Maragarita Taratakovsky writes the article titled “Why Some People Love Horror Movies While Others Hate them” and provides both emotional and cognitive reasons as to why we watch these types of films. There are some individuals who enjoy horror movies and there are others who have a hard time watching an intense scene in a different genre.

Glenn Sparks, a Ph. D professor at Purdue University, talks about the excitation transfer process which provides appeal for moviegoers after the movie. Sparks’ research shows that when people watch horror or scary films, their heart rate, blood pressure and respiration increases. After the film is over, this arousal remains in the individual. Instead of recalling the fright one may have felt during the film, you remember having fun with friends instead. If your experience was negative, like having a bad date, the arousal from the movie heightens emotions and may persuade someone to skip out on a horror move in the future. Sparks alludes to the fact that about 10 percent of the population enjoys the adrenaline rush. Some are wired to enjoy this while others are not.

Some people like scary movies because they are novel. Sparks writes that “Since danger disrupts routine, curiosity about change is important for survival.” Visual effects can contribute to the desire to watch these types of films. These visual effects are often very well done and some are enamored with these and attempt to figure them out. Some may have lingering emotional fallout after seeing a horror film. The movie “Jaws” made many people errie about going into bodies of water, out of lingering fear of the monster of a shark taking them under.

Research shows the more men enjoy scary movies over women. This can be contributed to the fact that men are socialized to be a strong figure with a no-fear type of attitude. Some enjoy the feeling of being scared while they know they are safe. Inidivuals who are highly empathetic may not like scary movies.

Kids and scary movies is something that should be monitored. Cantor’s research shows that college students who watched scary movies/shows before 14 years old, were most likely to have trouble sleeping and felt anxious about normal safe activities. “Parents need to pay attention to how their children react to movies before deciding if a particular show is right for them. Intense fright reactions are much easier to prevent than to undo,” Cantor said.  This preventative action is necessary to keep kids from being frightened.

This article talked about the feeling of being safe while being frightened. “Some people may like scary movies because they enjoy the adrenaline rush of being scared while being safe, Cantor said. “Some people like anything that gets their minds off their own problems,” she said.” This relates to Noel Carroll’s thoughts in which she writes, “The fascination of the horrific being comes in tandem with disturbance. And, in fact, I would submit that for those who are attracted to the genre, the fascination at least compensates for the disturbance. This may be explained to a certain extent by reference to the thought theory of fictional emotion discussed earlier in “The Philosophy of Horror”. According to that view, the audience knows that the object of art-horror does not exist before them. The audience is only reacting to the thought that such and such an impure being might exist” (Why Horror 287). These views support one regarding the feeling of being safe, while being frightened. Viewers can understand that what they are watching is not real and this thought can be comforting and provide pleasure to the viewer in knowing they are safe, regardless of what is happening in the film.

This article from LiveScience.com by Leslie Fink, reveals various reasons as to why people enjoy horror movies. The question at hand is, The question is: Why? If our best selves find the horrific so repulsive, why do we pay good money to watch it again and again? The article mentions that people are not merely attracted to the blood and gore of a horror film. Researchers say one reason why we watch is because the thrill brings about primal behavior. This behavior is mainly seen in males to analyze threat levels. There is an interesting stat given stating that most typical horror-flick viewers are male adolescents between 15-45 years old.

Jeffery Goldstein, a professor of social and organizational psychology at the University of Utrecht says, “People go to horror gilms because they want to be frightened or they wouldn’t do it twice. You choose your entertainment because you want it to affect you. That’s certainly true of people who go to entertainment products like horror films that have big effects. They want those effects”.

Some of the various  reasons for watching these films are enjoying the adrenaline rush, being distracted from a boring life, vicariously thumbing our noses at social norms, and enjoying a glimpse of the horrific from a safe distance.

The article talks about the highly successful “Paranormal Activity” series. This film is based off a single camera that is shooting the paranormal activity that surrounds a young couple. The film does not follow the blood and gore type of horror film, but is filled with building suspense. Steven Speilberg suggested a change to the ending in which, the bad guy wins. This type of ending as described by Goldstein, “Even though they choose to watch these things, the images are still disturbing for many people,” said Goldstein. “But people have the ability to pay attention as much or as little as they care to in order to control what effect it has on them, emotionally and otherwise.”

Joseph Ledoux, a neuroscientist from NYU has researched neuron by neuron how the brain’s fear system operates. Fear is not a biological reaction, but an emotion from both deep-seeded evolutionary factors and firsthand learned cautions. “Conversations between the brain’s primitive amygdala and the more recently acquired cortex allow humans to interpret an environmental event and respond with an emotion such as fear.” LeDouz says, “If you have a good imagination, you can connect to your hardwired fears simply by thinking about a scary situation.”

Noel Carroll writes of the desire of the audience to discover. “Thus, to a large extent, the horror story is driven explicitly by curiosity. It engages its audience by being involved in processes of disclosure, discovery, proof, explanation, hypothesis, and confirmation” ( Why Horror 279). This type of curiosity that Carroll talks about is also talked about in Fink’s article. The suspense of the Paranormal Activity series makes for a great horror movie. This type of film keeps the audience engaged with the film and drives them to wonder about what is to happen next. The constant suspense and uncertainty of what is going on captures the audiences attention. Carroll would most certainly agree with the success of Paranormal Activity being attributed to the suspense and curiosity from the audience.

Bibliography

Carroll, N. (2002). Why Horror?. In Neill, A. & Riley, A. (Eds.) Arguing About Art: Contemporary Philosophical Debates (2nd ed., pp. 275-294). New York, NY: Routledge.

Fink, L (2009). Horror Movies: Why People Love Them. Live Science. Retrieved February 16, 2014, from http://www.livescience.com/7949-horror-movies-people-love.html

Tartakovsky, M. (2012). Why Some People Love Horror Movies While Others Hate Them. Psych Central. Retrieved on February 16, 2014, from http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2012/10/31/why-some-people-love-horror-movies-while-others-hate-them/