Why Do People Like Horror Movies So Much?
By: Izabella Galvan (7)
Imagine this: you’re walking through the woods late at night, and you’re all alone. It’s too dark to see where you’re going, you think you’re headed back to your campsite but you’re not quite sure. All of a sudden you hear footsteps, so you turn around to see who’s there. When your eyes lay on the person who was walking behind you you let out a shriek because it wasn’t your friend; it was a loose serial killer!
Does that scare you, or does it sound entertaining to you? If you like horror movies I’m sure you found that interesting! One question for you though, do you know why you like horror movies?
Sure, horror movies are entertaining, action packed, and full of suspense, but why do you like being scared?
The Adrenaline
There are many reasons why people enjoy being scared, one reason might be the rush of adrenaline that suggests through your body when you get scared. “This humble hormone is responsible for superhuman feats of speed and strength,” https://mhanational.org/what-adrenaline says adrenaline is made when you’re frightened, resorting you to the fight, flight, or freeze response though when watching a horror movie you might only flinch or jump. But it’s not only fear that triggers your adrenaline, excitement is another key. Once this exciting adrenaline could make you feel stronger and when it ends it boosts your mood positively.
Attention Grabbing
Scary things happening attract your attention because normally you probably wouldn’t see a clown in a sewer drain unless it’s Halloween and someone dressed up as Pennywise or something. “It also allows them to experience things like the post-apocalypse, alien invasions, and the threat of an attacker in a safe environment. As a result, horror movies are a risk-free way to vicariously experience threats and rehearse one’s responses to those threats.
Plus, after people get through a horror movie unscathed, they may feel a sense of accomplishment and mastery over the threat they’ve experienced, which then leads them to feel more confident in their ability to handle other anxiety-provoking situations.” states https://www.verywellmind.com/ .
How to Survive Guides
People enjoy watching a serial killer in a mask chase after a person so that they could take mental notes, for instance: if the protagonist in the movie hides in the closet they’re probably cornered but if they run to another house, down the street or something they could lose the serial killer and possibly survive. You never think about what you would do in a situation like that until you see a scene like that. Some people could consider horror movies to be helpful.
Top 10 Scariest and Popular Horror Movies
Take a guess, what do you think the scariest movie of all time is? Halloween? Jigsaw? It? Well, actually it’s The Exorcist (1973) according to Rotten Tomatoes, and in fact it was so scary that it was banned for a period of time. The Exorcist is based loosely off true events where a woman (in the movie she’s Regan but in real life she was Linda Blair) started acting strange and is diagnosed by a priest to be possessed by the demons. You can watch the movie for yourself and see how scary it is.
A few other of the scariest horror movies are Hereditary (2018), The Conjuring (2013), The Shining (1980), and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974) are top 5!
What Do Other Students Think?
There are a lot of students in Jordan Middle School who enjoy horror movies, like for instance 7th grader Andrea Gomez loves horror movies. Horror movies are Andrea’s favorite part about halloween, Sinister 1 (2012) and 2 (2015) are her favorite horror movies, “Because they’re suspenseful and scary, and the actors were amazing. The main monster was also scary which made it better,” she says. She likes to watch them because they’re fun to watch with friends so you can get scared and laugh together. The scariest horror movie Andrea has ever seen is The Nun (2018), after watching it she had a nightmare which made her even more scared of it.
Another student, Lola Rodriguez, a seventh grader also enjoys horror movies! Lola’s favorite horror movie is Insidious (2010), “The plot is really amazing and it was super well planned out,” She says. Lola likes Horror movies because “They’re the perfect movies to cuddle up on the couch with snacks and watch, and they’re really fun to watch with family.” which is an excellent point!
Lola’s favorite part about Halloween is the costumes. The scariest Horror movie she has ever seen has been The Conjuring (2013), and she would recommend you to watch Scream “it’s like the number 1 horror movie!”
Horror Movie Facts!
- The first jumpscare in horror movie history is in the 1942 movie Cat People.
- In The Shining Jack Nicholson improvised the “Here’s Johnny!” line.
- The Exorcist set was haunted.
- The movie Scream was inspired by true events of The Gainesville Ripper’s killings.
- The bees in Candyman (1982) were all real.
- While filming Gothika (2003) Robert Downey Jr broke Halle Berry’s arm.
- The skeletons in Poltergeist (1982) were real.
- Buffalo Bill’s dance in Silence of the Lambs (1991) was improvised.
- Psycho (1960) was the first American horror movie to feature a toilet.
- The serial killer Ed Gein inspired three huge horror movies: Psycho, The Silence of the Lambs, and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.
- In the movie American Psycho (2000) Willem Dafoe recorded three scenes where he knew Patrick killed Paul and in the movie mixed all three scenes together.
Thanks to www.cracked.com , https://movieweb.com , and https://www.buzzfeed.com for these facts.
Conclusion
So in conclusion, the reason why people like horror movies is most likely because of the adrenaline rush and because of how attention grabbing they are. Horror movies are rarely boring and try their best to keep suspense and drama up. That’s all, I hope you have a Happy Halloween!