The Psychology of Scary Movies
Reasons for enjoying or hating scary movies
Sensation seeking individuals may enjoy scary movies because it will elevate the heart rate and make the body feel as though it needs to expend energy. Highly sensitive people can be easily overstimulated by their environment and also tend to be more empathetic. This results in a more intense physiological reaction to violent or scary movies. Childhood experiences affect how someone feels about being scared. People who had positive experiences when they were young already have an internal concept that frames certain scary activities in an exciting way. Horror movies are enjoyable for some people when they’re shared with loved ones. It can create a social bonding experience.
What Loving Horror Movies Says About Your Personality
Reasons we like watching horror films
Horror films entertain us. They act as a means to fend off boredom. The horror film is a way of unravelling evil . Ideas and myths like Frankenstein provide us with an explanation for human technological arrogance, where the man-made monster turns on its own creator. They teach us to deal with our own anxiety. Horror films become a way to test our personal and collective limits in a safe environment that we can control by opting out at any point.
Why do we like watching horror films?
Why we feel intimidated with abnormal things
1. Thoughts like "what if there actually are ghosts" create excitement. Seeking this kind of experiences may be a kind of logical reality-check. 2. Such experiences may evoke different types of repressed complexes or ideas that we may wish to process. 3. Freud claims that most people are never completely freed from the fear of darkness, loneliness and silence.
Primary factors that make horror films alluring
Tension - Generated by suspense, mystery, terror, shock and gore. Relevance - The horror film may relate to personal relevance, cultural meaningfulness, the fear of death, etc. Unrealism -The fictional nature of horror films affords viewers a sense of control by placing psychological distance between them and the violent acts they have witnessed.
Why Do We Like Watching Scary Films?
Viewing motivators for horror movies
Gore watchers typically have low empathy, high sensation seeking, and a strong identification with the killer. Thrill watchers typically have both high empathy and sensation seeking;they identify themselves more with the victims and like the suspense of the film. Independent watchers typically have a high empathy for the victim along with a high positive effect for overcoming fear. Problem watchers typically have high empathy for the victim but are characterized by negative effect (particularly a sense of helplessness).
Theories on why we love to watch horror films
Dr. Carl Jung believed horror films “tapped into primordial archetypes buried deep in our collective subconscious – images like shadow and mother play important role in the horror genre”. Horror films are watched as a way of purging negative emotions and/or as a way to relieve pent-up aggression. Horror movies are enjoyed because the people on screen getting killed deserve it. Cultural historian David Skal has argued that horror films simply reflect our societal fears.
The Horror Movie
Horror is a genre that has a reputation of being a low, somewhat trashy, titillating genre that appeals to our basest instincts. "Its also a wonderful, popular art form through which very complex ideas and creative techniques can manifest themselves—and if you can get past that very cliched view, you realize there’s an embarrassment of riches in the genre.” Malcolm Turney
Why Do We Like Horror Movies?
For a work to be classified as horror...
... it has to have a monster, which has to be threatening in some way. The monster is often otherworldly or violates the laws of nature, as in Alien or Jaws—but some argue that a human character can be a monster, as in Psycho, Silence of the Lambs, and Halloween. The monster generally is otherworldly or violates the laws of nature and is designed to elicit disgust as an emotion.
Enjoying scary movies
Research has found that willing exposure to that which scares us can provide a counterbalance to life's stresses: It may be an effective way to undermine anxiety and even bolster our resilience. It is intentionally triggering our fight-or-flight response in an environment where we control the variables. Manageable bouts of "good stress" can generate an immune response that strengthens the immune system against bigger threats. The scary movies offer social-bonding benefits when we talk about the movie afterwards to our friends.
Why Do We Crave Horror Movies? Science Suggests It's A Head Trip With Surprising Benefits
Why some people savor scary movies, and others hate them
The Excitation Transfer Process. How you feel AFTER the movie. When watching frightening films, the heart rate, blood pressure and respiration increases. After the film, the physiological arousal lingers. If you had fun with friends, these positive emotions are intensified. If you did not enjoy the company, negative feelings are intensified. People are wired differently. About 10 percent of the population enjoys the adrenaline rush. Novelty. Everyone pays attention to anomalies in our environment. Gender Socialization. Men often like [scary films] as date movies because women are more likely to seek physical closeness when they’re scared, and men can show off their strength and bravery. Some people enjoy the adrenaline rush of being scared while being safe.
Why Some People Love Horror Movies While Others Hate Them
"The beast within"
This is the most popular theory explaining the genre’s popularity and it argues that an unconscious, repressed part of every human is actually savage; that the veneer of civility is very th in, and beneath that is essentially a monster. Although we consciously disapprove of what the monster is doing, deep down part of us enjoys seeing the murder and mayhem the monster unleashes—because if we could, we would do that.
Why People Enjoy Horror
We consciously disapprove of what the monster is doing, but deep down part of us enjoys seeing the mayhem the monster unleashes. We enjoy rooting for the protagonists as they battle the monster. We might not endorse the monster’s actions, but we may find it captivating. Findind the nature of the monster - its powers, its weaknesses, where it came from - is a process of discovery that we enjoy. The thrill that fear offers , particularly for “sensation seekers" - especially in a context where there’s no real threat to us. It contains symbolic representations of real fears.