An ideal match for movie courses at Mizzou

By Sara Diedrich

Oct. 23, 2025
Contact: Sara Diedrich, [email protected]
Photos by Abbie Lankitus

We prefer to scare one another.

It’s exhilarating in a twisted, uniquely human means — scary but cathartic — a conflict of feelings first harnessed by oral storytelling, then carried into literature and ultimately movie.

Horror is weirdly enjoyable and persistently well-liked.

Just ask Ramsay Wise, assistant educating professor within the School of Visual Studies on the University of Missouri’s College of Arts and Science. He has taught movie at Mizzou for greater than 20 years, and his horror course is at all times packed.

“Horror films are a fantastic tool for teaching both film study and film history,” Wise mentioned. “The genre is incredibly versatile, with a wide range of subgenres. Ask someone about their favorite horror movie and you might hear anything from a haunted house story to a slasher, a gore-filled spectacle, a psychological thriller or even a self-aware satire. Horror is endlessly malleable.”

The style can be a present for up-and-coming filmmakers.

“Horror can often be produced on a smaller budget,” Wise mentioned. “With spooky lighting and a few clever tricks, you can create atmosphere and tension. The genre comes with built-in audience expectations, and as long as you find a way to twist those conventions into something fresh, you just might have a hit.”

Anatomy of horror

Horror is rarely static — it evolves with society. What frightens us immediately shouldn’t be what haunted individuals in 1896 when the primary horror movie was made, a three-minute clip often known as “The Haunted Castle” or “The House of the Devil.”

Although horror ceaselessly depends on blood and gore for shock worth, Wise favors movies that carry “an intellectual drive” beneath the violence.

“That’s what draws me in, the deeper human truths,” he mentioned. “Don’t get me wrong, there’s a time and place for pure shock, but it only works when it’s grounded in something genuinely compelling.”

Still, horror has at all times given individuals a protected area to face their darkest fears.

“In the end, the one universal truth is we’re all going to die,” Wise mentioned. “We have to somehow work that out, and we do it through storytelling and art.”

Today’s audiences are way more visually literate than prior to now, which might make them skeptical, even cynical, concerning the particular results in older horror movies.

“Take ‘Jaws,’ for example,” Wise mentioned. “When it premiered, it was a cultural phenomenon. People lined up around city blocks just to be terrified by that shark. But younger audiences don’t buy into it the same way. Technology has advanced, and their expectations are higher.”

How to look at a horror movie

For Wise, one of the best ways to look at a horror movie is on an enormous display screen in a darkish room with out interruptions. Ideally, in a crowded movie show and definitely not on a cellular phone. Today’s college students usually must relearn find out how to watch motion pictures. At the start of every semester, Wise screens a movie in a theater setting to remind them of the theatrical expertise, which is much totally different from watching on a laptop computer or telephone.

“A theater is both communal and private: You sit in the dark with a crowd, sharing the same reactions, yet at the same time you’re absorbed in your own experience of the film,” he mentioned. “It’s a paradoxical space where you can be alone and anonymous but still part of a collective moment.”

This Halloween season, flip off your telephone, dim the lights and fireplace up the most important display screen you’ve got for a horror movie. Even higher, invite family and friends to share in a collective scream. After all, horror is enjoyable — surprisingly, splendidly enjoyable.

Ready to dive in? Here are a few of Wise’s high picks in your Halloween watch checklist.

“The Shining” (1980) — Jack Nicholson’s descent into insanity turns a snowbound resort into certainly one of horror’s most chilling playgrounds. Redrum, anybody?

“The Bride of Frankenstein” (1935) — A gothic gem the place monsters aren’t simply made — they’re married. Campy, creepy and surprisingly tender.

“Psycho” (1960) — Alfred Hitchcock proves you’ll by no means really feel protected within the bathe once more with this nerve-shredding traditional of suspense and slashing.

“The Birds” (1963) — Hitchcock strikes once more, unleashing a feathery nightmare that turns small-town California right into a birds-gone-mad apocalypse.

“Nosferatu” (1922) — Silent, sinister and nonetheless spine-tingling after a century, Count Orlok’s shadowy creep defines vampire horror.