Fear is an emotion that everyone has. Fear is a valuable trait, stemming from the fact that early humans were not a secure space as people are today. Many fears like that of poisonous animals like snakes and spiders, or that of the dark, come from these early self-preservation instincts. So why then do people like to stimulate this feeling?

This is something that psychologists have tried to answer for many years. Some have posited that it is perhaps due to a thrill seeking nature. People enjoy horror movies and stories, and by extension being scared, for the same reason that they enjoy riding on roller coasters or skydiving. Psychologists have argued that people enjoy horror stories in this way because of the fact that at the end of the day, they are just stories without the potential to really hurt a person.

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Even things that take place in the real world, such as a haunted house, have this so-called “safety framing” in place, we understand that the experience isn’t true, that the zombies in the house are actors, and that the blood is fake. Some have argued that seeing a horror movie is cathartic in the way that we are able to live out or experience anxieties about these situations that are otherwise impossible.

Perhaps reading and experiencing these stories can teach us to face a dangerous world. While many of these stories are clearly fantastical, some stories maye have had roots in reality. Campfire stories told for generations may have begun as a way to teach us about scary things, and how to avoid them.

Horror can also be an attempt to rationalize and understand what is unknown. Humans have long since feared the unknown and unknowable, likely for its potential to harbour danger. Horror however often seeks to give explanation and reason to mysterious disappearances, placing the responsibility on the shoulders of a monster, in effect, horror provides an answer. But horror too asks questions, leaving us wondering about how the monsters are able to rise from the dead, keeping our curiosity hungry and coming back for more.