Author: Ushna Nawaz
Watching movies is the most significant leisure activity for people of all ages worldwide. Usually, people watch movies for entertainment in their leisure
time. Unfortunately, movies are not only the source of amusement; it also
imparts unpleasant and obnoxious effects on human beings (Clapp, & Beck, 2012). Such type of film not only affects
psychologically but also causes physical arousal like high blood pressure, high
pulse or heart rate, and changes in neurotransmitters (Brady, Warnock-Parkes, Barker, & Ehlers, 2015). The functions of movies have gone beyond the limits of entertainment and subtly influence the people's perception toward reality. The distorted perception towards reality leads to anxiety, phobias, fear, frustration and depression among people (Church, 2010) . This topic will expose
how different movies, especially horror movies, cause damage to human beings.
Alex Chamberlain (1899) defined fear as an experience. According to
him, fear is not deep-rooted though it is sudden. Fear helps to alert an
individual that is crucial for human beings; such fear makes individual to
think about various ways and to select the suitable one to escape from that
situation (Cannon, 1914; Ohman&Mineka, 2001). Meanwhile, fear can also be
dreadful if it rises to its peak level. A high level can develop cognitive
conflict that causes anxiety which eventually converts into phobias, a state
that can trigger anxiety even in the presence of a natural object (DSM-IV,
1994) although the individual is aware of the fact that this object is not
harmful, he still feels frightened in its presence.
In 1932, Bartlett, in his
traced theory, explains that on the occurrence of any particular occasion few
suggestions, or a few groups of suggestions, is create and retain in mind. After that, a sudden stimulus again excites
the trace, group of traces which create a further supposition, that trace by
some means bring out a temporal sign, re-excitement seems to be equal to
recall.
Film series wrong turn, this movie retains a large fan base when
people watch such type of movies there is more chance to trigger cognitive
disturbance and are more likely to manifest fear in people. Other horror movies
like conjuring and insidious that are popular movies, these movies use a
particular type of settings, sounds and characters. By watching such things,
people develop schema according to that, and whenever they encounter such type
of situation or hear such type of sounds, they get afraid of that even if there
is nothing.
This kind of movies can
also cause a disturbance in the developing periods of children. Due to easy
access to the internet, children can also easily watch this kind of stuff.
Children are prohibited from watching these things, but due to prohibition,
they are more curious to watch, Meyrowitz in 1986 explained through a study
that horror movies are the most startling creation for school-aged children.
This period of life is undoubtedly most likely to make children frighten. In
addition to graphics and grisly violence, horror movies follow strict features
that specifically scare children. Zoom shots, as an example, provoke a more
forceful reaction to unexpected or unpleasant situations.
They usually cannot bear and understand such things and consider
them as real that is the source of developing fear in childhood. This can be
illustrating by considering “BOBO DOLL” experiment. Albert Bandura experimented
to understand observational learning. Observational learning is the learning
type; in which individual learn by watching or observing others. In his
experiment, he used a plastic doll named Bobo doll. Participants were divided
into two groups:
(1) Control group
(2) Experimental group
To recognise the difference between the two groups condition were
applied to the experimental group. The experimental group was exposed to a
group of adults hitting the doll aggressively, whereas the control group was
neutral about the doll. After applying conditions when children were given a
doll to play, children in the experimental group exhibited more aggressive
behaviour towards the doll in comparison with a control group (Bandura et al.,
1961).
In the same way, when
children watch frightening situations in the movies, they begin to generalise
them on real-life situations and develop un-necessary fear, which causes harm
to them. A study was conducted, which also proves that horror movies hurt
children. It was concluded from the study that scary shows leave a negative
mark on children behaviour, attitude and psychology. The children who watched
television for more time manifest more fear, anxiety and stress in comparison
with children who spend less time watching T.V shows (Singh, 2014).
Timothy Sexton, in her
article, cited National Institute of Mental Health study, revealed the straight
realities in children of the age of five to younger, specifically little kids,
horror films could manifest painful circumstances of anxiety. Sleeping
disorders, aggressiveness and self-endangerment are the indicators of
anxiety.
In 2011 Danielle Braff
cited the statement of Dr George Bakris that scary films do raise heart rate
and if an individual has coronary heart disease, movies can intensify chest
pain and blood pressure. Horror movies affect the body physically too. A spine
in adrenaline can occur when watching horror movies.