On Paradoxes and Responsibility

In Noel Carrol's "Paradox of Fear" Carrol mentions one aspect of horror that isn't only a trope, but is an essential function to understanding horror. The fact that the protagonist, within the logic of the film, deserves what they're getting. In Hitchcock's Psycho, for instance, the protagonist is a realtor who has stolen money from her boss and a customer. This bothers her to no end as she is nervous and anxious, visibly so, when she is trying to make a getaway. She keeps thinking that she is going to be discovered, that someone is going to know she took it, and imagines what her boss might do and say to her, and all of the trouble she is in. It is only when she meets mild-mannered Norman Bates and stays at the motel that he runs does she ever let down her guard. And *Spoiler for exactly nobody* She is murdered in the shower.

The film constructed an internal logos where she has to suffer for her crime, if not by her, then by the actions outside of her, the universe, perhaps. To not suffer is to deny responsibility for the crime, and to deny responsibility means to completely deny her own actions and identity, which she is unable to do. If she does, then she essentially becomes Norman Bates, a figure who has to shift his responsibility and his actions onto his mother's persona, giving up all freedom in service to a ghost. "Look, I won't even kill this fly, Then they'll say that Norman Bates wouldn't even hurt a fly"

Only Villains and monsters deny their responsibility, heroes take responsibility for both the actions of themselves and the actions of their society and culture. Which is why it is instrumental that the monster is created by the society, or created by the hero, because otherwise it would be just a scared animal, and we the villains. Without it being our fault, it is difficult to make it our duty to kill it.

And that's why the paradox exists, why we're drawn to the thing that disgusts us. Because it is an entity that we created, therefore we must destroy it. So In its repulsiveness it shows all of the ugly and negative aspects of ourselves. It shows us what we're afraid to look at, but instinctually, we must take responsibility for, in order to balance ourselves. And we know that if we look away we allow that very thing to consume us.