Why Do We Like Horror Movies?

Estimated reading time: 4 minutes, 49 seconds.

You are going to the cinema to see the latest horror release. A very scary movie. You buy popcorn, enter the movie theater, sit in your armchair. For the next two hours you will see ghosts terrorizing a mansion, monsters killing people, and sadistic killers torturing a group of young people. You'll be scared. You'll shiver and cover your eyes and you'll jump in the armchair. You'll still leave the movie theater happy to have gone through this experience. For many people, this scenario I just described makes perfect sense. A horror movie is one of the best pastimes that can exist for these people, but some can't understand how anyone in their right mind could choose to see a movie that was made to cause us fear, discomfort, and disgust. Although this is all weird, isn't it? Horror movies were made to make us feel bad. If that's the case, it wouldn't make much sense for us to freely want to go through this, would it? After all...

Why Do We Like Horror Movies So Much?

There is a name that we can give to this doubt: the paradox of terror. This is a term I'm borrowing from the American philosopher Noël Carroll, who we'll talk about a little later. Scientists, psychologists, and philosophers have been analyzing this question for several years. Biology, for example, has already given us a light: we like horror movies because the scares we get release dopamine, a substance that gives us the sense of pleasure. Some people release more dopamine than others. So, they try to repeat the experience to feel that pleasure again after seeing Samara leaving the television. Because of this, people who enjoy actions that provoke strong emotions, such as extreme sports, are more likely to be more comfortable watching horror movies. This biological explanation of why we like horror movies is very interesting and even makes some sense. I won't focus on the biological explanation here. Instead of focusing on this biological issue, let's talk about the paradox of terror, from the point of view of philosophy, for that, I'm going to bring back Noël Carroll because of his theory about the paradox of terror is one of the most exciting.

Noël Carroll

What Does Say The General Theory of Horror's Appeal?

In his book, The Philosophy of Horror or Paradoxes of the Heart, Carroll develops what he calls the General Theory of Horror's Appeal. According to him, what is at the center of our attraction to terror is curiosity. Carroll establishes that monsters in horror stories are creatures that, by themselves, already cause us a double reaction: one of repulsion and the other of intrigue. After all, monsters escape the traditional categories that we create to explain what exists in the world. For example, we are used to bugs, but giant bugs that destroy cities are not. We are sure that the dead remain on motorcycles, but that is until some zombies appear or spirits that haunt and kill. We know there are psychopaths, but then horror movies introduce us to serial killer super psychopaths who are completely monstrous and who, because of that, end up being dehumanized — they are people who have stopped being people. All these monsters frighten us precisely because they run away from our world organization schemes. They are the unknown, and all too often the unknown causes us to fear. But it is precise because they are completely different from what we consider normal that we are also attracted to these creatures. The unknown causes fear but also seduces, and captures our curiosity. But that would only be the first layer of Carroll's theory because the most intense appeal of these monsters would come when they are presented to us within a story. For the philosopher, what will truly hold our attention is the combination of these monsters and a narrative structure. This narrative structure would be the same for most horror movies. A narrative about the discovery of the monster. We have a normal world. This world is disturbed by the first evidence of the monster. The audience and the characters of the movie begin an investigation. The threat grows until it becomes undeniable. We continue to be interested in the story because we are very curious. We want to find out what this monster is. We want to reveal the mystery. Even after the monster is revealed, we are still stuck in our curiosity because we want to make even more discoveries.

We ask:

• Where does this monster come from?
• What is its origin?
• How does it act?
• And more importantly, how do we defeat the monster?

This is what explains our taste for horror movies: the discovery of the monster. Our curiosity leads us to want to know everything about the monstrous threat. Even if it means getting scared and suffering from the heartbreak caused by the scenes. This anguish is an intrinsic part of the experience. According to Carroll's theory, it's not that we're actively seeking to feel disgusted when we watch horror movies. What we would be looking for would be much more the pleasure provided by the narrative structure that leads us to investigate and eventually confirm the existence of the monster, this being that is, by essence, scary, but is also intriguing. What would separate, then, those who love horror movies from those who don't enjoy this genre would be the level of tolerance that each of us has towards the disgust created by the scary scenes we see on screen.

And do you, reader, think that Carroll's theory makes any sense? And if it doesn't, why then are you attracted to the genre?

Good shivers!

P.S.: This text is based on a video from the EntrePlanos channel on youtube. Here's the link. Thank you, Max!