Why We Crave Horror Movies

King frequently uses analogy in the essay. For example, he compares viewing a horror movie to how people ride roller coasters to show that they’re not afraid, and he likens watching horror movies to exercising one’s “emotional muscles,” which have their own “body” that requires care and maintenance. He draws analogies between the pleasure people derive from both horror movies and “sick” jokes, relating a specific joke: “What’s the difference between a truckload of bowling balls and a truckload of dead babies? (You can’t unload a truckload of bowling balls with a pitchfork…)” (Paragraph 11). This is not only an example of a “sick” joke but implies that one who laughs at it is the type of person who might enjoy a horror movie.

In a few places, King uses parenthetical asides to interject personal thoughts unrelated to the essay’s argument and provide a bit of color and insight into his (mildly “insane”) brain: “If your insanity leads you to carve up women like Jack the Ripper and the Cleveland Torso Murderer, we clap you away to the funny farm (but neither of those two amateur-night surgeons was ever caught, heh-heh-heh)” (Paragraph 8).