In my research I have found... well, pretty much what I've always expected to find. It re-enforces my general perspective on horror, and overall I feel as if I am on the right track. It's not that difficult to guess why that is, given that a lot of the people behind those works shaped my view of horror, particularly King and Capacabra. They're the ones who ushered me into the genre, so perhaps it is appropriate that they also serve as the research underscoring my foray into why I love it so much.
But, what I've realized about myself in looking at the field of horror is that I think the part that appeals to me the most is the creativity part and not the actual terror part.
The darndest thing is, I've only ever been truly terrified by three films (Rec., Paranormal Activity and V/H/S/2), and while I love those films, most horror doesn't truly scare me. I love the genre for its creativity, how it takes the dark and outlandish and spawns visual poetry from it. God bless the big rubber monsters I say, and god bless the madmen who puppeteer them!
Anyway, I think I'll organize the report around a three-part structure after my thesis, writing on the three major aspects of horror that I think attracts people: the transgression, the creativity, and the genuine terror. I'll be using the films (With maybe a few others that I might add later) in my bibliography to discuss the latter two mostly, as they're the factors that attracted me, and I'll use the websites in the bibiliography to discuss my relationship to the genre via being introduced to it by them.
U understand the concept of academic distance, but I don't know about how distant to remain in this project in its writing. Any chance you could give me some suggestions on how to retain the "proper" academic distance while at the same time making this as personal as I'd like it to be?
Definitely, there’s strength in how you plan to format this paper with the “three major aspects” of why people enjoy horror films. In regard to suggesting how you might maintain objectivity and still write a passionate paper: you can still be “personal” as long as you leave out personal pronouns—your positive opinion of the genre will still come through even without using “I like” or “this is my favorite” or “I think” or “I believe” etc. Writing sentences such as, “the most fascinating aspect of horror is,” or “what makes horror so appealing is…” etc. will evoke positive feelings. Additionally, you could argue your positive point of view by using scholarly negative sources to argue against in your paper (controversy). I like your idea of the creativity part—since you are using Stephen King, The Shining is a great film example of subtle and spooky horror. Speaking of scary, Misery, was horrific.
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