor({
              heartbeatType: 'answer',
              autoActivateHeartbeat: false,
              convertImagesToLinks: false,
              noModals: true,
              showLowRepImageUploadWarning: true,
              reputationToPostImages: null,
              bindNavPrevention: true,
              postfix: "",
              imageUploader: {
              brandingHtml: "Powered by u003ca class="icon-imgur-white" href="https://imgur.com/"u003eu003c/au003e",
              contentPolicyHtml: "User contributions licensed under u003ca href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/"u003ecc by-sa 3.0 with attribution requiredu003c/au003e u003ca href="https://stackoverflow.com/legal/content-policy"u003e(content policy)u003c/au003e",
              allowUrls: true
              },
              noCode: true, onDemand: true,
              discardSelector: ".discard-answer"
              ,immediatelyShowMarkdownHelp:true
              });


              }
              });














              draft saved

              draft discarded


















              StackExchange.ready(
              function () {
              StackExchange.openid.initPostLogin('.new-post-login', 'https%3a%2f%2fwriting.stackexchange.com%2fquestions%2f43911%2fcan-disgust-be-a-key-component-of-horror%23new-answer', 'question_page');
              }
              );

              Post as a guest















              Required, but never shown

























              3 Answers
              3






              active

              oldest

              votes








              3 Answers
              3






              active

              oldest

              votes









              active

              oldest

              votes






              active

              oldest

              votes









              17














              TL;DR:



              * Fear (or equivalent shock) followed by disgust -> horror



              * disgust alone -> disgust



              A significant effort in analyzing the concepts of horror, terror and sublime times back to the XIX century. From what I recall, they are connected to a sense of fright and fear, with horror being the disgust felt after a deep a profound scare.



              That being said, the mere sight of a slimy pond of garbage, while disgusting, may not be enough to cast a sense of horror in the onlooker. On the other hand, if an arm stretched out of the pond of garbage mentioned above, barely missing to grab a character in your story, and if the character was utterly frightened by the experience, then the sense of revulsion would be what we call horror.






              share|improve this answer




























                17














                TL;DR:



                * Fear (or equivalent shock) followed by disgust -> horror



                * disgust alone -> disgust



                A significant effort in analyzing the concepts of horror, terror and sublime times back to the XIX century. From what I recall, they are connected to a sense of fright and fear, with horror being the disgust felt after a deep a profound scare.



                That being said, the mere sight of a slimy pond of garbage, while disgusting, may not be enough to cast a sense of horror in the onlooker. On the other hand, if an arm stretched out of the pond of garbage mentioned above, barely missing to grab a character in your story, and if the character was utterly frightened by the experience, then the sense of revulsion would be what we call horror.






                share|improve this answer


























                  17












                  17








                  17







                  TL;DR:



                  * Fear (or equivalent shock) followed by disgust -> horror



                  * disgust alone -> disgust



                  A significant effort in analyzing the concepts of horror, terror and sublime times back to the XIX century. From what I recall, they are connected to a sense of fright and fear, with horror being the disgust felt after a deep a profound scare.



                  That being said, the mere sight of a slimy pond of garbage, while disgusting, may not be enough to cast a sense of horror in the onlooker. On the other hand, if an arm stretched out of the pond of garbage mentioned above, barely missing to grab a character in your story, and if the character was utterly frightened by the experience, then the sense of revulsion would be what we call horror.






                  share|improve this answer













                  TL;DR:



                  * Fear (or equivalent shock) followed by disgust -> horror



                  * disgust alone -> disgust



                  A significant effort in analyzing the concepts of horror, terror and sublime times back to the XIX century. From what I recall, they are connected to a sense of fright and fear, with horror being the disgust felt after a deep a profound scare.



                  That being said, the mere sight of a slimy pond of garbage, while disgusting, may not be enough to cast a sense of horror in the onlooker. On the other hand, if an arm stretched out of the pond of garbage mentioned above, barely missing to grab a character in your story, and if the character was utterly frightened by the experience, then the sense of revulsion would be what we call horror.







                  share|improve this answer












                  share|improve this answer



                  share|improve this answer










                  answered Mar 22 at 9:06









                  NofPNofP

                  2,235222




                  2,235222























                      12














                      As a component of "horror" it has a role to play - and it can be quite effective. On it's own? No.



                      Seeing internal organs up close can as you say invoke a disgust/repulsion response. But context will determine whether we are likely to have a horrified response as well.



                      A dish in an operating theater containing say an appendix that has been removed in an appendectomy could reasonably trigger some disgust. But it's not horrifying in of itself - the organ has been removed but we know that it's likely to be as a result of a relatively routine medical procedure.



                      Finding the same organ in a chipped bowl on the floor of a dingy bathroom spattered with blood however is likely to be both disgusting and horrifying - because we know that not only objectively is performing surgery in that sort of environment inherently more dangerous to the subject but it's also something that heavily implies it was done under some pretty worrying circumstances.



                      Essentially disgust can be viewed as a spice - you add it to your horror scene to alter/enhance the flavor, but you can't just put a load of it on a plate and call it dinner.








                      share|improve this answer


























                      • Love the analogy and phrasing of the last paragraph!

                        – CompuChip
                        Mar 22 at 17:39
















                      12














                      As a component of "horror" it has a role to play - and it can be quite effective. On it's own? No.



                      Seeing internal organs up close can as you say invoke a disgust/repulsion response. But context will determine whether we are likely to have a horrified response as well.



                      A dish in an operating theater containing say an appendix that has been removed in an appendectomy could reasonably trigger some disgust. But it's not horrifying in of itself - the organ has been removed but we know that it's likely to be as a result of a relatively routine medical procedure.



                      Finding the same organ in a chipped bowl on the floor of a dingy bathroom spattered with blood however is likely to be both disgusting and horrifying - because we know that not only objectively is performing surgery in that sort of environment inherently more dangerous to the subject but it's also something that heavily implies it was done under some pretty worrying circumstances.



                      Essentially disgust can be viewed as a spice - you add it to your horror scene to alter/enhance the flavor, but you can't just put a load of it on a plate and call it dinner.








                      share|improve this answer


























                      • Love the analogy and phrasing of the last paragraph!

                        – CompuChip
                        Mar 22 at 17:39














                      12












                      12








                      12







                      As a component of "horror" it has a role to play - and it can be quite effective. On it's own? No.



                      Seeing internal organs up close can as you say invoke a disgust/repulsion response. But context will determine whether we are likely to have a horrified response as well.



                      A dish in an operating theater containing say an appendix that has been removed in an appendectomy could reasonably trigger some disgust. But it's not horrifying in of itself - the organ has been removed but we know that it's likely to be as a result of a relatively routine medical procedure.



                      Finding the same organ in a chipped bowl on the floor of a dingy bathroom spattered with blood however is likely to be both disgusting and horrifying - because we know that not only objectively is performing surgery in that sort of environment inherently more dangerous to the subject but it's also something that heavily implies it was done under some pretty worrying circumstances.



                      Essentially disgust can be viewed as a spice - you add it to your horror scene to alter/enhance the flavor, but you can't just put a load of it on a plate and call it dinner.








                      share|improve this answer















                      As a component of "horror" it has a role to play - and it can be quite effective. On it's own? No.



                      Seeing internal organs up close can as you say invoke a disgust/repulsion response. But context will determine whether we are likely to have a horrified response as well.



                      A dish in an operating theater containing say an appendix that has been removed in an appendectomy could reasonably trigger some disgust. But it's not horrifying in of itself - the organ has been removed but we know that it's likely to be as a result of a relatively routine medical procedure.



                      Finding the same organ in a chipped bowl on the floor of a dingy bathroom spattered with blood however is likely to be both disgusting and horrifying - because we know that not only objectively is performing surgery in that sort of environment inherently more dangerous to the subject but it's also something that heavily implies it was done under some pretty worrying circumstances.



                      Essentially disgust can be viewed as a spice - you add it to your horror scene to alter/enhance the flavor, but you can't just put a load of it on a plate and call it dinner.









                      share|improve this answer














                      share|improve this answer



                      share|improve this answer








                      edited Mar 22 at 13:22









                      Chris Rogers

                      41119




                      41119










                      answered Mar 22 at 12:08









                      motosubatsumotosubatsu

                      1,236115




                      1,236115













                      • Love the analogy and phrasing of the last paragraph!

                        – CompuChip
                        Mar 22 at 17:39



















                      • Love the analogy and phrasing of the last paragraph!

                        – CompuChip
                        Mar 22 at 17:39

















                      Love the analogy and phrasing of the last paragraph!

                      – CompuChip
                      Mar 22 at 17:39





                      Love the analogy and phrasing of the last paragraph!

                      – CompuChip
                      Mar 22 at 17:39











                      4














                      People want a wide gamut of emotions in their movies. Even horror movies have their moments of joy. Even children's movies have their moments of terror.



                      There's an interesting theory which can help explain the answer, called the Lövheim cube of emotion. It is a rather untested scientific hypothesis from 2012 (read: nobody has evidence that it is accurate, and they aren't doing much testing on it), but I find it to be sufficiently useful for exploring emotions in a fictional setting.



                      Cube of emotion



                      The cleverness of the cube was tying the three monoamine neurotransmitters in the brain to emotion -- particularly the 8 base emotions from affect theory. This is, of course, the untested part of the hypothesis, but it points us in useful directions. The monoamine transmitters have some very coarse behaviors that can be used. Consider these to be very approximate behaviors. Any neurologist would giggle at the oversimplification, but it suffices here for studying how movies affect us.




                      • Noradrenaline measures how unpredictable things are on the short term. A roller coaster causes a surge of noradrenaline because the path it takes is hard to predict.

                      • Dopamine measures whether there is a reward nearby. We often talk of it as being "the reward system," but its more accurately a measure of nearby value worth searching for. Dopamine is the itch for an addict that says "there's value near by... all you need to do is inject it."

                      • Seratonin roughly measures how happy the body is. When our stomach is full, seratonin is used to signal that.


                      Now again, these are tremendously oversimplified, but we can use them to look at these base emotions and study how they relate. Consider the one in question here, disgust. This is low noradrenaline, low dopamine, and high seratonin on the cube. If I map that using those oversimplifications, we see that means that your mind sees no real reward to be had, the situation isn't really changing, but the reptillian part of the brain seems pretty happy.




                      • For many, body parts cause disgust. Practically speaking, there's no reason for the reptillian part of our brain to mind. After all, internal organs are food. But our higher brain is going "nope nope. Nothing to be gained here. Just stop looking. stop, okay? Just move on!"

                      • Consider the famous alien scenes with the slime. How do they play out?


                        • Reptile brain sees nothing wrong. The alien is just sitting there, posturing. It's not successfully evoking a flight response. But the brain gets a disguist feeling. You can't rip yourself away. Your higher order brain says "Nothing good can come of this, it's time to leave... now," but your lower brain is saying "but watch it... let's see what could happen. It's interesting."

                        • Then the alien does something sudden. This wasn't predicted, noradrenaline spikes, and you get surprised. "Oh. It has a second set of jaws. Well that wasn't expected."

                        • "Good feeling's gone." At this point, your lower brain realizes its mistake. This is not the place the inner reptile you wants to be in. Anguish ensues.

                        • Now there's a choice. If your realization of what's going on stagnates first, noradrenaline goes down. If your reading of the situation is "yep, we're screwed. yep... still screwed. Not changing... Oh why did I get myself into this mess," You shift to shame/humiliation. I do find some people get this response in horror. I know I get it from gore movies like Saw. Why did I think it was a good idea to watch this movie?* From there, there's often a chase scene, where one travels to fear/terror. There is a path out, so dopamine surges, but the badness isn't going away any time soon... still predicted.



                      • Alternativly, we see some travel straight to fear/terror. As the unpredictableness dies down, the brain starts seeing the path out. It skips shame/humiliation entirely.


                      The key to that last point: you don't always travel along the edges. Skilled movies can take you anywhere in the cube volume.



                      Again, this is a very oversimplified model. However, I find it effective for analyzing the rollercoaster you take a viewer on. If you decide a situation needs more anger, it suggests what you need to do (a fast changing situation where there's a chance of reward if you do something fast). Once that coarse analysis is done, then your skill as an author can look at the scene at a deeper level, and find your voice.



                      So to that end, can disguist sell a horror movie alone? The answer is generally no. People want a wide gamut. Thats why even the most happy-go-lucky movie has some surprise or anger in it. Indeed, I find the worst movies for my taste grind me into the ground with shame/humiliation, where I feel there is no escape (particularly those where I feel that even hitting the stop button wont free me from what my mind is doing). But moving around the cube brings spice to a story.






                      share|improve this answer




























                        4














                        People want a wide gamut of emotions in their movies. Even horror movies have their moments of joy. Even children's movies have their moments of terror.



                        There's an interesting theory which can help explain the answer, called the Lövheim cube of emotion. It is a rather untested scientific hypothesis from 2012 (read: nobody has evidence that it is accurate, and they aren't doing much testing on it), but I find it to be sufficiently useful for exploring emotions in a fictional setting.



                        Cube of emotion



                        The cleverness of the cube was tying the three monoamine neurotransmitters in the brain to emotion -- particularly the 8 base emotions from affect theory. This is, of course, the untested part of the hypothesis, but it points us in useful directions. The monoamine transmitters have some very coarse behaviors that can be used. Consider these to be very approximate behaviors. Any neurologist would giggle at the oversimplification, but it suffices here for studying how movies affect us.




                        • Noradrenaline measures how unpredictable things are on the short term. A roller coaster causes a surge of noradrenaline because the path it takes is hard to predict.

                        • Dopamine measures whether there is a reward nearby. We often talk of it as being "the reward system," but its more accurately a measure of nearby value worth searching for. Dopamine is the itch for an addict that says "there's value near by... all you need to do is inject it."

                        • Seratonin roughly measures how happy the body is. When our stomach is full, seratonin is used to signal that.


                        Now again, these are tremendously oversimplified, but we can use them to look at these base emotions and study how they relate. Consider the one in question here, disgust. This is low noradrenaline, low dopamine, and high seratonin on the cube. If I map that using those oversimplifications, we see that means that your mind sees no real reward to be had, the situation isn't really changing, but the reptillian part of the brain seems pretty happy.




                        • For many, body parts cause disgust. Practically speaking, there's no reason for the reptillian part of our brain to mind. After all, internal organs are food. But our higher brain is going "nope nope. Nothing to be gained here. Just stop looking. stop, okay? Just move on!"

                        • Consider the famous alien scenes with the slime. How do they play out?


                          • Reptile brain sees nothing wrong. The alien is just sitting there, posturing. It's not successfully evoking a flight response. But the brain gets a disguist feeling. You can't rip yourself away. Your higher order brain says "Nothing good can come of this, it's time to leave... now," but your lower brain is saying "but watch it... let's see what could happen. It's interesting."

                          • Then the alien does something sudden. This wasn't predicted, noradrenaline spikes, and you get surprised. "Oh. It has a second set of jaws. Well that wasn't expected."

                          • "Good feeling's gone." At this point, your lower brain realizes its mistake. This is not the place the inner reptile you wants to be in. Anguish ensues.

                          • Now there's a choice. If your realization of what's going on stagnates first, noradrenaline goes down. If your reading of the situation is "yep, we're screwed. yep... still screwed. Not changing... Oh why did I get myself into this mess," You shift to shame/humiliation. I do find some people get this response in horror. I know I get it from gore movies like Saw. Why did I think it was a good idea to watch this movie?* From there, there's often a chase scene, where one travels to fear/terror. There is a path out, so dopamine surges, but the badness isn't going away any time soon... still predicted.



                        • Alternativly, we see some travel straight to fear/terror. As the unpredictableness dies down, the brain starts seeing the path out. It skips shame/humiliation entirely.


                        The key to that last point: you don't always travel along the edges. Skilled movies can take you anywhere in the cube volume.



                        Again, this is a very oversimplified model. However, I find it effective for analyzing the rollercoaster you take a viewer on. If you decide a situation needs more anger, it suggests what you need to do (a fast changing situation where there's a chance of reward if you do something fast). Once that coarse analysis is done, then your skill as an author can look at the scene at a deeper level, and find your voice.



                        So to that end, can disguist sell a horror movie alone? The answer is generally no. People want a wide gamut. Thats why even the most happy-go-lucky movie has some surprise or anger in it. Indeed, I find the worst movies for my taste grind me into the ground with shame/humiliation, where I feel there is no escape (particularly those where I feel that even hitting the stop button wont free me from what my mind is doing). But moving around the cube brings spice to a story.






                        share|improve this answer


























                          4












                          4








                          4







                          People want a wide gamut of emotions in their movies. Even horror movies have their moments of joy. Even children's movies have their moments of terror.



                          There's an interesting theory which can help explain the answer, called the Lövheim cube of emotion. It is a rather untested scientific hypothesis from 2012 (read: nobody has evidence that it is accurate, and they aren't doing much testing on it), but I find it to be sufficiently useful for exploring emotions in a fictional setting.



                          Cube of emotion



                          The cleverness of the cube was tying the three monoamine neurotransmitters in the brain to emotion -- particularly the 8 base emotions from affect theory. This is, of course, the untested part of the hypothesis, but it points us in useful directions. The monoamine transmitters have some very coarse behaviors that can be used. Consider these to be very approximate behaviors. Any neurologist would giggle at the oversimplification, but it suffices here for studying how movies affect us.




                          • Noradrenaline measures how unpredictable things are on the short term. A roller coaster causes a surge of noradrenaline because the path it takes is hard to predict.

                          • Dopamine measures whether there is a reward nearby. We often talk of it as being "the reward system," but its more accurately a measure of nearby value worth searching for. Dopamine is the itch for an addict that says "there's value near by... all you need to do is inject it."

                          • Seratonin roughly measures how happy the body is. When our stomach is full, seratonin is used to signal that.


                          Now again, these are tremendously oversimplified, but we can use them to look at these base emotions and study how they relate. Consider the one in question here, disgust. This is low noradrenaline, low dopamine, and high seratonin on the cube. If I map that using those oversimplifications, we see that means that your mind sees no real reward to be had, the situation isn't really changing, but the reptillian part of the brain seems pretty happy.




                          • For many, body parts cause disgust. Practically speaking, there's no reason for the reptillian part of our brain to mind. After all, internal organs are food. But our higher brain is going "nope nope. Nothing to be gained here. Just stop looking. stop, okay? Just move on!"

                          • Consider the famous alien scenes with the slime. How do they play out?


                            • Reptile brain sees nothing wrong. The alien is just sitting there, posturing. It's not successfully evoking a flight response. But the brain gets a disguist feeling. You can't rip yourself away. Your higher order brain says "Nothing good can come of this, it's time to leave... now," but your lower brain is saying "but watch it... let's see what could happen. It's interesting."

                            • Then the alien does something sudden. This wasn't predicted, noradrenaline spikes, and you get surprised. "Oh. It has a second set of jaws. Well that wasn't expected."

                            • "Good feeling's gone." At this point, your lower brain realizes its mistake. This is not the place the inner reptile you wants to be in. Anguish ensues.

                            • Now there's a choice. If your realization of what's going on stagnates first, noradrenaline goes down. If your reading of the situation is "yep, we're screwed. yep... still screwed. Not changing... Oh why did I get myself into this mess," You shift to shame/humiliation. I do find some people get this response in horror. I know I get it from gore movies like Saw. Why did I think it was a good idea to watch this movie?* From there, there's often a chase scene, where one travels to fear/terror. There is a path out, so dopamine surges, but the badness isn't going away any time soon... still predicted.



                          • Alternativly, we see some travel straight to fear/terror. As the unpredictableness dies down, the brain starts seeing the path out. It skips shame/humiliation entirely.


                          The key to that last point: you don't always travel along the edges. Skilled movies can take you anywhere in the cube volume.



                          Again, this is a very oversimplified model. However, I find it effective for analyzing the rollercoaster you take a viewer on. If you decide a situation needs more anger, it suggests what you need to do (a fast changing situation where there's a chance of reward if you do something fast). Once that coarse analysis is done, then your skill as an author can look at the scene at a deeper level, and find your voice.



                          So to that end, can disguist sell a horror movie alone? The answer is generally no. People want a wide gamut. Thats why even the most happy-go-lucky movie has some surprise or anger in it. Indeed, I find the worst movies for my taste grind me into the ground with shame/humiliation, where I feel there is no escape (particularly those where I feel that even hitting the stop button wont free me from what my mind is doing). But moving around the cube brings spice to a story.






                          share|improve this answer













                          People want a wide gamut of emotions in their movies. Even horror movies have their moments of joy. Even children's movies have their moments of terror.



                          There's an interesting theory which can help explain the answer, called the Lövheim cube of emotion. It is a rather untested scientific hypothesis from 2012 (read: nobody has evidence that it is accurate, and they aren't doing much testing on it), but I find it to be sufficiently useful for exploring emotions in a fictional setting.



                          Cube of emotion



                          The cleverness of the cube was tying the three monoamine neurotransmitters in the brain to emotion -- particularly the 8 base emotions from affect theory. This is, of course, the untested part of the hypothesis, but it points us in useful directions. The monoamine transmitters have some very coarse behaviors that can be used. Consider these to be very approximate behaviors. Any neurologist would giggle at the oversimplification, but it suffices here for studying how movies affect us.




                          • Noradrenaline measures how unpredictable things are on the short term. A roller coaster causes a surge of noradrenaline because the path it takes is hard to predict.

                          • Dopamine measures whether there is a reward nearby. We often talk of it as being "the reward system," but its more accurately a measure of nearby value worth searching for. Dopamine is the itch for an addict that says "there's value near by... all you need to do is inject it."

                          • Seratonin roughly measures how happy the body is. When our stomach is full, seratonin is used to signal that.


                          Now again, these are tremendously oversimplified, but we can use them to look at these base emotions and study how they relate. Consider the one in question here, disgust. This is low noradrenaline, low dopamine, and high seratonin on the cube. If I map that using those oversimplifications, we see that means that your mind sees no real reward to be had, the situation isn't really changing, but the reptillian part of the brain seems pretty happy.




                          • For many, body parts cause disgust. Practically speaking, there's no reason for the reptillian part of our brain to mind. After all, internal organs are food. But our higher brain is going "nope nope. Nothing to be gained here. Just stop looking. stop, okay? Just move on!"

                          • Consider the famous alien scenes with the slime. How do they play out?


                            • Reptile brain sees nothing wrong. The alien is just sitting there, posturing. It's not successfully evoking a flight response. But the brain gets a disguist feeling. You can't rip yourself away. Your higher order brain says "Nothing good can come of this, it's time to leave... now," but your lower brain is saying "but watch it... let's see what could happen. It's interesting."

                            • Then the alien does something sudden. This wasn't predicted, noradrenaline spikes, and you get surprised. "Oh. It has a second set of jaws. Well that wasn't expected."

                            • "Good feeling's gone." At this point, your lower brain realizes its mistake. This is not the place the inner reptile you wants to be in. Anguish ensues.

                            • Now there's a choice. If your realization of what's going on stagnates first, noradrenaline goes down. If your reading of the situation is "yep, we're screwed. yep... still screwed. Not changing... Oh why did I get myself into this mess," You shift to shame/humiliation. I do find some people get this response in horror. I know I get it from gore movies like Saw. Why did I think it was a good idea to watch this movie?* From there, there's often a chase scene, where one travels to fear/terror. There is a path out, so dopamine surges, but the badness isn't going away any time soon... still predicted.



                          • Alternativly, we see some travel straight to fear/terror. As the unpredictableness dies down, the brain starts seeing the path out. It skips shame/humiliation entirely.


                          The key to that last point: you don't always travel along the edges. Skilled movies can take you anywhere in the cube volume.



                          Again, this is a very oversimplified model. However, I find it effective for analyzing the rollercoaster you take a viewer on. If you decide a situation needs more anger, it suggests what you need to do (a fast changing situation where there's a chance of reward if you do something fast). Once that coarse analysis is done, then your skill as an author can look at the scene at a deeper level, and find your voice.



                          So to that end, can disguist sell a horror movie alone? The answer is generally no. People want a wide gamut. Thats why even the most happy-go-lucky movie has some surprise or anger in it. Indeed, I find the worst movies for my taste grind me into the ground with shame/humiliation, where I feel there is no escape (particularly those where I feel that even hitting the stop button wont free me from what my mind is doing). But moving around the cube brings spice to a story.







                          share|improve this answer












                          share|improve this answer



                          share|improve this answer










                          answered Mar 22 at 15:11









                          Cort AmmonCort Ammon

                          79635




                          79635






























                              draft saved

                              draft discarded




















































                              Thanks for contributing an answer to Writing Stack Exchange!


                              • Please be sure to answer the question. Provide details and share your research!

                              But avoid



                              • Asking for help, clarification, or responding to other answers.

                              • Making statements based on opinion; back them up with references or personal experience.


                              To learn more, see our tips on writing great answers.




                              draft saved


                              draft discarded














                              StackExchange.ready(
                              function () {
                              StackExchange.openid.initPostLogin('.new-post-login', 'https%3a%2f%2fwriting.stackexchange.com%2fquestions%2f43911%2fcan-disgust-be-a-key-component-of-horror%23new-answer', 'question_page');
                              }
                              );

                              Post as a guest















                              Required, but never shown





















































                              Required, but never shown














                              Required, but never shown












                              Required, but never shown







                              Required, but never shown

































                              Required, but never shown














                              Required, but never shown












                              Required, but never shown







                              Required, but never shown







                              Popular posts from this blog

                              Færeyskur hestur Heimild | Tengill | Tilvísanir | LeiðsagnarvalRossið - síða um færeyska hrossið á færeyskuGott ár hjá færeyska hestinum

                              He _____ here since 1970 . Answer needed [closed]What does “since he was so high” mean?Meaning of “catch birds for”?How do I ensure “since” takes the meaning I want?“Who cares here” meaningWhat does “right round toward” mean?the time tense (had now been detected)What does the phrase “ring around the roses” mean here?Correct usage of “visited upon”Meaning of “foiled rail sabotage bid”It was the third time I had gone to Rome or It is the third time I had been to Rome

                              Slayer Innehåll Historia | Stil, komposition och lyrik | Bandets betydelse och framgångar | Sidoprojekt och samarbeten | Kontroverser | Medlemmar | Utmärkelser och nomineringar | Turnéer och festivaler | Diskografi | Referenser | Externa länkar | Navigeringsmenywww.slayer.net”Metal Massacre vol. 1””Metal Massacre vol. 3””Metal Massacre Volume III””Show No Mercy””Haunting the Chapel””Live Undead””Hell Awaits””Reign in Blood””Reign in Blood””Gold & Platinum – Reign in Blood””Golden Gods Awards Winners”originalet”Kerrang! Hall Of Fame””Slayer Looks Back On 37-Year Career In New Video Series: Part Two””South of Heaven””Gold & Platinum – South of Heaven””Seasons in the Abyss””Gold & Platinum - Seasons in the Abyss””Divine Intervention””Divine Intervention - Release group by Slayer””Gold & Platinum - Divine Intervention””Live Intrusion””Undisputed Attitude””Abolish Government/Superficial Love””Release “Slatanic Slaughter: A Tribute to Slayer” by Various Artists””Diabolus in Musica””Soundtrack to the Apocalypse””God Hates Us All””Systematic - Relationships””War at the Warfield””Gold & Platinum - War at the Warfield””Soundtrack to the Apocalypse””Gold & Platinum - Still Reigning””Metallica, Slayer, Iron Mauden Among Winners At Metal Hammer Awards””Eternal Pyre””Eternal Pyre - Slayer release group””Eternal Pyre””Metal Storm Awards 2006””Kerrang! Hall Of Fame””Slayer Wins 'Best Metal' Grammy Award””Slayer Guitarist Jeff Hanneman Dies””Bullet-For My Valentine booed at Metal Hammer Golden Gods Awards””Unholy Aliance””The End Of Slayer?””Slayer: We Could Thrash Out Two More Albums If We're Fast Enough...””'The Unholy Alliance: Chapter III' UK Dates Added”originalet”Megadeth And Slayer To Co-Headline 'Canadian Carnage' Trek”originalet”World Painted Blood””Release “World Painted Blood” by Slayer””Metallica Heading To Cinemas””Slayer, Megadeth To Join Forces For 'European Carnage' Tour - Dec. 18, 2010”originalet”Slayer's Hanneman Contracts Acute Infection; Band To Bring In Guest Guitarist””Cannibal Corpse's Pat O'Brien Will Step In As Slayer's Guest Guitarist”originalet”Slayer’s Jeff Hanneman Dead at 49””Dave Lombardo Says He Made Only $67,000 In 2011 While Touring With Slayer””Slayer: We Do Not Agree With Dave Lombardo's Substance Or Timeline Of Events””Slayer Welcomes Drummer Paul Bostaph Back To The Fold””Slayer Hope to Unveil Never-Before-Heard Jeff Hanneman Material on Next Album””Slayer Debut New Song 'Implode' During Surprise Golden Gods Appearance””Release group Repentless by Slayer””Repentless - Slayer - Credits””Slayer””Metal Storm Awards 2015””Slayer - to release comic book "Repentless #1"””Slayer To Release 'Repentless' 6.66" Vinyl Box Set””BREAKING NEWS: Slayer Announce Farewell Tour””Slayer Recruit Lamb of God, Anthrax, Behemoth + Testament for Final Tour””Slayer lägger ner efter 37 år””Slayer Announces Second North American Leg Of 'Final' Tour””Final World Tour””Slayer Announces Final European Tour With Lamb of God, Anthrax And Obituary””Slayer To Tour Europe With Lamb of God, Anthrax And Obituary””Slayer To Play 'Last French Show Ever' At Next Year's Hellfst””Slayer's Final World Tour Will Extend Into 2019””Death Angel's Rob Cavestany On Slayer's 'Farewell' Tour: 'Some Of Us Could See This Coming'””Testament Has No Plans To Retire Anytime Soon, Says Chuck Billy””Anthrax's Scott Ian On Slayer's 'Farewell' Tour Plans: 'I Was Surprised And I Wasn't Surprised'””Slayer””Slayer's Morbid Schlock””Review/Rock; For Slayer, the Mania Is the Message””Slayer - Biography””Slayer - Reign In Blood”originalet”Dave Lombardo””An exclusive oral history of Slayer”originalet”Exclusive! Interview With Slayer Guitarist Jeff Hanneman”originalet”Thinking Out Loud: Slayer's Kerry King on hair metal, Satan and being polite””Slayer Lyrics””Slayer - Biography””Most influential artists for extreme metal music””Slayer - Reign in Blood””Slayer guitarist Jeff Hanneman dies aged 49””Slatanic Slaughter: A Tribute to Slayer””Gateway to Hell: A Tribute to Slayer””Covered In Blood””Slayer: The Origins of Thrash in San Francisco, CA.””Why They Rule - #6 Slayer”originalet”Guitar World's 100 Greatest Heavy Metal Guitarists Of All Time”originalet”The fans have spoken: Slayer comes out on top in readers' polls”originalet”Tribute to Jeff Hanneman (1964-2013)””Lamb Of God Frontman: We Sound Like A Slayer Rip-Off””BEHEMOTH Frontman Pays Tribute To SLAYER's JEFF HANNEMAN””Slayer, Hatebreed Doing Double Duty On This Year's Ozzfest””System of a Down””Lacuna Coil’s Andrea Ferro Talks Influences, Skateboarding, Band Origins + More””Slayer - Reign in Blood””Into The Lungs of Hell””Slayer rules - en utställning om fans””Slayer and Their Fans Slashed Through a No-Holds-Barred Night at Gas Monkey””Home””Slayer””Gold & Platinum - The Big 4 Live from Sofia, Bulgaria””Exclusive! Interview With Slayer Guitarist Kerry King””2008-02-23: Wiltern, Los Angeles, CA, USA””Slayer's Kerry King To Perform With Megadeth Tonight! - Oct. 21, 2010”originalet”Dave Lombardo - Biography”Slayer Case DismissedArkiveradUltimate Classic Rock: Slayer guitarist Jeff Hanneman dead at 49.”Slayer: "We could never do any thing like Some Kind Of Monster..."””Cannibal Corpse'S Pat O'Brien Will Step In As Slayer'S Guest Guitarist | The Official Slayer Site”originalet”Slayer Wins 'Best Metal' Grammy Award””Slayer Guitarist Jeff Hanneman Dies””Kerrang! Awards 2006 Blog: Kerrang! Hall Of Fame””Kerrang! Awards 2013: Kerrang! Legend”originalet”Metallica, Slayer, Iron Maien Among Winners At Metal Hammer Awards””Metal Hammer Golden Gods Awards””Bullet For My Valentine Booed At Metal Hammer Golden Gods Awards””Metal Storm Awards 2006””Metal Storm Awards 2015””Slayer's Concert History””Slayer - Relationships””Slayer - Releases”Slayers officiella webbplatsSlayer på MusicBrainzOfficiell webbplatsSlayerSlayerr1373445760000 0001 1540 47353068615-5086262726cb13906545x(data)6033143kn20030215029