King's Why We Crave Horror Movies looks deep into the human psyche in order to make its analysis. As a result, his conclusions may be as disturbing as a horror movie itself. King claims that all humans are, to a degree, mentally ill: this mental illness surfaces as a desire for horror as well as sick jokes. According to him, we wish to see the reality of our world bent to produce pain, perversion, or other unnatural phenomena that we cannot observe in real life.
King's analysis is certainly not scientific: he does not plunge through medical data or statistics about the prevalence of mental health in the United States. As such, his essay can be considered speculative and is thus subject to critique.
The bias of King himself should also be considered. As an author who makes his living by writing horror novels, he is certainly encouraged by this appetite, whatever its roots. It does not necessarily matter to King whether his analysis is accurate, so long as it supports his own livelihood. While he has a strong understanding of his audience and the desire for horror, he may be drawing the wrong conclusions, much in the same way that a writer of historical fiction might draw the conclusion that people crave to return to the past.
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