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Study Finds Horror Movies Prevent Violence, Not Cause It

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Hostel Horror Violence debate

So you’re a serial killer and you have your next victim all picked out for next Friday night. Only next Friday is the premiere of the “Halloween” remake and you already have tickets, you’re not going to miss that: another life is saved.

A stretch, right? But that is basically the idea and findings behind a study which says horror movies don’t incite violence, they thwart it.

Economists Gordon Dahl and Stephano Della Vigna decided to put a hypothesis to the test in a 2003 study. They analyzed big release movies over the course of a decade. They found that for every million people who saw a savage film on that day, violent crimes decreased by 1.5 to 2 percent.

That means movies like “Hostel,” “The Purge,” and “It’ managed to potentially foil 1,000 violent crimes over the weekend. not as some people think, inspired people to commit them.

That is in contrast to debates which say horror films are dangerous or “There’s already too much violence in the world.” Truth be told, copycats do exist and get inspired by celluloid violence, but that is rare and that can be explained further down in this article.

Dahl and Vigna also found another surprising fact: these distractions also thwarted crimes involving drugs and alcohol especially among people just over the legal drinking age.

Although these statistics are encouraging, unfortunately, they could only study the short term. Less promising was the long-term because the researchers found “no evidence of medium-run effects up to three weeks after initial exposure” to violent films.

Further bolstering this conclusion was a recent project in Cape Town South Africa by the non-profit organization ideas42. Their study mirrored the same results as Dahl and Vigna’s in a different way.

In the South African study, 156 low-income youth were randomly assigned to a control group or an intervention group. The control group was free to live their lives as normal, but the intervention group was asked to interact with a computer program which suggested weekend activities that were safe and fun.

Some of the offered suggestions were starting a soccer game and things like that. Once they landed on something they liked, the program helped them figure out the details like who to invite, where the venue would be, and so on.

The results showed that those who were active in planning something fun or productive were half as likely to participate in unsafe activities or experience violence over the course of the next weekend. Conversely, the control group was more likely to lean toward unsafe activities.

And here’s another aspect to consider. In 2014, a first-of-its-kind study was conducted between an aggressive and non-aggressive group. Both were shown horror movies. Not surprisingly the people who were classified as non-aggressive felt, anxious and un-nerved, while the aggressive group remained calm and “less upset.” That is until the movie was over. Once it ended the aggressive group’s heart-rate increased and during the non-stimulating portion of the experiment called the  “mind wandering” stage, where nothing was shown, the aggressives had, “unusually high brain activity.”

Dr Nelly Alia-Klein, of Mount Sinai Hospital in New York, said of the results, “How an individual responds to their environment depends on the brain of the beholder.”

In short, if you are already predisposed to think aggressively that may mean a violent film will inspire the same behaviors, but it doesn’t mean that everyone will follow suit, that’s your limbic system–you own it.

We at iHorror do not condone violence, we may enjoy movies which depict it for various reasons, but getting ideas to go out and mimic them just isn’t in our wheelhouse. 

I would even venture to say that we fall into the “distraction” theory defined above because if you’re taking the time to read this, and don’t have tickets to the “Halloween” remake, it’s keeping you from doing other things including destructive ones.

So to that, we say, directors, actors, and writers keep making horror films, you are potential lifesavers, and now we can confidently stand behind you with proof when people want to argue otherwise.

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Another Creepy Spider Movie Hits Shudder This Month

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Good spider films are a theme this year. First, we had Sting and then there was Infested. The former is still in theaters and the latter is coming to Shudder starting April 26.

Infested has been getting some good reviews. People are saying that it’s not only a great creature feature but also a social commentary on racism in France.

According to IMDb: Writer/director Sébastien Vanicek was looking for ideas around the discrimination faced by black and Arab-looking people in France, and that led him to spiders, which are rarely welcome in homes; whenever they’re spotted, they’re swatted. As everyone in the story (people and spiders) is treated like vermin by society, the title came to him naturally.

Shudder has become the gold standard for streaming horror content. Since 2016, the service has been offering fans an expansive library of genre movies. in 2017, they began to stream exclusive content.

Since then Shudder has become a powerhouse in the film festival circuit, buying distribution rights to movies, or just producing some of their own. Just like Netflix, they give a film a short theatrical run before adding it to their library exclusively for subscribers.

Late Night With the Devil is a great example. It was released theatrically on March 22 and will begin streaming on the platform starting April 19.

While not getting the same buzz as Late Night, Infested is a festival favorite and many have said if you suffer from arachnophobia, you might want to take heed before watching it.

Infested

According to the synopsis, our main character, Kalib is turning 30 and dealing with some family issues. “He’s fighting with his sister over an inheritance and has cut ties with his best friend. Fascinated by exotic animals, he finds a venomous spider in a shop and brings it back to his apartment. It only takes a moment for the spider to escape and reproduce, turning the whole building into a dreadful web trap. The only option for Kaleb and his friends is to find a way out and survive.”

The film will be available to watch on Shudder starting April 26.

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Part Concert, Part Horror Movie M. Night Shyamalan’s ‘Trap’ Trailer Released

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In true Shyamalan form, he sets his film Trap inside a social situation where we aren’t sure what is going on. Hopefully, there is a twist at the end. Furthermore, we hope it’s better than the one in his divisive 2021 movie Old.

The trailer seemingly gives away a lot, but, as in the past, you can’t rely on his trailers because they are often red herrings and you are being gaslit to think a certain way. For instance, his movie Knock at the Cabin was completely different than what the trailer implied and if you hadn’t read the book on which the film is based it was still like going in blind.

The plot for Trap is being dubbed an “experience” and we aren’t quite sure what that means. If we were to guess based on the trailer, it’s a concert movie wrapped around a horror mystery. There are original songs performed by Saleka, who plays Lady Raven, a kind of Taylor Swift/Lady Gaga hybrid. They have even set up a Lady Raven website to further the illusion.

Here is the fresh trailer:

According to the synopsis, a father takes his daughter to one of Lady Raven’s jam-packed concerts, “where they realize they’re at the center of a dark and sinister event.”

Written and directed by M. Night Shyamalan, Trap stars Josh Hartnett, Ariel Donoghue, Saleka Shyamalan, Hayley Mills and Allison Pill. The film is produced by Ashwin Rajan, Marc Bienstock and M. Night Shyamalan. The executive producer is Steven Schneider.

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Woman Brings Corpse Into Bank To Sign Loan Papers

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Warning: This is a disturbing story.

You have to be pretty desperate for money to do what this Brazilian woman did at the bank to get a loan. She wheeled in a fresh corpse to endorse the contract and she seemingly thought the bank employees wouldn’t notice. They did.

This weird and disturbing story comes via ScreenGeek an entertainment digital publication. They write that a woman identified as Erika de Souza Vieira Nunes pushed a man she identified as her uncle into the bank pleading with him to sign loan papers for $3,400. 

If you’re squeamish or easily triggered, be aware that the video captured of the situation is disturbing. 

Latin America’s largest commercial network, TV Globo, reported on the crime, and according to ScreenGeek this is what Nunes says in Portuguese during the attempted transaction. 

“Uncle, are you paying attention? You must sign [the loan contract]. If you don’t sign, there’s no way, as I cannot sign on your behalf!”

She then adds: “Sign so you can spare me further headaches; I can’t bear it any longer.” 

At first we thought this might be a hoax, but according to Brazilian police, the uncle, 68-year-old Paulo Roberto Braga had passed away earlier that day.

 “She attempted to feign his signature for the loan. He entered the bank already deceased,” Police Chief Fábio Luiz said in an interview with TV Globo. “Our priority is to continue investigating to identify other family members and gather more information regarding this loan.”

If convicted Nunes could be facing jail time on charges of fraud, embezzlement, and desecration of a corpse.

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