Curiosity Kills and Fear of the Unknown

"Fear" by Maria Yakunchikova

-by C.R. Langille

You’re in the bathroom getting ready for bed. The house is quiet with only the sound of the faucet running. Then the shower curtain moves ever so slightly. Maybe it was the wind, but there isn’t any wind. Perhaps it was a trick of the light and it really didn’t move, but then it moves again. You’re sure you saw it this time. What do you do?

We’ve all seen the movies, or read the books in which similar situations occur. Maybe there was a noise in the basement. Or perhaps something moved across the window and the hapless hero (victim) decides they will check it out. Meanwhile, we’re living vicariously from the couch/bed screaming at them not to go down there, don’t open the door, or just plain run! Why do they always do this? There’s a reason, and I’ll get to it in a moment. First, you need to understand how fear works.

H.P. Lovecraft once said, “The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown.” Love or hate the man, he was on to something. What is it about the unknown that makes it so damn scary? As humans, we are naturally curious (stay tuned, more on that later), and we want to understand things. When we don’t know something, our brains go into overdrive and we start problem solving trying to figure it out. Sure, there’s a small amount of bravery, stupidity, or heroism involved, but the true reason digs a little deeper. We want to know what’s making the noise, what lives under the bed, and just what is behind the damn shower curtain. Because once we know, we can process that information and come up with the next step in dealing with the problem.

Think about it. How many times have you watched a horror movie, or read a horror book and the big bad creature/killer operated in the shadows, picking off victims one by one. I don’t know about you, but my mind created something pretty horrifying. It’s because the mind wants something it can relate to when the bad things are happening, and it has no problem filling in the blank with something truly terrifying. The illusion is generally dashed against the rocks when the author/director chooses to reveal the big baddy. Whatever vision you created to make the unknown, known, was much worse than the reality of the situation. This feeds into the theory that fear of the unknown is the strongest kind of fear.

I’m sure you’ve heard the term, curiosity killed the cat, well in horror it seems curiosity killed more than just the cat. Curiosity is what drives the victim to open the shower curtain and see what’s making the noise rather than just run. It’s all because of an internal desire to find out what’s going on. I’ve been there myself, about to fall asleep and then there’s a noise in the basement. My dog starts barking and going nuts, and what do I do? I go check it out. If I were living in a horror flick, I’d be dead.