Why Do People Love to be Scared?

As a veteran of horror, I've asked myself this question many a time. I started watching cheesy 90s horror movies in my friend's basement in elementary school, and quickly moved on to classics like Nightmare on Elm Street and Friday the 13th. Even though I was terrified to fall asleep after watching these movies, I kept going back. To this day, I'm still a horror film fanatic even if I know I will most likely be paranoid and scared after. Why do I, and people like me, do this?

According to David Rudd at the University of Utah, people enjoy feeling scared and seek the feeling out because, deep down, they know they are in no real danger.

"People understand the real risk of these activities is marginal, and because of this underlying awareness, they experience excitement rather than actual fear," Rudd explains. Teenagers and adults and more apt to gauge the actual level of threat that scary stimuli pose to them, and therefore, are able to watch scary movies with no real threat, except maybe the psychological threat of a nightmare or two after the exposure. Because of this, people feel safe watching movies like these.

For me, different horror sub-genres elicit different feelings of excitement or fear for me. For example, even though I'm not inclined to watch gory thillers, they affect my psychological/emotional level the least. However, scary movies involving the paranormal or religious topics scare the buhjesus out of me. No matter the specific horror type, I realize that the likelihood of the events I've watched happening to me is marginal, if not impossible (depending on your beliefs of course). Because of my rationality and lust for thrill, just as when I was a kid, no matter how scared I am after watching a movie, the adrenaline rush I feel during the movie is too exciting to give up.

For more on people's fascination with fright, check out this article:

Scientists Take a Stab at Why Horror Film Lust Runs Deep