Horror movies can be a powerful way to handle anxiety
Using controlled fear to overcome your own.
Do you have to be fucked up to like horror movies?
That was my original headline for this article. Not very catchy and a little abrasive, right? But it was a question I ask myself every time I meet someone who doesn’t like horror. When I talk to people about horror in general, the common answer is that I’m crazy for liking it. Or, it’s too scary for them to watch or play if it’s a game.
It seemed like people who had a pretty good handle on life were the ones who didn’t like horror so I started to look into it more. I had a ton of hypotheses.
Was it dealing with trauma at a young age? When I looked into this one, it was because it made the most sense to me. That if you’ve dealt with something horrific in the past, horror movies would be nothing to you. I’ve even told my boyfriend before that horror movies aren’t scary because I’ve seen worse. But, looking into it further, that wasn’t a common theme among people who like scary movies. Sure, it was there but it didn’t seem to explain it in the best way.
I do think that if you’ve experienced some form of trauma in your life, it does shape the wiring of your brain. But this could go in different directions and doesn’t always mean you’ll handle stress well.
