How do you like to view horror? Do you see it as a genre you can surrender to, one that you can sit back and enjoy for all of its over-the-top gore and scares? Then again, your taste in it may be more refined. You watch it for its unique concepts and reactions of the human psyche in the face of the unknown. Both reasons are valid, but let me ask something.
Think of all the horror media you have seen. What have you learned from it? No, not the obvious stuff like don’t run upstairs when a killer is chasing you. I mean, the deeper things, the kind that makes you question what you would do if you were in a character’s shoes. In the Saw series, people are put in deadly contraptions that they can only escape with luck or skill or by doing something horrible to themselves or others.
If you’ve seen any of these movies, I’m sure you’ve considered what you would do in those situations. Could you cut off one of your limbs and burn the wound to escape a trap? Would you let someone else lose their life to save yours? The decision could depend on whether or not the person in this scenario is someone you know. You may think the decision would be easy if it’s someone you hate.
The problem with this is most of us aren’t murderers. Self-defense is entirely different and even then, taking a life is an act that sticks with you. This situation is along the same lines. Even if it’s someone you loathe, would you be able to handle all the years of remembering their screams? What about having to tell their loved ones of the horrible fate that befell them?
How would you break the news to them? It sounds easy until you’re looking someone in the eye. Survivor’s guilt exists for a reason. That’s the best-case scenario, by the way. The worst one (with you still surviving) is some trap injured you before making a decision that will haunt you to your grave. Mental and physical trauma go together like salt and pepper after all.
The Saw franchise tends to be a bit more intimate, though. How about horror that’s a bit more vast? Something like apocalypse movies. Now, that doesn’t necessarily mean something scary. It could be referring to disaster movies. such as Deep Impact or 2012. I find ones like these fascinating because they’re about preparing for a cataclysmic event rather than showing the world after it has occurred.
Put yourself in the world of these movies. Life is going by as expected when you hear news that affects not only you but all life on Earth. This could range from major simultaneous volcanic eruptions to an asteroid impact to even solar flares hitting Earth and destroying electronics (which I’ve read is one of the more likely apocalypse scenarios). Would you feel confident that those in charge could combat these threats? As of now, I can’t say yes. The amount of incompetence coming from the top down is already anxiety-inducing enough. Let alone in a hypothetical where humanity is dealing with an outside threat.
Couple that with people panicking about potential oncoming doom, and you have a less-than-ideal situation for survival. This highlights the main issue with humanity. It’s the fact we only really try to deal with immediate threats. Climate change is fucking us hard. Every year, temperature records keep breaking, and storms like hurricanes are growing so powerful that new categories have to be made for them.
Yet, we seem determined to put this problem off. In fairness, most of this could be solved by reigning in these corporations, but that’s another topic. My point is what is horrifying isn’t solely the disaster. It’s how people react to it. Just look at what happened with COVID-19.
Other countries handled it with sense by helping their citizens. Meanwhile, most US states only told (suggested really) for people to stay home without offering anything to help with that. Between 2020 and 2021, only three stimulus checks were given out when places outside the US were giving their citizens monthly funds. It also doesn’t help that many people were melting down because some places had mask mandates. Hell, Japan had a mandate and they were able to keep functioning like normal.
Unfortunately, stubbornness is a surplus in the land of the free. That brings me to my next point, ego. I’m not saying America is the only country that has the issue. However, it appears to be the most prominent here. The old man who warns that people have been going missing in the local woods is always promptly ignored.
What this highlights is our self-destructive tendencies would make any kind of society-ending scenario all the worse. How many zombie films can you think of where someone got bit and never told anyone until it was too late? Know why this happens? The short answer is stupidity. The longer one is people think they’re special and they think they’re immune to what’s harming everyone else.
I’m not trying to be holier than thou by the way. I’m fully aware that the flaws I point out here are just as present in me. The difference is, I like to think that I exercise enough self-awareness to keep that aspect of myself in check. Before I continue, I want to say what happens in a story isn’t going to be a perfect mirror if that same thing occurs in real life. In a story, things have to occur to keep the plot engaging and progressing.
Not to mention, it’s something you can view as an outsider. You can fantasize about what you’d do if that situation were to ever occur. Everyone thinks they’ll be the hero or the one who has it all planned out. It’s why there are doomsday preppers. As an aside, it’s a bit concerning there are so many people who fall into this category.
I’m not saying it’s bad to be ready for the worst-case scenario, but it almost seems as if they want it to happen like they can’t wait for that day because it means they were right and everyone else was wrong. Again, ego. Also, it’s a bit weird that these same people always brag about how ready they are. You’d think it would be smarter to keep that on the down low so they aren’t the first to be raided. I digress.
I want you to also consider how power-driven so many are. It’s never enough even to the point more is desired when things are on the verge of collapsing. If any sort of apocalypse does occur, the sad reality is there’s still going to be people scrambling out of the rubble to control what’s left. Then again, maybe I’m being pessimistic.
After all, it’s not like any of the situations I’ve named have occurred for us to draw a basis of comparison. Maybe something like that would finally be the wake-up call for us to put our differences aside and create something better from the ashes. Unfortunately, we do tend to be our own worst enemy. Even if we do recover, our flaws would almost certainly guarantee that the same thing would occur again. I think that’s the lesson here.
It’s if we want to minimize uncertainty, we need to move forward by accepting the flaws we have, not trying to suppress them. I mean, to a certain extent. If someone’s flaw is being a serial killer that obviously shouldn’t be allowed. For the more tame ones, until we find a way to embrace or subvert them, the only things we’ll have are either ruin or stagnation. Personally, the latter has always frightened me more.
On that note, I want to give a very belated Happy New Year. I figured I would squeeze this in before January croaks. If you want to support me, check out my Reddit’s pinned posts linked here (I do have some tipping links in one of them) or join the writing Patreon I am a part of linked here where we post horror stories. Thanks and happy reading.
