Title: Manipulation at its Finest 

Aruther: Dayanna Arias 

In Dayanna Arias, “Manipulation at its Finest ” the rhetoric hidden within the making of the genre horror is being discussed and its psychological influence it has on its audience. Arias claims the rhetoric behind the creation of Horror films is to show young adults the negative consequences of having intimacy before marriage, originally created by white Catholic men. I agree with Dayanna Arias and believe horror films were meant to scare young adults into having any sexual interaction at a young age based on symbolism and repetition within the horror movies that Arias discusses. 

To begin with, one of the movies mentioned is the movie “It” directed by Andres Muschietti based on the book written by Stephan King. Horror being a genre created based on the perspective of Catholic men implies that these men live by the Bible. The Bible is a Christian scripture consisting of the new and old testaments. According to the Bible, Leviticus 18 and 20, Chapter 18 verse 22 “You shall not lie with a male as with a woman; it’s an abomination.” This is interpreted as a man should not be involved in a romantic relationship with another man according to the Bible. In the movie “It” Arias claims the homosexual characters Adian and Eddy, were both killed in the beginning of the movie. The killing of these characters symbolizes the consequences of being in a homosexual relationship as described in the Bible as “an abomination”. 

On the other hand, others may say horror movies were made for adrenaline and fun, horror movies go much deeper than that and seem to target women. Today, there are approximately 204 women priests worldwide according to the Roman Catholic Womenpriests organization. In the Bible, Genesis 2:18, “ It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper as his partner.” In other words, the Bible is referring to what a woman’s role is, that is being alongside and helping men, giving men superiority over women. Arias refers to the movie “Psycho” that also targets women. A woman is in the shower where a person is most vulnerable and gets killed. This scene symbolizes the idea that the consequences of women getting nude as in the shower will lead to something terrible, in this case death. In most horror films there seems to be a male targeting a woman, movies such as “Nightmare on Elm Street, Gaslight, The Shining e.t.c that backs up the idea being expressed in the Bible that men are over women. 

In conclusion, the constant repetition of these symbolic representations in horror films that connect with ideas of the Bible such as putting a negative consequences of intimacy before marriage or sexual relations of the same gender and the idea of men being in power over women is what makes me agree with Arias claim. The claim that genre horror has rhetoric, religious symbolism and repetition to psychological influence the mind of young adults.