If fear is a negative emotion, why do we produce and enjoy horror films?

    Halloween is right around the corner, and that means horror-movies are being released and binged all month long. While horror entertainment has been ingrained into pop culture for years upon years, it is interesting to pose the question of why we even like to watch movies that scare us. 

    Given the fact that horror movies generally have low production costs, it is no surprise as to why entertainment studios produce so many of them. Between the recently viral Netflix series Squid Game and the newest installment of the Michael Myers slasher movies, Halloween Kills, horror and thriller entertai]nment has been making big money in the box office. The real mystery lies within the popularity and captivation of the genre. What draws us to seek out being scared if, psychologically speaking, fear is a negative emotion?

    The relationship between viewer satisfaction and frightening content points significantly towards the physical and emotional release that follows fear, and not the actual fear itself. “I have not seen any empirical evidence that people actually enjoy the emotional experience of fright. Instead, I see evidence that people are enjoying other things that go along with this experience,” said Dr. Glenn Sparks, a professor of communication who studies the media’s effects on people at Purdue University.

    A phenomenon known as excitation transfer, defined by the American Psychological Association as “the theory that emotional responses can be intensified by arousal from other stimuli not directly related to the stimulus that originally provoked the response”, is one of the leading theories as to why people purposefully seek out fear. In other words, the theory implies that the enjoyment factor of watching horror films comes from the equally-strong sense of relief that follows the iasnitial fear response. 

    For some people, watching horror movies coincides with adrenaline-seeking personalities that also push people to do things like skydiving or riding roller coasters. The sensory reactions that come from jump-scares and the element of mystery are stimulating in ways that get your heart racing, your breath quickening, and start up multiple other involuntary responses. For some, this rush of adrenaline is fun, whereas for others, it is something to be avoided.

    Psychologist Glenn Walters identified three factors that feed the popularity of horror films. Tension, the first of the three, is characterized by the elements of mystery, suspense, gore, terror, and shock that are created by producers and directors. The next factor, relevance, aims to create a connection with viewers and establish a sense of empathy. A common manifestation of this is playing upon a universal fear of death the unknown. Unrealism, the last factor identified by Walters, pertains to the realization of viewers that what they are watching is fake. Scary movies are filmed with cues that remind viewers that they’re simply being entertained. When film producers use these factors to their advantage, they can utilize the psychology of fear to appeal to viewers further.

   Giving into the cultural interest in horror movies varies from person to person, and nothing can fully explain why society loves horror movies. People watch them for different reasons and react to them in different ways. While psychology can explain how we react to horror movies and why we may produce them, theories haven’t been developed that encapsulate this experience as a whole.