Why Horror? (2014) Movie Script
1
Horror is absolutely necessary.
Fear is part of our DNA.
We are born with an
instinctive sense of fear.
We have to avoid what scares us but
if we don't know what scares us,
you won't be able to escape from it.
(Goya) tries, in a crude way,
to tell how crazy we are.
That is, in a way, what
we do with a horror film.
Goya is fantastic. Goya was the first one.
Goya was the first one of us.
Really, the day of the dead
celebrates a festive cycle related to
the production, the life
and death, of corn.
And it's the time of abundance, when
you can give back to your ancestors.
Since they've been helping you from
the ground, because they are buried.
And it's said that in Xochimilco
we don't bury men, we sow them.
National culture has been
deeply affected by Halloween.
And by these images that are not
necessarily part of our culture.
They make it sinister when it isn't.
Nobody would find it logical that you would give
an offering to a being that is here to hurt you.
So there is this pressure that says Day of
Dead is to be frightened or to be scared.
And it's not like that.
Committing violent and sadistic acts,
So by watching horror films they can vicariously
experience it and feel excitement and catharsis.
I'm not the type, but for people with
sadistic urges it can provide a release.
Kabuki theatre, as well as Noh theatre,
both originally began as
entertainment for commoners.
In order to make the elements of
the story easily identifiable,
the characters on the stage are
presented in a fixed figure or form.
Most of the time, ghosts
appear in a white kimono.
Ghosts are just humans. People.
They represent the darkness
that we carry inside.
What humans are most afraid of is nature.
Natural phenomena. Such as the dark or snakes.
Women are not able to express themselves
aggressively through violence like men,
meaning they have all these negative
feelings swirling inside, which is scary.
And then when they die in that state, even after
they die, their grudgeful spirit remains.
In Japanese Buddhism,
when you kill something
there will be karmic retribution.
Horror has perhaps been used to
teach this concept of retribution.
That type of spirit has endured as one of
the most frightening things
in Japanese culture.
In around 1997-98 a Japanese horror film
called "The Ring" was released in cinemas.
I heard that when "The Exorcist"
was released in the US,
it caused panic at the theatres.
The same kind of thing happened when
"The Ring" was released
in Japanese cinemas.
Evil Dead is a movie you
have to watch with friends.
You have to get a video... it's
better in video than in the theatre.
You get a VHS. A bad quality VHS.
Put it on the TV, lots
of popcorn, pizza, beer.
All of that together becomes a party.
There's nothing more fun than
everybody screaming together.
Initially when I was developing
the first Resident Evil,
there wasn't much of a puzzle
solving element to it.
In the early stages the game was a
straight forward action-survival shooter
and became overly simplistic.
In thinking of the world of
the game, I wanted to include
puzzle-solving elements. By doing that
we tried to expand and enhance the
gaming experience for players.
Fear is not necessarily
a bad thing, I think.
I believe that it is good to know
the existence of scary things.
Why are scary things considered to be bad?
Creating scary stories is totally different
from hurting or cheating people.
Horror stories used to be a
part of general education.
People learned about the wide scope
of this world through horror stories.
Why horror? One thing I can say
about the nature of horror;
it is like a mystery that
can never be solved.
It's sort of like a perpetual history.
And I think if the mystery of horror
is solved, it loses its fascination.
Horror is absolutely necessary.
Fear is part of our DNA.
We are born with an
instinctive sense of fear.
We have to avoid what scares us but
if we don't know what scares us,
you won't be able to escape from it.
(Goya) tries, in a crude way,
to tell how crazy we are.
That is, in a way, what
we do with a horror film.
Goya is fantastic. Goya was the first one.
Goya was the first one of us.
Really, the day of the dead
celebrates a festive cycle related to
the production, the life
and death, of corn.
And it's the time of abundance, when
you can give back to your ancestors.
Since they've been helping you from
the ground, because they are buried.
And it's said that in Xochimilco
we don't bury men, we sow them.
National culture has been
deeply affected by Halloween.
And by these images that are not
necessarily part of our culture.
They make it sinister when it isn't.
Nobody would find it logical that you would give
an offering to a being that is here to hurt you.
So there is this pressure that says Day of
Dead is to be frightened or to be scared.
And it's not like that.
Committing violent and sadistic acts,
So by watching horror films they can vicariously
experience it and feel excitement and catharsis.
I'm not the type, but for people with
sadistic urges it can provide a release.
Kabuki theatre, as well as Noh theatre,
both originally began as
entertainment for commoners.
In order to make the elements of
the story easily identifiable,
the characters on the stage are
presented in a fixed figure or form.
Most of the time, ghosts
appear in a white kimono.
Ghosts are just humans. People.
They represent the darkness
that we carry inside.
What humans are most afraid of is nature.
Natural phenomena. Such as the dark or snakes.
Women are not able to express themselves
aggressively through violence like men,
meaning they have all these negative
feelings swirling inside, which is scary.
And then when they die in that state, even after
they die, their grudgeful spirit remains.
In Japanese Buddhism,
when you kill something
there will be karmic retribution.
Horror has perhaps been used to
teach this concept of retribution.
That type of spirit has endured as one of
the most frightening things
in Japanese culture.
In around 1997-98 a Japanese horror film
called "The Ring" was released in cinemas.
I heard that when "The Exorcist"
was released in the US,
it caused panic at the theatres.
The same kind of thing happened when
"The Ring" was released
in Japanese cinemas.
Evil Dead is a movie you
have to watch with friends.
You have to get a video... it's
better in video than in the theatre.
You get a VHS. A bad quality VHS.
Put it on the TV, lots
of popcorn, pizza, beer.
All of that together becomes a party.
There's nothing more fun than
everybody screaming together.
Initially when I was developing
the first Resident Evil,
there wasn't much of a puzzle
solving element to it.
In the early stages the game was a
straight forward action-survival shooter
and became overly simplistic.
In thinking of the world of
the game, I wanted to include
puzzle-solving elements. By doing that
we tried to expand and enhance the
gaming experience for players.
Fear is not necessarily
a bad thing, I think.
I believe that it is good to know
the existence of scary things.
Why are scary things considered to be bad?
Creating scary stories is totally different
from hurting or cheating people.
Horror stories used to be a
part of general education.
People learned about the wide scope
of this world through horror stories.
Why horror? One thing I can say
about the nature of horror;
it is like a mystery that
can never be solved.
It's sort of like a perpetual history.
And I think if the mystery of horror
is solved, it loses its fascination.