We, as a specie, have always been afraid of what we don’t understand. Whether it is eccentric behaviors of our fellow peers or objects of unknown origins, we view and condemn them with such a biased mind because of what we don’t comprehend simply terrifies us. Since the beginning of history of mankind, we’ve been creating tales or stories to compensate our lack of understanding of objects that weren’t clear to us. We try to implement some kind of definite shape or meaning to things, so we can feel like we have a firm grasp on them. But even with them, our subconscious fear leads us to creating tales of horrifying creatures; the countless monsters that, apparently, reside in the dark, beyond the exuberant light that shines above humans.

Horror movies pry on this primal fear of the unknown. The protagonists are always left in the dark, literally and figuratively, and constantly unsure of what the future beholds for them. Carroll mentions this in his definition of threatening, in the senses of psychological. The minds of these protagonists are put to the test against the other characters as the distrust spreads due to uncertainty, but also with themselves, as they they are losing a firm grasp on the reality as they know it. Their gradual loss of reality would eventually lead to their downfall, as a group and as individuals. Their abilities of reason and logic deteriorate, which leads them to be physically threatening to others, and sometimes even to themselves

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