Why do people watch horror movies?
Why do people watch scary movies? Horror movies bring out different feeling out of people, whether that's a morbid curiosity or the thrill of flight or fight.
To start, some people watch horror movies for the thrill of a flight or fight, in a safe environment, then to feel that sense of relaxation and calm. Horror/scary movies triggers the brain to release adrenaline and cortisol, which increases heart rate and alertness. After the fact, the body can enter a "rest and digest", flooded with dopamine, which can be a very rewarding sensation. (Bradford & Bose, 2024). Horror movies allow people to safety confront fears and test limits in an environment, they know is safe. (Why, 2021) For some, particularly those with anxiety, the intense fear followed by the eventual release can be a way of practicing self-soothing techniques.
To continue, there can be a morbid curiosity. There are many people who are fascinated by dark themes and the horror movies gives that safe outlet to explore these themes and morbid curiosities without real world consequences. Which in my opinion is creepy.😶 But what is a horror movie without some creepiness in it? Horror often delves into the darkest aspects of human nature and the human condition, which viewers find interesting to watch through a fake/fictional lens. Additionally, the horror genre can help people understand how far they can go, in a sense for fear and suspense, and provide a sense of accomplishment when they get through a horror film. (France, 2023)
Personalities, Age, and Gender Groups
According to Glass B.S. (2021), the personality types that like horror movies are the people who like high sensation seeking, openness to new experiences. and a low empathy for others' distress; although, it could also be a coping mechanism for anxiety. According to Yang and Zhang (2021), younger people are more likely to enjoy horror movies than older people, as those movies are mainly aimed for a younger audience. Additionally, men are more likely than women to be fans of certain aspects of it. Although women like horror movies with happy ending rather then men, who like movies with highly loaded intense acts. I personally did my own research to support this, and here was the results:
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| From my Survey of Classmates |
In this pie chart, it shows what features that people like in horror movies when watching them. 54.2% prefers horror movies filled with intense acts through their watch, (13 people chose this). 16.7% of people like to have an happy ending in the horror movies, (4 people chose this). 29.2% of people chose both features that they like in the horror movies, (7 people chose this). These pie charts are important to my blog because, as stated above, other research states that men like loaded intense features, and women prefer the happy ending. After going through each response I found that there were more women preferred loaded intense acts in horror movies which surprised me as women are known for liking softer things then men, but there was seven women that chose loaded acts. Only three women chose happy ending preferred horror movies. On the other hand, there was six men that prefers loaded intense acts in their horror movies, while one guy chose a happy ending. The in between that chose both was four women and three men. This goes against the research from Yang and Zhang (2021), and the results surprised me for sure. Overall, there was thirteen people that chose loaded acts, seven people that chose both, and four people that chose a happy ending. I want to thank my teacher Mrs. Ortiz for taking the time to share this survey with my peers and other classes that she has. ☺
Reflection
Overall my research has opened my eyes to the different age, gender, and personality groups, and why people watch horror movies; when I saw the research and results from my polls and articles, they surprised me a lot. I had a few challenges finding what I wanted to make this blog about because I mainly, didn't want to come short with my blogs but this blog came out how I wanted it to and I'm proud of my work. This blog took me three days to research and put together. My blogs are getting more lengthy, which is exactly what I wanted for myself. It was cool to see how there are so many opinions on horror movies and aspects that not much people think about, which has made me more aware of what can come with when researching anything. Horror movies are my favorite and I'm glad that I was able to do in depth research of my favorite genre.
I used Google Forms for my survey. This is what it looks like from my side as the creator. Although it took me about 10 minutes to make, it gave the results that I needed for my research. :)
References
Bradford, S., & Bose, P. (2024, October 15). Why Do We Like Horror Movies? The Scientist Magazine®; The Scientist Magazine. https://www.the-scientist.com/why-do-some-people-enjoy-horror-movies-72181
Breslin, C. (2022, October 17). Why Do People Like Horror Movies? What Is the Psychology Behind It? - Psi Chi, The International Honor Society in Psychology. Www.psichi.org; THE INTERNATIONAL HONOR SOCIETY IN PSYCHOLOGY. https://www.psichi.org/blogpost/987366/479889/Why-Do-People-Like-Horror-Movies-What-Is-the-Psychology-Behind-It
Editor. (2024, October 10). Survey: Younger generations watch most horror content. Advanced-Television.com. https://www.advanced-television.com/2024/10/10/survey-younger-generations-watch-most-horror-content/
France, P. (2023, October 30). Horror on Health: Does watching movies make us sick? - The Medium. The Medium -. https://themedium.ca/horror-on-health-does-watching-movies-make-us-sick/
Glass B.S., J. (2021). From Horror Films to Heart Rates. Innerspacecounseling.com. https://www.innerspacecounseling.com/blog/from-horror-films-to-heart-rates
Orth, T. (2025, October 16). The horror divide: Americans’ love-hate relationship with scary movies. Yougov.com; YouGov. https://today.yougov.com/entertainment/articles/53195-the-horror-divide-americans-love-hate-relationship-with-scary-movies
Parris, D. (2024, May 15). Why Do People Like Horror Films? A Statistical Analysis. Statsignificant.com; Stat Significant. https://www.statsignificant.com/p/why-do-people-like-horror-films-a
Why. (2021, October 18). Laurel Therapy Collective. Laurel Therapy Collective. https://www.laureltherapy.net/blog/why-do-some-people-like-scary-movies
Yang, H., & Zhang, K. (2021, October 26). The Psychology Behind Why We Love (or Hate) Horror. Harvard Business Review; Ascend. https://hbr.org/2021/10/the-psychology-behind-why-we-love-or-hate-horror
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