Horror Movies: The Brain's Fascination With Fear

Movies have been praised as the ultimate art form; combining photography, motion, visual arts, acting, music and writing to create a dream-like experience. If movies are dreams, then horror movies are nightmares, and if they are nightmares, then why do we watch, create and enjoy them? Unfortunately, this burning question has yet to receive a universal answer, although the movies themselves, the brain’s activity and the multiple theories are all clues pointing towards the explanation of humanity’s fascination with fear.

As with all art, movies reflect and reveal human nature. In the case of horror movies, they expose the fears and desires shared across cultures and generations. To accomplish this, movies use the three Elements of Horror (Walters,
The best horror movies tap into what are known as evolutionary-cognitive fears, the things humanity has learned to be afraid of from centuries of existence. Children under three see a snake, especially one poised to strike, much sooner than a flower when shown the two on a computer screen (Matsaka, 2010). This indicates that some fears are not learned during life, but are planted in the brain from birth. These evolutionary-cognitive fears consist of predation, contagion, and violation of person. The effect of these on movies is clear through villains like Hannibal Lecter (Silence of the Lambs), who eats his victims alive; Freddy Krueger with his claws (Nightmare on Elm Street), or more obviously Jaws (Jaws), King Kong (King Kong), zombies, and demonic possession. The first two evolutionary-cognitive fears are clear, but violation of person is not. This comes from what Freud called the ‘uncanny valley’, when things are similar to human, close enough to be recognisable, but just enough unlike human to give off an eerie feeling. Examples include the way zombies move, the invisible or transparent appearance of ghosts, the existence of vampires. In a more abstract sense, clown makeup and masks have the effect of hiding the wearer’s true emotions,
Research in this area dates back to ancient Greece, where Aristotle proposed that gruesome plays and scary stories were popular due to what he called catharsis; the act of purging violent thoughts and emotions through observing violence. The only flaw in Aristotle’s logic: seeing violence has been proven to produce aggressive behaviour, particularly in children (Huesmann, 1982). Freud’s psychoanalytic theory claims horror is appealing because it brings out the primitive darkness of the id, thoughts that are suppressed by the civilized mind. The images of mothers, children, and shadows also engage the id. This perspective is difficult to test empirically, and even more difficult to distinguish from philosophy when considering the imagery of horror movies. Another possible answer is excitation transfer, the effect of fear becoming a positive emotion when the protagonist of the film triumphs over the antagonist. However, the enjoyment of horror does not change in movies where the protagonist is killed, so this theory brought forth by Zillman is incomplete. Carroll believed that watching horror movies was a way to experience and observe abnormal behaviour, which we find fascinating, safely. The curiosity-fascination theory has merit; people who are more accepting of unusual behaviour tend to enjoy horror movies more that those who are