Heart beats increase by 15 per minute, palms sweat, skin temperature drops a few degrees, muscles are tense, blood pressure jumps. Don't worry, it's just a movie, and a horror one at that. Yes, despite the immense fear they cause, horror movies fascinate people.
Why do we like to be afraid?
"The oldest and strongest human feeling is fear, and the strongest and strongest type of fear is fear of the unknown. The feeling of awe towards the mystery of the unknown is also from the point of view of evolutionary psychology a condition for the survival of the human race, says Tijana Cvetić, MD, PhD, specialist in medical psychology, for ˝Život˝.
He states that the inevitable analogy between fantasy and the phenomenon of horror leads us to the world of archetypal images that appear in our dreams, visions, and creative processes.
˝Fantasy is closely related to our memories and experiences. Horror films penetrate into reality, as much as it is necessary to threaten the safety of the protagonist's existence on the one hand, and to disrupt the safety of the audience on the other.
He points out that horror is a genre that confronts us with those aspects of our own lives that we can hardly consciously present.
˝Horror films are disturbing, films created to frighten and panic us, to cause horror and unrest, to awaken our worst hidden fears, often with a terrifying and shocking ending, while charming and enticing us at the same time.˝
He says they effectively center on the dark side of life, on the forbidden, strange and alarming experience.
According to her, they deal with our primal nature and its fears: our nightmares, our vulnerability, our fear of the unknown, the fear of death and loss of identity.
"Some people seek intense sensations such as intense fear, while others avoid them. The brain mechanisms that cause these individual differences are still not clear".
He states that new brain functionality visualization techniques have shown that watching such films activates the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex, which points to the role of this part of the brain in the subjective feeling of fear.
The greater the feeling of fear, the stronger the function of this part of the brain.
What is the difference between fear when we are really threatened and when we watch horror movies? "Research has shown that there is no difference".
The physiological reactions of viewers of horror films, as Dr. Cvetić says, are the same as the reactions when someone is really being persecuted.
˝So when people watch scary scenes, their heart rate increases by 15 beats per minute, palms sweat, skin temperature drops a few degrees, muscles are tense and blood pressure jumps. So Professor Sparks from Purdue University in the USA states that even though we tell ourselves that the images on the screen are not real, our brain reacts as if they were.
When asked what is attractive about horror films, he answers that various attempts have been made to answer this question, most often combining reasons about the very nature of horror texts with reasons about the exact character of horror consumers themselves.
˝There are various theories that can explain the appeal of horror movies. Dr. James B. Weaver says that many young people will choose to watch horror movies only because it will cause negative reactions in adults.
He states that another theory states that people may seek out violent forms of entertainment as a way of dealing with real fears or violence.
˝One popular explanation for the appeal of horror movies is expressed by the author of horror novels Stephen King, who says that they act as a kind of safety valve for our cruel or aggressive impulses˝.
He also points out that attraction itself can be psychological and social. He says that psychological refers to the fact that iconography in movies is often connected to our basic fears: the dark, masks, knives, etc., as well as our repressed desires, especially violent and sexual content.
˝Psychological attraction also refers to our fascination with the body and its fragility, to sex and sexuality, and in the end it has a soothing effect because there are rules and chaos is brought under control.˝
On the other hand, social attraction leads us into the very narrative that represents normality, and monsters stand opposite it, often the story is based on modern social fears and tensions.
˝Finally, society is able to capture and control the "abnormal". Social appeal also draws on the products of science, technology, religion and psychology, and more recently the family and middle-class lifestyles have been examined as sources of horror.
They can be fun, but they leave consequences
Regarding the effects of horror movies on children's psyche, Dr. Cevetić says that horror movies can be fun, but that does not mean that the effects of watching such movies are only benign.
˝Researchers, especially Cantor and his collaborators, emphasize the importance of banning such films for children. In a survey of students, Cantor found that almost 60% of respondents who watched horror movies before the age of 14 had trouble sleeping or some other kind of fear.
He states that studies have shown that children at that age develop fears of water or clowns, and that they have obsessive thoughts about scary images.
˝Theories suggest that the brain may store memories of these movies in the amygdala, which plays an important role in triggering emotions. Memories of these films can cause similar reactions to those caused by real trauma and as such can be very difficult to erase.
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