Genre: Other

The Brock University associate professor of pop culture and film knows a thing or two about horror. He's an expert in spooky films and what makes horror buffs tick -- the kind of guy who can tell why we get freaked out and by what. We sat down with Henderson to grill him on the freakier side of our nature. 1 What is it about the horror genre that appeals to people? Scott Henderson: "I think it's the way in which it kind of resolves problems for people in a really formulaic way. There's thrills. There's chills. There's enjoyment out of that. But ultimately, these problems get resolved, which is nice. It's an answer to these kind of questions, whether it's silver bullets, stakes to the heart, shots to the head if we're talking zombies. The kind of rules and everything are nice and neat and gives us some sort of satisfaction." 2 With special effects and the Internet on the scene, are people harder to scare these days? SH: "I think the nature of scare has definitely had to change, because we've now seen it all, in some ways, the kind of things that once were horrific. I think things have moved a lot more towards types of psychological horror, to keep us on edge, to keep us scared or just set up ideas in our mind that will be a little more difficult to deal with or sort of cope with. "That sense of unease, I think, is really becoming important in a lot of horror. You see that the sort of Paranormal Activity and films like that that seem to have overtaken the Saw franchise, for instance. "Once the graphic horror and kind of the mutilations were all in vogue. Now, it's really that kind of sense of unease that can be created." 3 Are we scared by different things than we were in the past? Is what constitutes fright an evolving thing? SH: "It always has been, in some ways. Part of it's just cyclical. I think we get bored of things. We went through vampires for awhile, and they became sparkly. We had a whole run of vampire fiction. And now zombies are very much in vogue. "There's definitely different things, in that sense, which I think can just be based on tastes and trends, to some degree. There's some who would argue that certain trends emerge at certain times. They kind of match the needs of society. So maybe we are in that kind of Occupy movement mentality, being the 99%, that zombies becomes a kind of nice metaphor. Maybe that's why so many people start using it as an example." SH: "To some degree, the unexpected has always worked. Twists in genre, keeping them on edge, which as I suggested earlier, is one of the tactics away from just having to graphically scare someone by showing them something awful. "People constantly being worried or unsure. You see trends like this. Like the Scream series, that kind of took the standard slasher film and kind of twisted it so people weren't sure in which direction it was going, when to laugh, when to really be scared. It unsettled the audience. "I think that's been really key to the most successful horror franchises are the ones that the audience thinks they can predict but they can't always predict. You get that bigger scare out of it." 5 Can you talk about why we tend to be so captivated by real-life ghost stories? Why do stories like that of the Screaming Tunnel have such power over us? SH: "I guess it's our desire to understand the world around us, to cope with everything that's going on at one time, that we kind of turn to horror as an example of trying to puzzle and work through these sorts of issues. "I think as humans, we kind of like to have these questions and not always have these sorts of answers. I think the paranormal and the fears of this both help to keep us on edge but keep us sharp at the same time."