I was watching a film magazine on TV, and The Mist, based on a Stephen King’s novel, was mentioned. I was an excited consumer of horror movies during my teens and even later in life, and suddenly I became puzzled because of the why. All my answers might lay on some psychological study that I hadn't the chance to read yet, but here are some questionings based on my experience.
Going back in time, the most ancient frightening memories I can recollect right now are those of my grandfather's nigthtime stories, narrated around the fireplace. Those involved the fantastic but also fear, normally in the form of a devilish creature, as my grandfather was raised within a Catholic culture. There was awe while listening to those stories, and also the uneasiness of fear – as if suddenly any of the things that were being told could materialize on the spot. Especially the nasty ones. I’m sure you’ve similar stories to tell, and I’ll gladly read about them.
Lullabies in the majority of countries also have a fear charge in them: "There’s something nasty out there and I’m here to protect you." Or, "Fear nothing," – what was there to fear in the first place? – "I’m here to protect you and take care of you; you’re a wonderful kid", and a long list of praising the child’s attributes, that will probably create an addiction to such praising in the child.
Was that frightening story in the end telling me who was part of my family's unit, who would protect me from the monsters? From the other? From the otherness?
Sometimes I try to put myself in the shoes – or rather, "animalskinfeet," as my tribe calls them – of an ancient historical self. We're sitting around the blazing fire in the middle of our tribe’s tents, and the Shaman is telling us the fantastic and fearful stories of the world out there. Because humans are story consumers by excellence, most likely since a given language allowed its production.
What could be the purpose (conscious or most probably not) of these fear based stories? Could those same stories fortify the ties within the tribe? “Those are the bad things out there, we’re the good ones who protect you from them. Those other tribes have strange customs and you need us not to be hurt by them, for they’re evil, stupid, lazy; we’re good, clever, hard-working.” That produces a community and sets its boundaries, not to say borders.
Tribes after all don’t work only on kinship. Even countries seem to need their own myths and biased historical accounts to keep their people together as a unit and apart from the rest. It’s not just the language. Common rooted and similar languages begin to diverge with time once the border lines are set, as it’s the case of all the Romance language countries. And mere geographical distance in the same country produces different dialects. The tribe or country thus needs a greater bond.
“The Land of Freedom” and “The American Dream” are two of one of the most recent countries's own myths. And they're myths because Denmark is the country where the people are the most content. (Saw that on CBS’s 60 Minutes show, I confess.)
After a horror movie maybe we can tell in a perceptively clearer way who are the ones there for us.
