This is a clip from youtube of typical reactions to Paranormal Activity from the Sherry Lansing Theatre in Hollywood, California. A lot was made about how strong the reactions were to this movie, which started a word of mouth that built the film's popularity about how scary it was. This clip exemplifies how the audience can engage with the film through expressing their emotions. Many are laughing in the clip and expressing expletives out of amazement of what they are seeing, many are closing their eyes to avoid witnessing the torment and even some girls are cowering into the arms of their brave, slightly scared boyfriend. It is understandable why people close their eyes in the clip because they are constantly bombarded with scary images that keep them at a high emotional state with no break from it. But why do these people go to this film?
Many of the people smiling in the clip could be seen as sensation seekers as Rickey (1982) argues that fear causes a rush of adrenaline and makes people more energetic, which was shown in the clip (as cited in Tamborini and Stiff 1987, 418). These people went to see Paranormal Activity because the subtle fear it displays arouses a strong, exhilarating emotion that can be pleasurable. The trailer as well as the clip creates a curiosity about whether the film is really that scary and leaves those who have not seen the film wondering why people are reacting in this way. This is another reason why people went to see the film because it is horror film that is a test of strength and the viewers challenge the film to scare them as argued by Werner (1980) (ibid., 416). But this is particularly the case for men, who can express their masculinity through withstanding fear, playing the role of the strong boyfriend allowing his girlfriend to cuddle up to him. There is certain logic then of couples as well as young people, who tend to enjoy more excitement as they are at an age of great vitality. In addition the typical response of people closing their eyes is down to a fight from fear, or simulated fear in addition to a quickened heart rate (Keisner 2008, 415). For them the film is way of expressing the emotional stress of whatever is going wrong in their life or from their subconscious and according to Goldsmith (1975) it allows them to displace it on screen, so simulated fear can be a form of psychic relief (as cited in Tamborini and Stiff 1987, 416).
As you can see the film does what other horror films came before it, allowing their audience to emotionally engage with it and making it one of the remaining genres and mediums that allow interaction with the cultural source. People saw this film as a test of strength out of curiosity of its degree of scariness and this clip does that for Paranormal Activity, encouraging more people to go see it for this reason. Clearly you can only really get it when you see it.
Can you vouch for these people's reactions personally? Was the film that frightening? Would watching this make you want to see the film? In that case would you see the film as a challenge to avoid being scared?
Reference
Paranormal Activity-Sherry Lansing Theatre Reactions [video]. 2009. Retrieved April 19 2011, from YouTube.com.
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