Why do some people like scary things, such as horror movies, horror books, ghost stories?

[raccoon]

I used to as a kid and young adult. I don't much now.

What's your theory?

[Brickbat]

1. I like some scary things, but I have a real problem with gory, violent, cruel and gratuitous stuff.

There's enough real-life bad shit going on in this world; it feels wrong to watch fake examples of it for entertainment.

[raccoon]

2. You and me both; that's one reason I don't care for most horror movies

within the past few decades (notable exception, THE OTHERS, BLAIR WITCH PROJECT), nor horror books either.

It's much easier for movie makers/ writers to bring on the gore than to build psychological suspense.

[Brickbat]

3. I really noticed it with 24, oddly enough, when it first started.

It was about the third season -- maybe a year before the MSM started talking about its use of torture and the U.S.'s use of torture -- and there was a particular episode where I was like, wait, I know this happens. This is happening now. Why am I watching this? If it's entertaining, why don't I go ahead and watch the real thing? If it's not entertaining, why am I watching it? And so I stopped, and really paid attention to the other kinds of entertainment I enjoy.

I'm fine with fisticuffs or people fighting each other to hinder or get away from each other, or historical things such as war. But cruelty for its own sake, slasher movies, humiliation, and so on -- I'm not religious or spiritual, but I do believe that we as a species can strive to be better than that.

[Tobin S.]

4. Stepehn King wrote a book about that very question

Danse Macabre

http://www.amazon.com/Danse-Macabre-Stephen-King/dp/1439170983/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1283181799&sr=1-1

[david13]

10. If I recall that book, my favorite King book, which I read with delight

20 years or so ago, Tobin, was that it was mostly about the ocncept of suspension of disbelief.
I don't know if he touched on why people like scary or horror films.
Other than my own opinion, which he may have echoed. Some people like to be scared.
An online summary indicates nothing about why people like horror in the book.
The only thing he says is "I recognize terror as the finest emotion ..."
dc

[Forkboy]

5. I love horror, but none of it is as scary as real life is.

The nightly news is consistently more horrific than any movie, because that's real.

I don't really know why I took to it the way I did, but I've been into horror since I was little. I loved being scared, I loved that little giggle of relief afterwards, kind of like riding a wild roller coaster for the first time. When I turned 16 I read about the Holocaust, and no movie has scared me since. The evil we see on the screens is fake, people playing roles for money and amusement. The real evil isn't a movie.

For many horror is cathartic, a way to confront fears (known or unknown) in a totally safe environment. For me, I love movies that make me feel something. It can be fear, happiness, sadness, whatever. The biggest crime a movie can commit, in my mind, is to stir nothing within me. I don't mind being made to feel uncomfortable (in fact, I enjoy it when done right). Even the music I get into is a challenge, almost a test at times, and it triggers much the same feeling as horror does.

Fear triggers a "fight or flight" instinct in humans, a literal adrenalin rush. To capture that feeling in a safe environment, and have it resolve itself in 90 minutes, is pretty fun. Some studies have even suggested that the feeling of relief when the movie is over is one of the appeals to many, a sense that we beat our fears, or endured a grueling test and came out on the other side.

And just for the record, I have to say that I hate ghost stories with the heat of a thousand suns. There hasn't been a good one since The Legend of Hell House in '73.

[REP]

6. Because fake horror is a) fake and b) has easy answers and solutions, unlike real life

Fake horror, for the most part, is easy and can be defeated by a plucky band of strangers who come together for the common good. It's wish fulfillment in a disturbing age. I'm not talking about morality horror ('teenagers: don't have sex - bad things happen!') or dystopian horror (Brazil), but even those have the element that an individual can make a difference.

[Curmudgeoness]

7. Adrenaline is a drug, and people like the way they feel when

it gets triggered. I love it. Love scary, not gory. You have to go for the older scary movies.

[Moondog]

8. Yep. Adrenaline junkies.

[applegrove]

9. I hate the horror genre. Always have. Though I agreed to watch horror movies with a friend of my

brother's that she wanted to see. She didn't seem to me to be the type. Thankfully I have no recal about those movies.

[david13]

11. Some people like to be scared. Adrenalin, I guess. Or whatever

other chemicals are associated with it.
Endorphins, or whatever it might be.
But some people just like to be scared.
dc

[rucky]

12. To experience the emotion in a safe environment.

or at least a decent taste of the emotion.