terrified for fun: why some of us love horror movies
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why are some of us drawn to watching spooky things?
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we’ve finally made it to the end of october, which means cozy sweaters, warm cups of tea and, for some, scaring the living daylights out of ourselves. while it might feel like we have enough to be afraid of in real life, why are some people drawn to horror movies?many researchers have put their theories to the test in trying to understand why some people like to terrify themselves for fun. there isn’t much research on exactly what parts of the brain are activated when we watch horror movies in comparison to when real-life events make us afraid, but some of the more convincing arguments include that horror increases subsequent feelings of euphoria once the scare passes, as well as the creative risks movie-makers are will to take to make a convincing scare.“i enjoy them for a lot of reasons, some being: set design, interest in legends and folklore, and what they manage to do on very small budgets,” says greg malone in a very non-scientific poll of my social media network. “my favourite example of this is the blair witch project. completed project cost less than $750k, and it made $250 million… it’s also an incredible movie for so many other reasons.”researchers from the max planck institute for empirical aesthetics in germany and the university of groningen in the netherlands looked at why people seem to be drawn to depictions of negative emotions in art. these scientists hypothesized that because viewers know that the depiction of negative emotions are fake and they ultimately have control over the experience (e.g. can leave the theatre if they want to), it is safe to experience emotions that we typically try to avoid in daily life.“this distancing sets the stage for a second group of processing components that allow art recipients to positively embrace the experiencing of negative emotions,” according to the paper published in behavioural and brain sciences. “thereby rendering art reception more intense, more interesting, more emotionally moving, more profound, and occasionally even more beautiful.”
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the jury is still out on whether being too scared to go pee in the middle of the night is classified as “fun”. getty images
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when fear turns into euphoria
dolf zillmann from the university of alabama devised a theory called excitation transfer to explain why people like suspense and horror. when a person is frightened or startled, they also experience a physical reaction to these emotions such as an increased heart rate, dilated pupils and a boost in adrenaline.when the frightening scene ends, or the story comes to a resolution, the emotions of fear and suspense dissipate, but this state of physiological arousal takes a little longer to go away. as the theory goes, this adrenaline rush then carries over and intensifies the positive feelings of satisfaction or relief that occur as a result of the threat going away, leading to an overall positive experience. we laugh, we smile, we shake it off — the fear turns into euphoria.“what i like most in horror movies is the building of the tension and the atmosphere,” says ben davis, who recommends the haunting (1963) and the conjuring (2013). “i’m not the biggest fan of the blood/gore in horror movies, i feel it cheapens the scares.”zillmann would later put this idea to the test. in the mid-seventies, he and a team of researchers recruited 60 seven- and eight-year-olds to watch one of multiple variations of an adventure movie. in these movies, the protagonists come across a lion, but the movies show different variations of how scary the lion is — low, medium, and high suspense, and different resolutions — the lion is defeated, or it gets away.overall, the children rated the version of the movie that used the scariest version of the lion coupled with the satisfying resolution as the most appreciated.
horror movies deliver that rush without the added risk of, say, actually being murdered. getty images
a scary movie with a happy ending
**we don’t want to ruin the fun for you — this section contains spoilers.it seems that we like our horror stories to come to satisfying conclusions.researchers from california state university recruited 229 undergrads from varying disciplines to watch one of four horror movies: candyman (1992), needful things (1993), leprechaun (1993), or pet sematary (1989). (in the most appropriate of compensation schemes, participants were provided with pizza and pop for the viewing).each horror movie also had one of two endings: the actual teaser ending, in which it is revealed that the evil has survived after initially appearing to have been destroyed, or an edited ending in which the evil remains defeated.(fun fact: the researchers only told the participants that the films had been edited, but didn’t tell them specifically what the edits were. so, it is entirely possible that there are a bunch of people walking around thinking that pet sematary has a happy ending.)overall, regardless of their motivation to watch scary movies (thrill seekers or gore lovers), viewers rated films with traditional endings — where the evil remains defeated — as scarier, more enjoyable and less predictable than the teaser endings.researchers aren’t quite clear on why viewers liked the “happy ending” better than the teaser ending, although they believe it may be a similar explanation to zillmann’s excitation transfer theory — a resolute ending allowed the viewers to experience stronger, more positive emotions at the end of the movie, leading them to rate the overall experience as better.also too, watching the defeat of the antagonist, the character audiences are primed to dislike, may be a cathartic experience. we have such little resolution in our real lives, it is undeniably satisfying to watch someone, or something, we dislike be defeated.however, it may also be the fact that in the era of the horror movie franchise, teaser endings are expected. this would mean a resolute ending is seen more as surprising, and therefore more entertaining. this reasoning might also provide an explanation, as g. neil martin at the regent’s university london notes, why some of the most widely acclaimed horror movies, such as the exorcist (1973) and friday the 13th (1980), do not have satisfying endings.
interesting plot devices, like things coming out of the screen to kill you, is another reason people keep coming back for more. getty images
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the novelty of horror movies
novelty also seems to be an important part of enjoying the horror genre. people are fascinated by movies that violate social norms, according to clark mccauley.“i love horror movies,” says francis duffy, who recommends happy death day (2017) and alien (1979) as solid films to watch. “i’m typically not looking to get scared but watch them because they tend to take very interesting risks with plot.”this quest for novelty means that movie makers are being challenged to become even more creative in a market saturated with slasher films and standard ghost stories.“i went through a period where i loved horror movies, particularly japanese ones or remakes of japanese ones, because the plots were very different from north american films,” says sara dawson. “south korean ones are pretty good too.”whether you prefer something a little calmer like halloweentown (1998) or want a more serious scare like teketeke (2009), it is our editorial opinion at healthing.ca that adults using night lights is completely acceptable.emjones@postmedia.com | @jonesyjourndon’t miss the latest on covid-19, reopening and life. subscribe to healthing’s daily newsletter covid life.
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