Writers, philosophers and psychologists have long discussed the distinction between terror and horror. One widely agreed-upon difference is that terror is what comes before, while horror is what comes after. When your mind is set to overdrive, making you jump at the tiniest movement, when you see monsters in every shadow – that’s terror. It involves uncertainty, anticipation, fear as a prediction, not a reaction. When you finally see the body, or come face to face with the monster – when there’s no doubt left and your stomach flips – that’s horror.
With words like terror and horror, it’s easy to think of Stephen King, or other spooky stories. But terror and horror exist in much more mundane situations, too. Imagine – you’re in a narrow street, parked cars on either side, and you’re trying to turn your vehicle around without a reversing camera. A three point turn won’t do here – you have to switch from drive to reverse and back countless times, each time turning the wheel all the way as you do your best to manoeuvre between the obstacles. That feeling that sends your pulse racing, as you try to guess how far back you can reverse when you really can’t see, and pray that you don’t hit anyone? That’s terror. Horror is the sickening sound of the bump when you realise that you misjudged.
But there’s a way to avoid both: the reverse camera kit. Terror relies on uncertainty; a rear vision camera takes all the uncertainty out of reversing, enabling you to make precise judgements and prevent accidents. And if there is no accident, then there’s no horror about it. Get a camera and be safe – don’t live in fear.
