Why We Love Horror Movies: The Psychology Behind Being Scared
I love all things spooky.
Most of the movies I watch are horror or at least horror adjacent. The books I gravitate toward tend to be atmospheric, thrilling, mysterious, or cozy with just a hint of darkness. Give me a rainy day, a blanket, and a story about a haunted house, and I am perfectly content.
Of course, not everyone feels this way. For some people, the idea of voluntarily spending two hours feeling anxious while someone is being chased through a dark house sounds absolutely miserable. And that is completely fair.
But for those of us who do love scary things, it raises an interesting question:
Why do we enjoy being scared?
And no, loving horror does not mean you are secretly disturbed or a serial killer in the making.
In fact, there may be some surprisingly therapeutic reasons that certain people are drawn to the creepy, unsettling, and macabre.
Fear Without Actual Danger
One of the most interesting things about horror is that it gives us the opportunity to experience fear while still being relatively safe.
Your body may react to what is happening on screen. Your heart races. Your muscles tense. You might jump when something suddenly appears behind the protagonist.
But another part of your brain knows: I am sitting on my couch. I am safe.
And, importantly, you are in control.
You chose the movie. You can turn the lights on. You can cover your eyes. You can pause it, look up the ending, or turn it off altogether.
That element of control may be particularly meaningful for people who experience anxiety or who have experienced trauma. Trauma therapist Kirsten Noack describes horror as an opportunity to encounter fear in a controlled environment, where the viewer has agency over when the frightening experience begins and ends.
For someone whose nervous system already spends a lot of time anticipating danger, there can be something strangely satisfying about experiencing anxiety when there is finally a clear reason for it.
Instead of:
Why do I feel anxious? Is something wrong? What if something happens?
Horror says:
You’re anxious because THERE IS A DEMON IN THE BASEMENT.
Honestly, sometimes that is easier.
When Anxiety Has Somewhere to Go
Real life anxiety is often frustrating because it can be vague.
You might feel on edge without knowing exactly why. Your brain might jump between work, relationships, health, money, something embarrassing you said three years ago, and seventeen things that could theoretically go wrong tomorrow.
Horror gives anxiety a storyline.
There is a monster. A murderer. A ghost. A mysterious noise upstairs that the character absolutely should not investigate but inevitably will.
The threat has a beginning and, eventually, an ending.
For some people, that can create a contained experience of anxiety. Instead of fear floating around without a clear source, the fear has somewhere to land.
Researcher Coltan Scrivner has studied this idea through what is sometimes called recreational fear, engaging with frightening experiences voluntarily and in relatively safe circumstances. Research suggests there may even be a “sweet spot” where fear is intense enough to be exciting without becoming so overwhelming that it stops being enjoyable.
Horror Can Be a Practice Ground for Big Emotions
Horror isn’t only about fear.
Think about some of the themes hiding underneath our favorite scary stories: grief, isolation, abandonment, anger, loss of control, family dysfunction, betrayal, death, identity, and survival.
You know, lighthearted stuff.
Stories allow us to approach emotions that might otherwise feel uncomfortable or overwhelming while maintaining some psychological distance from them.
We’re not experiencing the character’s grief ourselves. But we can feel alongside them.
We’re not actually trapped in the haunted house. But we can experience helplessness, anticipation, fear, and relief from the safety of our own living room.
Noack describes horror as potentially providing a “container” for difficult emotions, particularly for some trauma survivors. The fictional story creates enough separation that a person may be able to engage with emotions that would feel much more overwhelming if they were happening directly to them.
Of course, this doesn’t mean watching The Conjuring is trauma therapy.
And horror can absolutely be triggering or unpleasant for some people. The goal isn’t to force ourselves to tolerate something simply because it might have psychological benefits.
But for people who naturally enjoy horror, scary stories may provide a surprisingly safe playground for exploring uncomfortable emotions.
What About Neurodivergent People?
There is also an interesting conversation happening around horror and neurodivergence.
I want to be careful here: liking horror is not a sign that someone is neurodivergent, anxious, or has experienced trauma. And being neurodivergent certainly doesn’t mean someone will enjoy horror.
People like scary stories for all kinds of reasons.
But for some neurodivergent people, the intensity and predictability of horror can be appealing. A suspenseful movie provides stimulation. There are patterns to notice, clues to follow, characters to analyze, and a mystery to solve.
For an ADHD brain that craves stimulation, a movie that immediately creates tension may simply hold attention better than something slower or less emotionally intense.
There can also be something comforting about choosing when to experience intensity.
The world can be unpredictable. Horror is unpredictable within a predictable container.
You know something scary is coming.
You just don’t know when.
Morbid Curiosity Is Actually Pretty Human
Humans have always been curious about frightening things.
Why do we slow down when we see an accident? Why are true crime documentaries so popular? Why have humans told stories about monsters, death, ghosts, and things lurking in the woods for thousands of years?
Part of the answer may simply be morbid curiosity, our desire to understand potentially dangerous or threatening situations.
That curiosity may actually serve a purpose.
Fiction allows us to mentally simulate frightening situations without experiencing the real world consequences. We can wonder:
What would I do?
Would I notice the warning signs?
Would I survive?
One study of 310 people during the COVID 19 pandemic found that horror fans reported greater psychological resilience, while people who enjoyed genres involving events like zombie outbreaks and apocalypses also reported greater preparedness. The researchers suggested that frightening fiction may provide a kind of mental simulation in which people encounter threatening scenarios and practice managing difficult emotions.
That doesn’t mean horror movies automatically make someone more resilient. The research shows an association, not that watching scary movies causes resilience.
Still, it offers a fascinating possibility. Maybe imagining scary things isn’t always about frightening ourselves.
Sometimes it may be one of the ways humans try to understand fear.
The Relief After the Fear
There is also one very simple reason some of us love scary things:
It feels good when they’re over.
The tension builds.
Something jumps out.
You scream.
And then you laugh.
Your nervous system activates and eventually settles again. You experience the fear and then experience yourself coming back down from it.
That sequence can be satisfying.
It can remind us, in a very small way:
I can feel afraid and still be okay.
I can experience discomfort without needing to immediately escape it.
Feelings rise, peak, and eventually pass.
That’s a lesson that extends far beyond horror movies.
Maybe Spooky Can Be Cozy
This is probably my favorite contradiction about horror.
Something can be scary and comforting.
A haunted house can somehow feel cozy. A murder mystery can be the book you read before bed. A rainy October night, a candle, and a ghost story can feel safer than almost anything else.
Maybe that’s because comfort isn’t always about avoiding darkness.
Sometimes comfort comes from approaching the darkness from somewhere safe.
We get to open the book.
Enter the haunted house.
Meet the monster.
Feel our heart race.
And then close the book, turn off the TV, look around the room, and realize:
We’re okay.
What I’ve Been Watching and Reading Lately
Movies: The Autopsy of Jane Doe, The Lost Boys, Shaun of the Dead, Weapons, Candyman, Nope, The Last Kiss, Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers, The Watchers, Backrooms.
Next Watch: Sinister directed by Scott Derrickson
Books: The Watchers by A.M. Shine, The Unknown by Riley Sager, The Fourth Wife by Lina Hamilton
Current Read: The Devil Knows Her Name by C.N. Vair.
Sources & Further Reading
Kirsten Noack, Why Trauma Survivors Are Drawn to Horror Movies
Coltan Scrivner, John A. Johnson, Jens Kjeldgaard Christiansen & Mathias Clasen, Pandemic Practice: Horror Fans and Morbidly Curious Individuals Are More Psychologically Resilient During the COVID 19 Pandemic
University of Chicago, Why Scary Movies Are Helping Some People Cope With the Pandemic
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