I've been toying with this idea for a awhile, now, and was recently reminded I haven't posted a thread in awhile hereabouts. So, I thought I'd toss this out there.
We see this theme a lot in horror fiction, film in particular: the overwhelming numbers of the enemy, alien, other element antagonizing the heroes. I personally always found the numbers of zombies, and how utterly overwhelming they were, the most terrifying aspects of worldwide epidemic movies like DOTD. More so than the cannibalism elements, or the loss of free will & volition and coming back as "one of them". This concept is also used a lot in creepy crawly movies like "Kingdom of the Spiders", "The Swarm" and such. Individually, these creatures may pose little to no threat. But in sufficient numbers, they can be deadly, perhaps on a grand scale sufficient to overwhelm a town, if not the world at large. I think it's beyond question this device works, and scares us pretty effectively. So of course, I want to ask opinions as to why this is so.
There has been a recent change in philosophy at the company I workl for; they're starting to take almost every case to trial. Any attorney who does trial work will tell you it's a stressful way to do things. There's a lot at stake, and plenty of opportunities to screw up. When I only tried 2-3 cases a year, not so big a deal; they were occasional interruptions to the usual flow, and could be much more easily dealt with than they are now, in such great, overwhelming numbers. The perils have multiplied exponentially. Thinking on this has crystallized my heretofore nebulous thoughts on this subject. I think, more than anything else, large numbers of "the other" work as a horrific device because we have a primitive, hard wired fear of being overwhelmed, and our defenses counting for naught (or at least, being overcome, no matter how good they are, because there's just too much opposing them to be effectively dealt with). We can maybe talk ourselves into thinking if we face just one opponent, no matter how strong or savage he may be, we have a chance of defeating it on a one to one basis. I remeber however, as a small child, asking my Dad if there was anything that scared him. He replied: "Yeah, three or four guys that are bigger & stronger than me trying to kick my ass." So, too a world full of zombies or spiders is more terrifying to some than a lone serial killer. How long could you keep fighting? How long before one (or more) of them slipped by your defenses and took you out, or gave the rest an opportunity to come in and fuck your shit up?
To some extent, probably more so with the above mentioned creepy-crawly movies, a fear of suffocation or burial may play into it as well. Particularly if you have a phobia, being covered head to toe by the object of your fear (spiders/bugs, rats, snakes, whatever) is a terrifying prospect, indeed.
Anyone else have any thoughts on this subject?
How'd I do, Horrid?
We see this theme a lot in horror fiction, film in particular: the overwhelming numbers of the enemy, alien, other element antagonizing the heroes. I personally always found the numbers of zombies, and how utterly overwhelming they were, the most terrifying aspects of worldwide epidemic movies like DOTD. More so than the cannibalism elements, or the loss of free will & volition and coming back as "one of them". This concept is also used a lot in creepy crawly movies like "Kingdom of the Spiders", "The Swarm" and such. Individually, these creatures may pose little to no threat. But in sufficient numbers, they can be deadly, perhaps on a grand scale sufficient to overwhelm a town, if not the world at large. I think it's beyond question this device works, and scares us pretty effectively. So of course, I want to ask opinions as to why this is so.
There has been a recent change in philosophy at the company I workl for; they're starting to take almost every case to trial. Any attorney who does trial work will tell you it's a stressful way to do things. There's a lot at stake, and plenty of opportunities to screw up. When I only tried 2-3 cases a year, not so big a deal; they were occasional interruptions to the usual flow, and could be much more easily dealt with than they are now, in such great, overwhelming numbers. The perils have multiplied exponentially. Thinking on this has crystallized my heretofore nebulous thoughts on this subject. I think, more than anything else, large numbers of "the other" work as a horrific device because we have a primitive, hard wired fear of being overwhelmed, and our defenses counting for naught (or at least, being overcome, no matter how good they are, because there's just too much opposing them to be effectively dealt with). We can maybe talk ourselves into thinking if we face just one opponent, no matter how strong or savage he may be, we have a chance of defeating it on a one to one basis. I remeber however, as a small child, asking my Dad if there was anything that scared him. He replied: "Yeah, three or four guys that are bigger & stronger than me trying to kick my ass." So, too a world full of zombies or spiders is more terrifying to some than a lone serial killer. How long could you keep fighting? How long before one (or more) of them slipped by your defenses and took you out, or gave the rest an opportunity to come in and fuck your shit up?
To some extent, probably more so with the above mentioned creepy-crawly movies, a fear of suffocation or burial may play into it as well. Particularly if you have a phobia, being covered head to toe by the object of your fear (spiders/bugs, rats, snakes, whatever) is a terrifying prospect, indeed.
Anyone else have any thoughts on this subject?
How'd I do, Horrid?
