Why do we Find Comfort in Horror? The Abject

If you are anything like me, you are a complete fan of horror. From “Grotesque” to “American Horror Story”, I just can’t seem to consume enough of the genre. I am the first to admit, this is a little strange. Why is it that something that makes me shake, scream, jump or even cry at times, still comforting? Although strange, I know that I am not alone in this. In fact, research shows that horror ranks number three as Gen Z’s most consumed genre.

Research shows that “being scared (safely and healthily) is an often enjoyable and cathartic experience for many people.” Since rankings in the consumption of horror are so high, I believe it’s important for consumers like you and I to understand the psychological reasons why we may find comfort through the fear.Today, we will discuss two key arguments that explain this phenomenon.

Before dissecting this topic, I want to clarify the difference between horror and terror. In “TV Horror”, by Lorna Jowett and Stacy Abbott, they state that “terror focuses on the imagination, while horror conveys the destruction of the human body in graphic detail.” They say the most notable subgenre of horror is body horror; threats to the body over threats to the soul. It is easier for us to be scared by body horror as viewers because we have a level of understanding when the character’s bodies are at stake vs their souls. In simpler terms, we cannot relate to hauntings as we can autonomic functions.

The Abject:

When trying to understand why we may find comfort in horror, we need to understand the concept of the abject. In horror, the abject is something that is cast away from our bodies- blood, vomit, sweat, pus or more. According to Julia Kristeva, in “The Powers of Horror”, one of the reasons we may find comfort in this “abjection” is because of the nostalgia it brings us. When we were babies, we would revel in our own vomit, spit, and sometimes even defecation, because we didn’t know any better. According to Kristeva, this was a time when we were so naive that we did not know concepts like death existed. Although it sounds outlandish at first, Kristeva is arguing that this parallel between abject horror and the abjection we let out as babies when we were naive is part of the psychological reason for the comfort we may find in horror.

Along with bodily abjection, Kristeva states there is also such thing as societal abjection. She argues that society casts off certain types of people, and we make them an abject to society. Some examples she uses are disabled people, elderly people, specific characters in shows and more. She goes on to state that although these people are abjects to society, we find comfort in them and feel badly for how society treats them.

In order to support her argument, I would like to discuss “American Horror Story”, specifically the “Freakshow” season. If any of you have seen this season, you probably know who I am going to point out as being an abject to society…. Dandy. He is a very unlikable character on the surface, who inarguably has deep rooted issues. He dedicated the entire season to trying to purchase the conjoined twins, convincing himself that the love he feels for them will be reciprocated if he locks them in his house. Reviews say, “Dandy was literally the walking trope of the notion, albeit the one that existed outside the realm of the actual freak show…in the show. He watched the freaks, we watched him. His oddities were what made and shaped his “personality”, not the other way around. Beyond his violent tendencies, sanity slippage…he really wasn’t more than a cardboard cutout of problems.” Although he was a complete abject to society, he was well understood amongst viewers, so much so that other reviews say they felt for him. Viewers were able to get past his sanity slips and feel for the deep layered character and ultimately find comfort in his instabilities that makes society cast him off. This backs up the argument Kristeva makes about societal abjections and the comfort we find in the genre.

Preparation:

Another argument by psychologists while discussing the relationship between horror and comfort is the idea of “preparation.” Experts argue that when we watch horror, we are faced with the worst possible scenarios. In a scene of “Freakshow”, Dandy brings a man home to his bus where he has been holding people captive with Twisty the clown. The two men begin to strip, and Dandy suddenly stabs him in the stomach, over and over. To Dandy’s shock the man gets up and pleads for Dandy to ‘just kill him.’ He begins to bleed out and after a long 5 minutes, he dies.

As viewers, we watch this scene knowing that there is probably no other scenario worse than this one. We feel a sense of comfort knowing that we can watch, study how the victim reacts, and assess what was successful and what was not. Along with this, we know we are only watching the events, and they aren’t happening to us. We are safe in our own homes, with no way for Dandy or Twisty the killer clown to come find us. According to The New York Times, “scary movies, books and podcasts can help people think through how they would respond to threats and prepare them for worst-case scenarios, say experts who study the psychology of fear.”

Interestingly enough, not only does horror make a lot of consumers feel comforted, but it has been proven to relieve anxiety long term. A study from 2021 found “that those who engaged more frequently in horror had more psychological resilience and less psychological distress during the Covid-19 pandemic. In fact, during the stress of the pandemic, a surprising number of people turned to horror films to cope.” One reason for this might have been the release of anger, sadness, and frustration we felt during the pandemic. Shubhangi Dua from Intelligent Engineering points out that the only places humans are allowed to let out an outburst of emotion are at concerts or while engaging with horror. Psychologist Melanie Bryan, backs this up and says, “Horror movies allow the release of tension and all sorts of emotion in a safe environment.”

There are various arguments psychologists make to understand and dissect the psychological reasonings for comfort in horror amongst its consumers. If you are a horror buff like me, I am curious if either of my two findings resonate with you.

References:

Moyer, Melinda Wenner. “How Horror Stories Help Us Cope with Real Life.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 28 Oct. 2022, www.nytimes.com/2022/10/27/well/how-horror-stories-help-us-cope-with-real-life.html#:~:text=Scary%20movies%2C%20books%20and%20podcasts,study%20the%20psychology%20of%20fear.

Jowett, Lorna, and Stacey Abbott. TV Horror: Investigating the Darker Side of the Small Screen. I.B. Tauris, 2013.