So, you find yourself in a packed movie theater on the opening night of the latest horror movie. While the suspense is mounting, terrifying images are playing out on the sizable screen, and the screams are coming from both the surround sound and audience, you wonder to yourself: “Why do I love horror movies?”
It’s not everyone’s cup of tea, but you can’t argue with the box office, where horror grosses hundreds of millions of dollars every year.
“For some people, the adrenaline junkies, psychologists theorize that the immediate adrenaline rush from a horror movie is actually pretty similar to the adrenaline rush from a rollercoaster or skydiving,” explains David Prescott, PhD, a psychologist with Northern Light Acadia Hospital. “Once the adrenaline hormone is released, no matter what the cause, you get the rush that you are after.”
Researchers describe a different group of horror lovers as “white knucklers.”
“When you ask this group what leads to their enjoyment of horror, they talk about the process of watching themselves purposefully do something that scares the daylights out of them,” says Dr. Prescott. “It is as if they feel a sense of accomplishment and perhaps even a little personal growth from enduring something that is scary and difficult.”
Q: While you’re watching horror, how does your mind manage the stress during the experience?
A: Studies of people who are watching a horror movie show that people constantly regulate their own internal fear response. We all know these actions and strategies, but we sometimes don’t think about them as fear regulators. For example, you see people turn away, close their eyes, or cover their face when their fear gets too high.
Q: Alfred Hitchcock is famously quoted as saying: "There is no terror in the bang, only in the anticipation of it.” Why is that?
A: Anxiety is, for most of us, an anticipatory response. That is, we generate the emotion ahead of the event. Think, for example, about stage fright or fear of speaking in front of a group. For many people the most intense anxiety level occurs before the event. We are hardwired to anticipate danger – for obvious adaptive reasons. That system, when it kicks in, can generate a great deal of emotional intensity. Hitchcock took full advantage of that!
Q: Horror cinema has evolved from silent films to slashers, monster movies, and more “elevated” horror. Is there a common thread that ties these together?
A: I’m hardly a film critic or expert on what cultural themes and issues are reflected in cinema. I would say, from a psychological perspective, our most intense fears usually tap into some part of our deeper personality that gives it personal meaning. We are most frightened when we believe “that could happen to me” or when we personally relate to the characters in a story. Some psychologists believe that our deeper minds contain timeless stories that are handed down to our unconscious across generations.