For some of us, the thought of having to watch a horror movie fills us with... well, horror.
Mathias Clasen is a horror researcher and co-director of the Recreational Fear Lab, a centre dedicated to the scientific investigation of recreational fear, and the positive effects it can have on our psyche.
Speaking exclusively to RT, he explains: "One of the most interesting, consistent findings to emerge over the last few years from our lab is that it seems that recreational fear has a bunch of positive effects."
For one, he found that people who watch horror are more likely to be able to cope with scary or even traumatic events in real life, as they've had more practice regulating their emotions when feeling fear.
"People use these regulation strategies to up- or down-regulate fear, to chase the sweet spot, and by exercising those fear regulation strategies, you get better at them. It's just like lifting weights in a gym.
"The strategies you can use to cope with stress and anxiety and fear in response to a horror movie are the exact same strategies you can use in the real world – if you have a job interview, or you find yourself in the middle of a pandemic.
More than that, though, Clasen has also found that the fear you feel from horror may positively affect the immune system, telling us: "We also did a study where we took blood samples from guests in a haunted attraction, and we found there was a healthy activation of the immune system, and people can actually treat inflammation with horror."
"Certain circuits in the brain that are normally active when there is a real danger are active, so parts of the brain respond as if you're in danger, even though you're just sitting in a safe, comfortable movie theatre looking at a two-dimensional flickering of light and shadow," he says.
Clasen adds that, historically, there have been exceptions to that, including the infamous case of pseudo-documentary Ghostwatch in 1992, which was presented as live, and prompted thousands of complaints to the BBC.
He explains: "It's that combination that allows people to derive pleasure. There's no pleasure in fainting from fear, but there is pleasure in realising that you're safe, but still, your body is responding in a very powerful way to the things happening on the screen."
"What's the relationship between fear and enjoyment in this domain?" Clasen ponders.
"So it's just scary enough, and that's where you get the maximum pleasure. And so when people engage with horror, they do all kinds of things to sort of move themselves on that rainbow so that it becomes maximally enjoyable.
"So there are cognitive and behavioural and social fear regulation strategies that people use to manipulate themselves on that rainbow-shaped curve."
Clasen points out there's a lot to choose from due to the recent horror renaissance, which he puts down to being a response to the real-life horrors of the last decade, including the outbreak of war, the Covid-19 pandemic, and the general instability in the world.
If you're keen for something new to watch, this Halloween will see plenty of new releases, including It: Welcome to Derry, Black Phone 2, Guillermo del Toro's Frankenstein, Predator: Badlands and more.
Who knows? They might just do you some good.
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