Did you know that horror movies don’t just do well in the box office during October? They actually do well in theaters all year round. Why is this? Why do people love watching horror movies and getting scared by them? I went around Minnetonka High School and asked some peers this question. “I love the thrill,” says Joey Norenberg, ‘28. He said that he likes “looking back at
scary movies and seeing why [he] was scared.”

Elinor Mulhern, ‘27, says that she likes to “laugh when [she] gets scared, so even though it’s stressful, laughing makes [her] less stressed.” Of course, not everyone enjoys watching horror movies. Some people, like August Riebe, ‘29, dislike horror movies. He says that watching a horror movie is “just not a fun experience.”

Not everybody likes getting scared by horror movies, but the people who do seem to like the thrilling nature of them. It’s much more
fun to watch a fictional person get chased by a killer than to actually get chased by a killer.

Arash Javenbakht, a psychiatrist, talks about this exact question on an episode of Short Wave where he explains the difference between fear and anxiety. Fear is what your body feels when you are in immediate danger and there is a threat present. It’s the thing that keeps you from getting hurt; and without fear, we as a species would not survive.

On the other hand, anxiety is the expectation that something bad will happen, but you don’t have a clear idea of what the threat is. For example, if you don’t study for a test, you will have anxiety about failing, not fear. When watching a horror movie, it isn’t fear you’re
feeling—it’s anxiety. Horror movies are a great way to have control over your fears. It’s not as terrifying of an experience if you know you can just turn down the volume or pause the movie if it gets too scary.

So, people love horror movies because they’re a way to get out of their comfort zone while still knowing that they are in control. You know that the monster isn’t real, yet a small part of you believes it is, giving you the anxiety of what happens next. People don’t love horror movies, they love the thrills and the feeling of being alive that comes with watching one.