What Are Poles Afraid of? Reflections on Horror Cinema as a Film Genre in the Context of Values on the Example of Polish Representatives of This Genre

Although the trend has changed nowadays, for many years horror cinema was supposed to show viewers the negative consequences of acting against the imposed patterns of behaviour and constitute a kind of warning against disturbing the existing ontological order. The main objective of the article is to try to show that horror can and even should be treated primarily as a value in itself. Based on a short historical analysis, the author tries to prove that Polish creators are unnecessarily afraid of using this film genre. As the film Demon by Marcin Wrona shows, horror cinema best allows polemics with issues that are considered normal, common and possible in a given culture. Moreover, it can be treated as a specific catalogue of society’s fears, needs and hopes at a given moment in time.