By Jeane Parel
Western Sun staff writer
Sometimes we are compelled to temporarily lose our minds. We are drawn to horror films, are mesmerized by the scenarios of panic and death and voluntarily torture our psyche.
Simple pleasures make sense: finding true love, the scent of a rose, the warmth of the sun. But what about finding pleasure in fear and madness?
Scary movies do the work for us. We cover our eyes periodically throughout the movie, but we still peek through the cracks between our fingers. Yes, we know they shouldn’t open the door, but we want to know what or who’s behind it. Yes, we know they should turn the car around, but we want them to drive straight towards the death that awaits them.
Horror films serve as a vehicle to our inner most fears, placing images and scenarios in our brain that we subconsciously suppress everyday.
Watching a scary movie is like a rollercoaster ride. We find comfort after plummeting hundreds of miles per hour into the earth because we realize…we’re okay. We get back in line and do it all over again.
People enjoy being scared. Girls get to curl into their boyfriend’s arms while some people find entertainment, sometimes humor. Others are just happy to be unhappy,according to a study that was published in the Journal of Consumer Research. They “experience both negative and positive emotion simultaneously.”
We maintain our sanity by watching the insane. Whether we see severed limbs hanging from meat hooks or a demon possessed girl turning her head 360 degrees, we get to go home and sleep (with the light on of course.)
There are horror films to be made long as our inner monster stays hungry. So eat up little monster and Happy Halloween!
