The Physiological Effects of Horror Movies

Horror movies are part of a genre that aim to create a sense of fear and panic for the audience, and generally frighten the audience through a portrayal of their worst fears and nightmares. Physiologist Dr. Glen Walters identifies three primary factors that induce our human reaction- tension, relevance, and unrealism.

Tension is created through mystery, suspense, terror, or shock and is the most straight forward in the process of the making the movie. Along with a person's heartbeat, blood pressure, and respiration increasing during the movie, real reaction may be experienced after the movie. According to Glen Sparks, Ph.D, a professor and associate head of the Brian Lamb School of Communication at Purdue University, an event called the Excitation Transfer Process occurs after the movie, and it's appeal is influenced by your experiences around and in the movie, whether they are positive or negative.

A woman in tension. 

Relevance deals with the movie's ability to capture a potential audience by connecting to the social community and their likes and interests. As a result of our fast-paced society, it is evident that all types of movies have to constantly change and remain flexible to stay on top of our interests. For example, recently a new trailer of the movie, Unfriended, has appeared in ads, and is the perfect example of the rapid change in the demanding movie business. Completely turning away from old types of horror, movie producers have approached the topic of social media as a chilling hooker. This movie also addresses problems of today's society, where lives are determined through one click of a button. It seems like just a few weeks ago we were on the hype of supernatural, gory, physical type videos.

Comical realism in modern day society.

Finally, the most surprising factor is unrealism of the movie, since the audience is comforted by the fact of a fabricated reality in front of their eyes. Although many people do enjoy the thrill of the film, if it were not assuredly fake, people would not be as willing to take the risk. Watching horror movies as a child would have a more profound effect, causing more stress, because children have trouble discerning reality from fiction. The combination of high tension levels, relevancy to social life, and a subtle air of unrealism equates to a greater horror appeal.

You decide.

Despite all of these interesting factors added into a horror movie, I know that I would definitely prefer to stay home with a good comedy instead. What about you?