Friday, August 13, 2010

Technophobia, Literally.

The effectivity of Horror Movies hinge on the culture of their target audience. In the United States, for instance, serial killer movies are quite popular. Such movies, as far as I know, do not appeal to us, that is, we really don't have serial killer movies of our own (except maybe that one Aga Mulach movie, but i'm not even sure if he was a serial killer, or just psycho), because there are no, or probably very few, serial killer cases in the Philippines. Most of our horror movies deal with the supernatural and the like.

In keeping with the times, several movies have used the theme of technology. Movies such as One Missed Call, from Japan, Phone, from South Korea, and even our very own Txt, to name a few. These movies scare us effectively because, really who doesn't have a mobile phone, or other gadgets, for that matter. Movies like the ones mentioned above are so scary because technology is something we interact with everyday. Before these horror movies, one would think that a computer or a mobile phone is too high-tech for the supernatural to use to scare us. But now, when my phone rings in the middle of the night, or when I turn on my computer, at the back of my mind, there is this fear that it might be some unsettled spirit from the beyond trying to scare me.

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