Response

             The Fear of Unknown

           

            Scary movies are fun to watch, simply because a good portion of us don’t encounter many frightful situations in our every day lives. The main point of scary movies is to make it hard for the viewers to sleep because of the fear of the evident nightmares that follow the films; but in order to scare its audience the creators of the frightening films have to define fear. Real life is scary and scary movie producers try their best to make their movies relatable so people can really experience fear of what could happen, and mainly the fear is derived from death in a certain way.

The evolution of how much we fear death spikes as we are children, and diminishes at an old age nearing death. Even children ultimately fear the end, and rightfully so with such a future left for them. Children think fear comes from things that go bump in the night and movies make the fear seem real, their young minds take the concept of monsters as big creatures that want to eat them. Children want to live and have fun, but the innocence of a child cannot protect them of their natural instinct to fear dying. Therefore, children are prone to night terrors of imaginative ways that monsters (made of everyday objects like jeans or refrigerator etc) try and hurt/kill them.

There is also the abusive parent(s) any child dreads to encounter. Families with abusive members are very dysfunctional and produce children that require other means to make their lives worthwhile. It is common for children to grow up and develop addictions ranging from alcohol to heroine. Another effect from being raised in an abusive home is becoming an abusive person to the next generation.

Along with abusive family life possibilities, children and teens tend to have troubles with bullying. Schools are filled with judgmental students speaking their minds. Not to mention, when they grow older students are clever enough to find despicable things to do to each other. Cyber bullying has become popular over the past couple of decades, and is easier to do than confront people with rude and insensitive comments. Then there is the face-to-face bullying that could just include hurtful words, or can involve physical violence. The terrifying part is not knowing how bad each day is going to progress. Students victim to bullying have problems dealing with persistent peers, they go through extensive lengths of torture. The bullied can conclude that death is their only option to end their miserable lives.

The next stage we go through is predator fear. When children start using the Internet and learn communication skills, they are subject to be prey of online predators. The fear mainly falls upon the parents, because they don’t want to lose their child. Pre-teens to teens start to realize the consequences that can proceed unsafe Internet use. Many times the teens that do become victims of sexual predators are the ones with voids in their lives. There are other teens as well who are just looking to be their own person and trust the wrong people along the way, such as young girls trusting ”modeling agents” who are actually involved with the sex slave trade.

Caring parents are without a doubt, one of the most scared of any other average person. With the Internet, TV, and peers, parents are becoming less and less important to the next generation. Parents are only trying to help keep their children alive and well, and their children see it as being overly cautious. The unfortunate thing about the youth is the last part of the brain to develop is the frontal lobes, which controls our ability to think and make rational decisions. Children don’t have the sense to listen to their parents and they do stupid stuff that kills their parents slowly with sever stress from worrying.

Fear of suffering as a poor unhealthy person is also a concern of most, if not all people deal with on a day to day basis. Disease, cancer, injuries, and common health problems can consume our lives eventually when left untreated or just naturally immediately debilitating. Everyone knows the possible outcomes of those typical life-threatening situations, but after a while the fear of death wares off because sooner or later death just has to be accepted as a peace giver. Suffering is the fear patients experience when going through treatments that cause them to feel dead but still alive. Death at that point brings peace, and some cannot wait to reach it instead of going through painful treatments that may cure them.

            When a person walks alone down a street at night, no matter where he lives, will start to expect the worse. Shadows are filled with monsters; not the fictional type of monsters children fear, but murders, muggers, and even rabid animals. Death is what the average person ultimately fears, but the worse thing to have happen is the slow agonizing existence devoted to fearing life.

            Fear isn’t a typical scary movie with extravagant circumstances, fear is not knowing. When the person walks alone down the street at night, he fears what he doesn’t know is around the corner. He fears what could be instead of what is behind the bushes. He hopes his home is well protected; from not only the possibly hazardous people, but other paranormal forces that he cannot control.

            Everyone can fear scary things movies contain; however, the truly scary part of life is how well a person lives. He can have a job, and he could also lose the job. Will the man be able to feed his kids? Will the man die and leave his starving family to fall victim to the same fate? The fear of a serial killer murdering the entire teen population of a small town should phase most of us because it is improbable. The truly scary movies are the ones with people suffering with the end of death a slow and painful process.

            The horror film categories of fear are only a few topics of what is really scary. The only reason why we don’t make many films about the fears of: cancer, losing important jobs that provided for a poor family, and everyday personal bullying of children and adults; is because those fearful movies are too close to home. When people watch horror films, they expect a plot that “could” happen, but most likely won’t.  Fear doesn’t have to be about death, it can also be suffering; but showing suffering is inhuman and revolting because we all know how it feels in one way or another. Not knowing and suffering is the definition of fear, it is inevitable and we all have to except its fate.