Horror Movies Can Affect Your Health More Than You Think – /Film

While the gory and gruesome scenes in your average horror movie often seem distressing, they actually hold the potential to provide comfort. This is especially true for people with clinical anxiety. In a 2020 study published in NeuroImage, a group of Finnish scientists found that people with anxiety disorders can find horror movies relaxing due to "the anticipation of threat from environmental cues, and the reaction to threat onset." In layman's terms, knowing that distress is coming through a jump-scare or slasher kill is more relieving than experiencing a distressing event without warning.

Viewers can also find comfort in horror movies by experiencing terrifying events vicariously through the characters. In an article published by CNET, the director of the Center for Cultural Studies and Analysis, Margaret J. King, explained that viewers may react positively to watching someone go through something unavoidably terrible, while they themselves have full control of their surroundings.

"Horror movies have a long history of providing a kind of reassurance," she explained. "Viewers can immerse themselves in a harrowing narrative yet at the same time be perfectly safe, able to control the stimulus by turning it off or shifting attention to the surrounding space."

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Horror Movies Can Affect Your Health More Than You Think - /Film

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