Ever wondered what compels you to switch on a horror film after sunset, well aware the ghosts, freaky laughter and terrifying pregnant pauses will trigger your fear?
The allure of fear-based entertainment isn’t confined to a single month, but as people don their spooky costumes and venture out for Halloween, the concept of terror is thrust into the limelight. Just look at the lineup of scary movies on TV in October.
Control isn’t the first word that comes to mind. But it’s precisely what makes such experiences so inviting, says Alex Bierman, sociology professor at the University of Calgary.
When we’re gripped by actual fear, we are overwhelmed by a sense of powerlessness. The lack of safety throws our emotional well-being into dysregulation as we bounce between hyper-vigilance and exhaustion.
Our cortisol levels rise, affecting our memories, sleep and mood, while triggering mental disorders. The long-term effects span every area of our lives, especially physical health.
Horror movies give us a chance to confront some of those fears without the threat of harm.
“We know that we can turn off the movie,” Bierman says. “We can close the book.”
But despite the rush of adrenalin, we know the drill: “We know how to kill a vampire, we know how to stop a werewolf,” Bierman says. They are completely different from the uncertainty of being able to put food on the table or seeing a child fall into bad company.
Vampire zombies from space movie poster.
“Scary movies let us confront some uncontrollable fears in a way that’s contained,” Bierman adds. “Look at how many scary movies have the child who’s the ‘bad seed’ that then lets us confront the fear of having something wrong with our children in a way that’s still utterly safe.”
And most importantly, we experience catharsis.
“At the end of the movie, the monster is vanquished,” Bierman says. “And there’s also often a logic to these horror movies where the good people are the ones who really survive at the end of the movie. And that can give us a sense of essentially moral pleasure, a reward of living a good life.”
Has all this talk made you want to watch a horror movie?
Here are some recommendations by Postmedia Calgary staff.
1. The Shining
An award-winning 1980 psychological horror film, based on a Stephen King novel, starring Jack Nicholson, which follows the life of an aspiring novelist and alcoholic’s descent into madness.
—Steven Wilhelm
2. Pan’s Labyrinth
A dark fantasy film, set in 1940s Francoist Spain, that weaves a brutal historical drama with a mystical, fairy-tale world.
— Scott Strasser
3. The Conjuring Universe
A popular franchise of movies based on the real-life investigations of the lives of the famed paranormal couple Ed and Lorraine Warren, depicting the demons and spirits they encounter throughout their lives.
— Devika Desai
4. As Above So below
A found-footage horror film about a group of archaeologists and urban explorers who venture into the forbidden, unmapped parts of the Catacombs beneath Paris in search of the legendary Philosopher’s Stone.
— Brent Calver
5. The Blair Witch Project
One of the most influential independent horror films of all time, in which a group of filmmakers set out to make a documentary of a ghostly woman and a serial killer named Rustin Parr, who in the 1940s murdered children in a secluded house and would make one child face the corner while he killed the other. As their supplies run out, they descend into paranoia.
— Scott
6. Nightmare on Elm Street
The OG of a franchise that spanned the 80s and 90s introduces Freddy Krueger, a man with blades with fingers who haunts the nightmares of teens who dare to fall asleep and enter his world. Includes a young Johnny Depp.
— Darlene Casten
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source ca.news.yahoo.com ’
