The "Real" Top 7 Reasons We Watch Horror

There are many theories out there that try to explain why we watch horror, but you now have the real reasons we watch horror, and are they scary!

1. We like to explore the boundaries of fear, our fear. As teenagers and adults, we love seeing these types of movies because they are either forbidden to us, or the behavior in the films is forbidden. There are times in which we want to see just how far things go in these movies and we want to be scared.

2. We like the fun of seeing horror. Seeing these movies has always been fun. You go and await the unknown, and you might have a clue of what happens and you might not, but the effect is no different than riding a roller coaster. Case in point, when we showed up to see the movie, Cloverfield, the theatre was packed with movie-goers. No one knew what the horror was, but in the end, there were those of us who decided we had to be there to see it no matter what.

3. We like the distraction. Sometimes our every day lives can be so mundane that we long for the distraction. Thinking about what you’d do if you were stranded on a dark road in the middle of nowhere, and no place to go except for a creepy run down house is a lot more fun to think about than say, filing your income taxes.

4. We like to exercise our imaginations. Some of us have imaginations that rival even the most successful horror writers and directors. How many times have you been in an elevator and wondered what you’d do if it just stopped working, and landed you on the 13th floor? Have you ever wondered what would really happen if you had a ghost in your home? These are scenarios I have personally wondered about, and many of us do it to some extent.

When I was younger, my friend’s neighbor found a human bone in their garden. Of course there was an investigation, and nothing ever came of it, but just the idea of that kept the neighborhood kids out of the yard, and the neighbor forever under our watchful eye. How we loved inventing tales of what he must have done. We imagined all sorts of horrid things hidden in his garage, and loved coming up with stories.

That singular event fueled our young imaginations for years. Sure we were kids then, but if you ask the adult Stephen King what fuels his writing all these years, or why grown up M. Night Shaymalan comes up with such scary stuff, they’ll tell you in their own words that it all comes from their imaginations.

5. We use it to make sense of things we already know. If we attended Christian church services growing up, we learned about the bible, and particularly about the Book of Revelations. I remember as a teen, I was challenged to read the whole book, and I did. However, that bit about 666, Satan and the 4 Horsemen of the Apocalypse at the end really hit home when I watched a few of The Omen movies, sprinkled in with a bit of The Exorcist. No amount of reading about it was as nearly as impressionable as me sitting in a dark (or lit) room watching these horrible movies.

6. We can relate to the main character or victim. Whether you were the young baby-sitter who was afraid to answer the phone (When A Stranger Calls), or you were picked on in school like Carrie White (Carrie), you know that in many horror movies, the monster or bad guy (or girl) is someone that was probably picked on, done wrong, or ultimately felt they were dealt the wrong hand in life. This makes the character even more compelling. Sometimes you can relate to these characters, and in small ways feel they might have been justified in their actions, in the surreal movie sense of course.

7. We want to learn something. Movies such as The Mothman Prophecies, White Noise, and others are sometimes popular in that they explain something that is based on legend or true events, or even a particular scientific principle. Often times, we even want to see a film that’s based on our favorite horror novel, because we think there’s something we may have missed.