Humor and Horror: The Last House on the Left by D.Iliadis Review

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Table of Contents

Connection Between Humor and Horror
Similarities and Differences
Development of Fear and Humor and How to Resolve Them
Essential Feelings Experienced While Watching
Response Reflection
Conclusion
References

Many films have been produced across the world, where movie executive producers use horror and humor effects to make them attractive to the viewers. Horror is a genre that seeks to evoke disgust and fear in the audience for entertainment purposes. At the same time, humor is an effect geared towards inducing laughter among the film viewers. Humor and horror effects positively and negatively impact people’s psychological well-being, making them cry and laugh.

Connection Between Humor and Horror

There is an extensive interlinkage between horror and comedy in The Last House on the Left Film. To a great extent, people joke about the most frightening things to make them less scary. In the movie, there is the integration of continuous laughter in the horrible scenes. When Krug is raping Mari, Francis and Sadie continuously laugh to lessen the shock (Iliadis, 2019). Notably, the purpose of horror is to create fear, while humor assists in overcoming disgusting images and events. According to Sisson (2019), “the horror-humor balances the contradictory tones to ensure the comedy lures viewers into challenging horrors that would be highly threatening and impact their cognitive fitness” (p. 240). Therefore, the two genres are connected as they appeal to the audiences’ emotions.

Similarities and Differences

The core elements of humor in The Last House on the Left include absurdity and exaggeration while being excessive is the primary component of horror. To a great extent, horrors create massive tension, suspense, and fear. In the movie, suspense occurs when John and Emma, Mari’s parents, establish that Justin, one of the kidnappers, wore their daughter’s special necklace, creating a jitter about whether Mari might have been murdered or not. Horrors create fear among the viewers since they entail diabolical acts, such as mistreating individuals. According to Sisson (2019), “horrors are scary and involve dehumanization, including torture, killing, and raping” (p. 245). On the other hand, humor in the Film is used to generate fun, make the viewers laugh, reduce tension, and offer empathy to the characters. However, the two genres are similar as they complement each other and impact the audience’s emotional state.

Development of Fear and Humor and How to Resolve Them

In the Film, The Last House on the Left, there are various ways of developing fear, including setting and atmosphere. The location where the movie is acted is isolated and in the middle of a bush without neighbors. The Film deploys the jump-scare technique by frequently incorporating frightening cinematic music and other soundtracks, such as etude for a chainsaw, to portray danger. In the movie, extensive silence is deployed to develop fear, whereby when Emma and John sleep, one can hear their heartbeats (Iliadis, 2019). Different movie characters wear unique clothes to make the movie more threatening. According to Sisson (2019), “one of the fundamental methods of generating frightening scenes in a movie is through the attire and instruments used by the characters” (p. 247). In The Last House on the Left, Krug, Francis, and Sadie wore scary masks, had knives and guns, and were not afraid of stabbing Mari and touching her blood.

On the other hand, in a film, humor can be developed by enhancing the facial expression of actors and showcasing their habits, including dressing code, eating, and sleeping styles. All the developed fears in the movies are resolved by incorporating non-dark humor to improve the viewers’ psychological well-being. In addition, regarding the atmosphere, the use of cinematic lights helps the audience believe that the victims will be rescued from horrifying situations.

Essential Feelings Experienced While Watching

To a great extent, humor and fear are vital feelings to encounter while watching a film, such as The Last House on the Left. The desire for fear feeling serves as an illustration of an adrenaline-seeking attribute. Even though fear is an adverse emotion, it warns of a possible threat and how viewers should protect themselves in a similar situation (Sisson, 2019). For example, John always has a gun while sleeping, indicating that he fears the people he hosts. The same fear is transitioned to the audience, making them aware of how to safeguard themselves. While watching a movie, humor shows hope and relief in challenging and distressing circumstances.

Response Reflection

The response to fear can cause individuals to act irrationally and motivate them to work together and prepare themselves extensively in an emergency. While being the victim in the movie or the viewer, people have the same psychological traits when encountering fear. Since frightening responses operate under imagination, it prompts people to make instantaneous decisions to rescue themselves (Sisson, 2019). At the same time, when people encounter difficult situations, they try to comfort themselves, including laughing, creating adequate room for them to think best strategies to curb the issue.

Conclusion

The Film, The Last House on the Left substantially utilizes humor and horror, thus being both scary and funny. In a movie, various ways of developing fear include setting and atmosphere, use of jump-scary technique, and the physical items, such as attires worn by the characters. However, humor can be generated by showcasing actors’ facial expressions and daily habits, including eating and dressing codes. In a film, horror creates tension, suspense, and disgust, while humor helps confront negative emotions and enables viewers and victims to manage distressful issues effectively.

References

Iliadis, D. (2019). The last house on the left [Film]. Rogue Pictures.

Sisson, G. (2019). From humor to horror: Genre and narrative purpose in abortion stories on American television. Feminist Media Studies, 19(2), 239-256. Web.

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