The Power Of Horror Films As A Cure For Anxiety

tiffany simone
3 min readSep 1, 2018

I have an anxiety disorder, and have suffered from this my entire adult life. In dealing with anxiety for many years, the disorder has become an old, familiar friend. She constantly snuggles up with me under the sheets, mooches off my plantain chips, and threatens me with all my life’s worst-case scenarios.

Trailer image for Ravenous (Les Affames). Courtesy of Netflix.

Most recently, me and my friend anxiety settled into bed and turned on Les Affames, a brilliant French-horror film. In watching Les Affames, I found a strange peace amidst the images of blood-thirsty zombies and disemboweled corpses. As the central heroes fought their way through the now zombie-filled streets of Quebec to a safe place, my own fears dissipated.

I’m not sure how this happened. Somewhere between settling into a lazy, Netflix binge-watching session a few weeks ago, I found myself drawn to the streaming channel’s bloodiest and goriest offerings. In these moments, one man’s terror on the screen became my relief from anxiety. For me, the monsters in notable horror gems including The Babadook, Gerald’s Game, Raw, Under the Shadow, and Train to Busan were not monsters at all. Instead, they were necessary salves against the real-life fears of career, love, debt, and a world recently turned even darker and more menacing.

Like any decent, self-aware human, I wondered if the Jeffrey Dahmer in me was jumping out for finding peace in watching horror movies. Upon a quick Google search, I found a wide breadth of dialogue and research from anxiety-ridden people who similarly used horror films to qualm their real-life fears.

Most notably, Vice’s Abby Moss reflected on this unconventional cure for her anxiety disorder. She spoke with Aarhus University’s Dr. Mathias Clasen and found 15 years of study on the psychological effects of horror movies. Dr. Clasen explained, “exposure to horror films can be gratifying when the negative emotions caused by the film are manageable.” Clasen also noted we create “psychological distance when we watch a horror film,” because some part of our brain recognizes that what we’re seeing is not real.

Dr. Matias Clasen’s TEDxAahhus on “Lessons from a terrified horror researcher.” Courtesy of Youtube.

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tiffany simone

tiffany is an intuitive mentor, writer, teacher and former sales executive with a lot to say. www.theperfectlywise.com