health
I’m a psychiatrist who was terrified of horror films
Why do scary movies thrill some viewers and send others running for the hills? Our writer gets to the bottom of his fear of the genre – with the assistance of Freud, clinical researchers and his six-year-old self
TL;DR
- The author, a psychiatrist, recounts a childhood trauma from watching 'Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein' that sparked a lifelong fear of horror films, darkness, and being alone.
- Horror films are increasingly popular and profitable, defying trends in other cinematic genres.
- Cinematic neurosis is described as a reaction to a film so intense it meets the criteria for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
- Freud's concept of the 'uncanny' (unheimlich) — the strange thing that wears a familiar face — is a core element in horror's appeal, particularly the fear that a monster shares our 'address' or identity.
- Recent horror films like 'Backrooms' and 'Obsession' leverage the 'un-homely' by making familiar settings and relationships unsettling.
- Watching horror films can be a safe rehearsal for terror, similar to bedtime fairytales, but the body can react as if the threat were real, increasing heart rate and activating immune responses.
- Research shows that individuals with destroyed amygdalae lose the ability to be frightened by horror films.
- Stephen King suggested horror conveys unspeakable societal threats, linking alien invasion films during the Red Scare to fears of external and internal subversion.
- Children are more likely to experience horror as trauma if they see films at a very young age (before age seven), have higher empathy, especially fantasy empathy, or have experienced home difficulties or loss.
- The author realized his fear of the werewolf transformation was rooted in an existing fear of loved ones suddenly becoming unrecognizable or volatile, rather than the monster itself.
- Coping mechanisms involve understanding the 'rehearsal' nature of film, visualizing the film crew and production, and maintaining a second self detached from the fantasy.
- The Upside Down from 'Stranger Things' is used as an example to illustrate detaching from the on-screen terror by remembering the mundane reality of watching from a safe sofa.