??? PSYCHO, WHO'S A PSYCHO ???

[NORMAN]

Well...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a764rIDhxSI

...mmm!

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Psycho is slang for a person who is psychotic or psychopathic.
The term is often considered offensive or derogatory. However,
when used within compound terms such as 'psychology' or
'psychotherapy', the word refers neutrally to the psyche
(mind or soul).

The distinction between horror and terror is a standard
literary and psychological concept applied especially to Gothic
literature and film. Terror is usually described as the feeling
of dread and anticipation that precedes the horrifying
experience. By contrast, horror is the feeling of revulsion
that usually occurs after something frightening is seen, heard,
or otherwise experienced. It is the feeling one gets after
coming to an awful realization or experiencing a deeply
unpleasant occurrence. In other words, horror is more related
to being shocked or scared (being horrified), while terror is
more related to being anxious or fearful. Horror has also been
defined as a combination of terror and revulsion.

The distinction between terror and horror was first
characterized by the Gothic writer Ann Radcliffe (1764–1823).
Terror is characterized by "obscurity" or indeterminacy in its
treatment of potentially horrible events; it is this
indeterminacy which leads to the sublime. She says in the essay
that it "expands the soul and awakens the faculties to a high
degree of life". Horror, in contrast, "freezes and nearly
annihilates them" with its unambiguous displays of atrocity.
She goes on: "I apprehend that neither Shakespeare nor Milton
by their fictions, nor Mr Burke by his reasoning, anywhere
looked to positive horror as a source of the sublime, though
they all agree that terror is a very high one; and where lies
the great difference between horror and terror, but in
uncertainty and obscurity, that accompany the first, respecting
the dreader evil."

According to Devendra Varma in The Gothic Flame (1966):

The difference between Terror and Horror is the difference
between awful apprehension and sickening realization: between
the smell of death and stumbling against a corpse.

Horror is also a genre of film and fiction that relies on
horrifying images or situations to tell stories and prompt
reactions in their audiences. In these films the moment of
horrifying revelation is usually preceded by a terrifying build
up, often using the medium of scary music.

In his non-fiction book Danse Macabre, Stephen King elaborated
on the themes of terror and horror, also adding a third element
which he referred to as "revulsion." He describes terror as
“the finest element” of the three, and the one he strives
hardest to maintain in his own writing. Citing many examples,
he defines “terror” as the suspenseful moment in horror before
the actual monster is revealed. “Horror,” King writes, is that
moment at which one sees the creature/aberration that causes
the terror or suspense, a "shock value." King finally compares
“revulsion” with the gag-reflex, a bottom-level, cheap gimmick
which he admits he often resorts to in his own fiction if
necessary, confessing:

“I recognize terror as the finest emotion and so I will try to
terrorize the reader. But if I find that I cannot terrify, I
will try to horrify, and if I find that I cannot horrify, I'll
go for the gross-out. I'm not proud.”

Horror and terror stem mainly from movies and literature. Horror
is the feeling you get after seeing something violent and
disturbing, while terror is the apprehension before something
bad happens. To increase horrific feelings in the audience,
plots often involve the supernatural, serial murderers,
disease/virus outbreak, and surrealism. Themes involved to
induce horror and terror include gore, werewolves, villains,
torture, ghosts, curses, satanism, demons, vicious animals,
vampires, cannibals, haunted houses, and zombies. The
definition of what was once called a horror movie has changed
over the years. Examples are The Silence of the Lambs and Seven.
Horror is considered horror when there is an over the top amount
of bloodshed and gore whereas thriller/terror is considered to
be more along the route of mindgames, exemplified by the feeling
of nervousness as a character is walking down a dark alley.

In the United States, the horror genre in film became popular in
the early 1930s, and was especially identified with Universal
Pictures. Most notable are Frankenstein and Dracula. Some of
these early movies blended science themed with Gothic and horror,
such as James Whale's The Invisible Man. Big names in the horror
genre include actors Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi, and makeup
artist Jack Pierce.[citation needed] In the 1950s and 1960s,
new sub-genres began to appear. Two most popular were the horror
-of-armageddon and the horror-of-demonic film. The horror of
armageddon consisted of end of civilization, while the horror
of demonic dealt with demons controlling people's souls and
further used the supernatural element to a slightly bigger
extreme. Japanese films, in particular, had the majority of
armageddon films with their first hand experience with radiation
in the 1950s. The horror of demonic started out as ghosts and
monsters, but by the mid to late 1960s, more film makers decided
to deal with satan and the devil entering one's flesh, such as
Rosemary's Baby from director Roman Polanski. Armageddon films
did not have as much notice until 1963, when Alfred Hitchcock
directed The Birds. Rosemary's Baby brought horror film into a
whole other realm. More occult films were accepted. The Exorcist
remains one of the most influential horror movies dealing with
an evil spirit invading one's soul. The 1970s brought with them
the zombie movie, which is still relevant in today's society.
Many of the same came the next twenty years, with a revival of
The Exorcist in early 2000. The Saw and Final Destination
franchises define what kind of mode we have entered into.
Disaster films have become almost necessary, with remakes of
foreign horror movies up there in equal importance. The influence
of Swedish and French horror films is obvious over the past two
to three years.

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