As we already explained here https://horrorvalley.net/scary-horror-ghost-stories-and-terms/ purpose of the horror genre (and its variations) is mainly to scare or disgust the audience. But, those stories can be actually useful. They are quite informative and instructive.
In fact, many scary stories are teaching us to distinguish justified fear from irrational fear. For example, back then in my country, in villages, there were frequent report of ,,unholy forces”, vampires, ghosts, etc etc… Directly, they have ,,seen” vampires or demons near mills in dark. They also report seeing ,,Woman in white” (dead bride or sort of) in vineyard or fields wandering. So, those stories scared people, and they avoided walking to these areas at night. But, those stories are most likely invented to scare thieves off from stealing and entering those places at all. You will maybe wait until dark when everyone is sleeping to go to steal stuff, but if you know that some ghost is wandering out you won’t dare to go there. So, fear of these creatures is irrational, but fear of thieves is real.
There is a story about ,,old village” in the village of my cousins. Back then old village was located higher than it was now, and young people used to make parties at the end of the village, around the campfire. One night, something happened. During the party, something killed people there, and villages were scared that much that they moved the village downhill. So, that tragedy obviously contributed to ,,collective fear”. Something indeed happened. But most likely it was not ,,unholy things” or vampires. That may be some bear, wolves or Ottomans (since Serbia was conquered for ages by Ottomans back then). But due to lack of education and local superstitions, people believed that it was something unholy.
Collective fear can be dangerous. Just remember in the past what happened when plagues occurred, how people behaved. Also, back then in infamous ,,witch hunt” when paranoid people burned out a lot of women believed they were witches.
There were many reports of witchcraft, women who do ,,those things”, putting curses upon people and calling diseases, accidents and disasters upon the people. While technically reports are right partially, but not because some magic is involved, but simply because it is some knowledge and chemistry. For instance, some ,,witches” use ,,dead man water” (water leftover used to wash decedents) and use it for various purposes. There is no need to mention that such water carries a lot of bacteria. Also, these women tend to make ,,potions” which can be poisons or psychoactive substances/drugs (mostly from herbs and various ingredients) which is pure chemistry, nothing more. They also make small bags containing dead animal meat inside and some herbs, which also carry lot of bacteria.
Technically, it is not magic, just some knowledge. So, witch fear is irrational. But fear of someone putting you something in the house, garden or even food/drink is rational as it happens from time to time, as there are many bad or sick people around believing that they have ,,unholy power” to do such things. The human factor is here again, not magic.
Here is an example of ,,collective fear” cause:
There is some old place nearby in the mountain. There are pavilion/hotels designed for kids from school. And since communist time until recently (it is closed now) school sent kids there to relax and learn in nature. That place is surrounded by pine and other forests, clean air, nice water … But there is a story which lasts for generations, that place is being haunted. There are shadows, wolves, ghosts, whatever creatures which wanders around at night. When I was a kid, we were scared there as well in the same manner as ,,newer generations” I witnessed to be scared as well. This is how fear goes, in stages:
- Preparation: people went there prepared already with stories from that place.
- The place itself: when you are there at night and start telling stories, imagination starts to ,,work” better than when you are at home.
- Effects: And here it begins: moving shadows from various trees (naturally, since it is in a forest and winds), howling (there are just dogs from a nearby village around wandering because the hotel provides food and meals for kids, and leftovers are being thrown to nearby trash, so dogs often fight for food and bark, make noise, nothing else). But it all scares people even more.
- Last hit – human silhouettes/ghosts/vampires: And if someone dares to look out of window, he will see someone wandering around. And that happened actually, since drunk people from the village or nearby houses tend to walk. Or simply there were hotel staff. But already scared people will see it, and here you go, total collective fear.
The result is similar, either kids cannot sleep properly, or even worse, they use their blankets to cover large windows, and they risk to get cold… And this is how it works in this and similar cases. Irrational fear which causes collective fear, which in turn causes irrational behavior.
Why is this important? Because right now we are facing coronavirus. While it is indeed a death treat, many died, but still lot of people do not consider it as treat and do not listen to medical staff and authorities, or even worse, they set up their own ,,conspiracy theories” making situation even worse and affecting already scared people, adding to collective fear and causing that people after all do not know what to think and to whom to believe (too many contradiction information we see lately) . And nothing good can emerge from it.
Even worse, people tend to go to another extreme. If anyone accidentally coughs or sneezes, or are cold, people automatically acknowledge this as corona, completely ignoring the fact that it may be simple cold or allergy, or any local fly (we forgot this year that before 2020 we had the regular seasonal flu, but now, everything is corona), which just adds to unnecessarily panic!
There also have been urban myths that people got drugged, and later they woke up with some missing organs or such, that people disappear in ,,some places” etc etc… it is indeed rational fear because it happened already, but again it was human factor after all, there are people who illegally drug and abuse others, and there are psychopaths worldwide who kill people either randomly or purposely. But again, that has nothing to do with ,,unholy stuff”, just pure human factor. It is worth to mention that there are many mentally ill people walking among us, they are not really ,,possessed” by ghosts or demons as some may think.
Graveyards, and people rising from graves as vampires… Yeah, that is famous. The Even word vampire came from Serbian language. Especially here were many reports in the past that people became vampires. But in reality also exist condition known as , clinical death”, when a person is temporarily dead due to several causes. This is not a good scene definitively for both dead person and one witnessing him back to life.
Regarding graveyards and people ,,raising” or wandering around, that is completely possible that back then, many alcoholics to on graveyard to ,,steal” drink from the dead as they won’t need it. I heard many cases that people drink too many drinks there that they fell asleep directly at tombstones. And they would wake up at night, scaring anyone who passes nearby. Also, there are many sect members worldwide, which practice their stupid rituals at graveyards.
In recent times there are also such reports. Recently, even kids reported me that they went to drink beer near graveyard at night and they saw junkies sleeping in crypts, scaring them accidentally. Thats right! Junkies! They tend to walk there as well. Again, human factor. But fear here is rational partially because it is not place for kids to go there to drink beer at all.
Also, many places now tend to be abandoned and ,,haunted”. Some weird noises, events and similar have been reported. But it is naturally that those places are abandoned, such as old hospitals, asylums, buildings…. so nobody is maintaining it, and old as nature, therefore there could be many ruined/damaged parts, many animals and even people went there to seek shelter, poor light… all combined there is your ,,haunting”. But here, partially fear is justified as those places are not places where you would like to spend your time. You can accidentally get hurt there and because of dirt and dust, you can get infections.