I’m sitting on the couch. Flipping through the channels I see that there is a horror movie playing on a random TV channel. I decide, hey what the heck, that sounds like fun. Later that night, as I try to drift off to sleep, I cannot remove the images of ghosts, aliens, and axe murders wearing other people's faces from my brain.

I have an over-active imagination. Give my brain an inkling of fear, and it will run a mile, heart pounding, sweaty palms, the whole nine yards. I think it is the cause of too much stress, or perhaps a lack of constructive activities. Who knows? Try as I might, my brain refuses to allow me to relax enough to sleep. And yet, I willingly engaged myself in the horror movie under the pretense of "fun." I am not having fun. But why do I then continue to engender such actions and subject myself to seemingly harmful stimuli.

What do I really gain from watching a horror flick besides a new subject to revolve my paranoia around and a sore lack of sleep?

The power of Christ compels you: This image from The Exorcist, shows the really creepy transformation of the young girl (Linda Blair) into the devil-possessed monster. Sound effects and musical score add to this extremely terrifying movie. Scared the living daylights out of me. This is one of the all-time scariest movies, in my personal opinion. Sheesh, I can't even look at this picture without getting creeped out. 

Primal fear is a useful tool. We are primed to fear things that may cause us physical (and possibly emotional) harm. We are scared to jump out of planes, get shots and of course, be haunted by ghosts or abducted by aliens. Even if you KNOW that certain stimuli are good for you, or perhaps aren’t real, seeing those images still stirs your body to react, if need be. 

There are a couple of reasons why we purposefully scare ourselves. Fright can be induced by real or artificial stimuli and has both psychological and physiological means.

The body responds to a lot of various stimuli in a remarkably similar way. It doesn’t matter if you are riding a roller coaster, encounter a bear, or watch the big group split up in a horror movie, the stimulation triggers our sympathetic nervous system to react (also known as the fight or flight  mechanism).

This physiological response allows our bodies to morph into super-human versions of ourselves. Our blood is pumped full of adrenaline, to ready ourselves to fight an attacker, or to flee for our lives. Our brains are flooded with endorphins, to block out any pain we might encounter from our impending fight to defend ourselves or for our efforts to quite literally ‘run for our lives.’ Our body sends blood and reserves of energy to key organs such as the brain, heart, lung and muscles. This causes our heart rate and breathing to increase and a heightened sense of awareness from our senses of sight, smell, touch, taste and sound. Well, it seems with a little encouragement we turn into humans with heightened strength, speed, cognitive and sensory function.

Essentially, we turn into superheroes. Who doesn’t want that?

Whoa There: Although not a horror movie, this scene from 2006 movie Pan's Labyrinthe showed a terrifying monster-thing which definitely got my adrenaline going.

This response is the same for fear stimuli (either real or simulated) as it is when we are also sexually aroused. The term ‘arousal’ actually refers to our bodies preparing for a big event. Either to fight off the creepy girl from The Ring, or to have a passionate session of lovemaking, it’s all the same if you are organs of the human body. People enjoy the sensations of their superhuman-ness that they become addicted to the “rush” that they get from pushing their bodies to the limit.  Hence the term “adrenaline junkies,” the crazies that jump out of planes with nothing but a nylon sack tied to their backs.

Causing “arousal” in the body, either by extreme sports, sexual activity or horror film viewing often causes the recipient to feel more “alive” due to the heightened sensitivity to their surroundings.  “We’re about the only living animals that enjoy this kind of an experience,” says Dr. David Rudd, chairman of the Department of Psychology at Texas Tech University. “It takes advanced cognitive processing. People like being scared because they enjoy the autonomic arousal and the associated safety of, say, a scary movie, because it gives them the rush without the risk.”

On a roll: Some people live for thrills. Researchers postulate that many of the same people who love roller coasters enjoying watching horror movies for the sensory experience and the "rush" without the risk. 

Experiencing these sensations in a safe situation, one where you probably will live through (although I am skeptical about the jumping out of planes), is in essence, fun. There is no real secret to why we do crazy things, its just fun for some of us. According to psychology professor Leon Rappoport of Kansas State University, “there seems to be this general quality that almost all of us share in enjoying a certain level of threatening stimulation or hazardous stimulation," Rappoport said. "The ability to do something that seems to go beyond the usual range of things."

 
Don't Fall Asleep: The Nightmare on Elm street movie series (all billion of them) feature Freddy Kruger a supernatural killer who attacks his victims in their dreams. This idea preys on a primal fear, to be attacked when you are most vulnerable, as you are when sleeping.

Horror films hold a special type of attraction to our psyches. We are drawn in by suspense and curiosity, held by our adrenaline, and then feel relieved when its over. Humans are the only species that seek out these types of experiences, and as such, some researchers feel that horror films hold an expression of our repressed selves, the violent and unknown sides that are taboo in a civilized society.

Professor Leon Rappoport, professor of psychology at Kansas State University feels that we experience horror films to satisfy this need for expression. “The more civilized we get, the more we repress our sort of uncivilized nature,” said Rappoport. “One way to release that is through festival occasions, vicariously enjoying horror movies and all sorts of related things.”

Here's Johnny!: Another smash by Stephen King, The Shining, centers around paranormal  forces causing perversions of those whom we love. This is terrifying beacuse we are forced to protect ourselves from our would-be protectors. The transformation from loved-one to murderous fiend strips us of our sense of security, and renders us powerless and absolutely terrified.

Humans experience fear on a psychological level as well as physical. We protect ourselves from harm, and thus, we have a psychological fear of the unknown. Our brains, developing sentience, explore the limits of our fear in an attempt to master our fear and levels of anxiety when faced with a fear situation.

"It goes all the way back to sitting around the camp fire telling ghost stories and folk tales," says Rappoport. "It's a very prevalent, deep-seated, human characteristic to explore the boundaries where they can tolerate fear and anxiety, and then master that fear and anxiety by working through it."

But not all people love to watch a scary movie. This is due to the individual’s own threshold of excitement. Some people with low thresholds, are more prone to the fear response, and by invoking their fear response, invite a level of excitement that is in essence, too much for them to handle. Rudd believes that individual enjoyment of such fear stimuli are in fact based on this threshold. “The whole autonomic arousal response is a form of protection and survival,” he says. “People with lower thresholds are more fearful, and probably wouldn’t enjoy watching a scary movie. Others with a higher threshold need much more excitement to get the same response.”

It: Images of demonic and murderous clowns plague a surprising amount of people.  Terrifying. Many attribute their first childhood terrors to the movie IT. Thanks for that, Stephen King, you've terrified millions with your murderous perversion of a innocent entertainer of children. Way to go.

This poses a deeper question. Doesn’t it seem like it would be harmful to lower our excitement threshold by subjecting ourselves to horror films. Couldn’t our love of our adrenaline, endorphin
pumped superhuman-selves be harmful for us?  If we increase our excitement threshold and find our physiological fear reaction dulled, can’t that decrease our survival in a REAL fear situation?

Yes and no. Although we might dull our response to do increased thresholds, our response will never disappear, and if a context marks a truly fearful situation, your body will follow suit. However, there is a benefit from increasing our fear threshold. "It goes all the way back to sitting around the camp fire telling ghost stories and folk tales," notes Rappoport. "It's a very prevalent, deep-seated, human characteristic to explore the boundaries where they can tolerate fear and anxiety, and then master that fear and anxiety by working through it."

Through mastering our fear and anxiety, we are more able to deal with stress induced in our daily
lives and work through it. Furthermore, fear mastery can help us choose mates.  According to a study done on horror movies, women found men more attractive when displaying nonchalance at a fearful situation than men who displayed a response to the fear. Researchers postulate that this reaction may be a genetic response to evaluate mates that could protect them and future offspring from harmful or dangerous situations.

We're Going to Need a Bigger Boat: This scene from Steven Spielberg's movie "Jaws 2"  is regarded by many to achieve a balance of suspense and gore, vaulting this movie to the top of horror movie appreciator's lists as well as the average viewer. This movie plays upon a primal human fear of being attacked by the unknowns of the oceans along with our fears of deadly, man-eating sharks. This movie has proven to many that indeed,we will never think its safe to go back in the water. 

Although some may find horror films and the compulsion to be scared more inviting than others, there are many aspects of fear that intrigue and bewilder humans as a whole. Though you might not be eager to jump out of a plane anytime soon, just think about next time you decide to watch a horror movie and just ask yourself what draws you in? Suspense? Mastery of fear? Or perhaps, you are just curious.

Whatever you may believe to be the answer, its undoubtedly true that this mystery of the human mind and body is more complex than what’s unfolding on the screen.