Why We Love Scary Movies: The Science of Fun Fear

Vocabulary

Thrill – A strong feeling of excitement, often mixed with a little fear.

Example – Many people enjoy the thrill of watching a scary movie in a dark room.

Suspense – The tense feeling of waiting to find out what will happen next.

Example – The music slowly gets louder, and the suspense makes the audience hold their breath.

Adrenaline – A chemical in your body that makes your heart beat faster when you feel fear or excitement.

Example – She felt a rush of adrenaline when the door suddenly opened on screen.

Resilience – The ability to recover quickly after a difficult or stressful time.

Example – Researchers wanted to know if horror fans showed more resilience during stressful events.

Rehearse – To practise something before you have to do it for real.

Example – Some scientists think scary movies let us rehearse how to stay calm in dangerous situations.

Article

Every October, millions of people sit down to watch films about ghosts, monsters, and killers. Their hearts beat fast, their hands feel cold, and some of them cover their eyes. Then, when the film ends, many say it was the best night of the week. This seems strange. We normally avoid things that frighten us, so why do we choose to feel afraid for fun? Psychologists have been studying this question for decades, and they have found several interesting answers.

One of the oldest ideas comes from the researcher Dolf Zillmann. He suggested that scary films work in two steps. First, suspense builds up tension in the body. Then, when the danger is over, the viewer feels a big wave of relief and happiness. The strong feelings from the first step seem to make the good feelings in the second step even stronger. Many of us know this from real life. A roller coaster is frightening on the way up, but people laugh and cheer when it stops.

This idea fits with how the body works. When we feel threatened, our nervous system releases adrenaline. Our heart rate goes up and we become alert. After the danger passes, another part of the nervous system helps us relax, and we feel calm and pleased. According to a report by BBC Science Focus, a good horror film can trigger this whole cycle while we sit safely on the sofa.

Not everyone enjoys this cycle in the same way. Some people are what psychologists call “sensation seekers”, meaning they love new and intense experiences. For them, horror is an easy way to get a thrill. However, a review of the research published in the journal Frontiers in Psychology in 2019 found that the link between sensation seeking and horror is not always clear. Some studies found it, and others did not. The same review found that men and boys, on average, say they enjoy horror more than women and girls do. Researchers think differences in how strongly people feel disgust and anxiety may be part of the reason, but this is still only an idea.

A newer study from the University of Pécs in Hungary looked at the question in a different way. In 2024, researchers asked 558 adults, mostly horror fans, to watch short clips from different types of horror films. After each clip, viewers rated how excited they felt and how much they enjoyed it. The scientists found that both feelings were stronger when a scene seemed very scary and very real. They also found that people with high morbid curiosity, which means a strong interest in dark and dangerous things, reported more excitement and enjoyment. Interestingly, scenes that felt disgusting reduced enjoyment, but they did not reduce excitement. This suggests that being excited and enjoying something are related, but they are not exactly the same.

Some researchers believe horror may even be useful. Coltan Scrivner, a researcher at the University of Chicago, compares scary films to a flight simulator. Pilots practise dangerous situations in a safe place so they are ready if something goes wrong. In the same way, a horror film lets us rehearse strong fear without any real risk. Scrivner also points out that many of us played chasing games like tag as children. These games felt scary and fun at the same time, and they may have helped us learn to handle fear.

In 2021, Scrivner and his team published a study that surprised many people. They asked more than 300 participants about their film habits and their mental health during the first year of the Covid-19 pandemic. People who had enjoyed horror films before the pandemic reported better psychological resilience. They had fewer signs of anxiety, depression, and sleep problems. Fans of films about disasters, such as zombie stories, also said they felt more prepared for real-life changes. The researchers were careful, though. They said their results do not prove that horror causes resilience, and they warned that people who dislike horror should not be forced to watch it.

It is also worth remembering that the experts do not agree on every point. Zillmann’s theory has been tested only a few times, and the 2019 review noted that it has trouble explaining films with unhappy endings, which people still enjoy. So there may be no single answer. Different people may love scary movies for different reasons: the thrill, the relief, the curiosity, the practice, or simply the fun of screaming with friends.

Perhaps the most useful lesson is that fear is not always a bad feeling. In the right situation, with a safe place and a way to stop at any time, it can be exciting, memorable, and even good for us. The next time someone jumps at a scary scene and then bursts out laughing, you will know there is real science behind that reaction.

Discussion

How do you usually react when the scary parts of a movie begin?

Which do you think makes a film scarier: sudden surprises, slow suspense, or a frightening monster?

What other activities give people a safe kind of fear, such as roller coasters or haunted houses?

In your country, do boys and girls usually enjoy scary stories in different ways?

Scientists say horror might help people practise staying calm. In what other ways can people prepare themselves for stressful situations?

What is the scariest story, film, or experience you remember from your childhood?

What kinds of stories do people in your culture tell to scare each other?

Sources

BBC Science Focus: Scream: The psychology of why we love horror movies

Frontiers in Psychology: (Why) Do You Like Scary Movies? A Review of the Empirical Research on Psychological Responses to Horror Films

Scientific Reports: The role of excitement and enjoyment through subjective evaluation of horror film scenes

KUNC: Horror film fans were better prepared for the pandemic