It kinda makes sense that our emotions can be predicted by a formula, especially something so basic as fear - I mean, in some ways, our minds are just governed by natural algorithms anyway, right? And maybe it's not the death of creativity, maybe it's the birth of a new form of it. If an artist knows how to make a person react, then aren't they better able to make art that will affect that person?
And the equation is WAY too simplistic - it lists specific situations such as "chase scenes" or "being trapped" as being universally scary. A more accurate equation would take into account personal phobias... or look more into (evolutionary?) psychology for universal or near-universal fears than simple surveys (especially surveys involving only the researchers themselves... not very scientific sounding to me). I mean, if you only survey existing movies, your kind of limiting yourself by focusing on fears that have been heavily documented, and hence are somewhat cliched in and of themselves. By taking a step back, you'd be able to identify strong universal fears that are rarely used in horror films, and be able to mine them. The part about realism vs. fantasy and a balance of the two was interesting though.
And I loved the comment from Anjool Malde on the bottom: "Nice to see that university funding is being spent on such essential scientific research." |
