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Best Essays and Books About Horror Movies

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What Went Wrong With Jack Reacher: Never Go Back?

Big brother is getting exciting again and it has nothing to do with angela, which characters are returning for beetlejuice 2.

You’ve probably wondered about the inspiration behind your favorite scary movies and the background of some of those horrifying stories. Sometimes the origins of a horror movie are as simple as an author telling a scary story, and at other times films are based on more sinister, true events . You might also be interested in the making of certain horror movies or the impact they have on the audience or the cast. Maybe you're into film theory and want to study the gender dynamics, cultural and political significance, and philosophy of horror, like in Carol Clover's seminal book Men, Women, and Chainsaws . Luckily, there are plenty of resources that explore these exact topics and the development of horror movies in general.

You might be interested in why people are attracted to horror movies and the act of feeling fear. In which case, you might want to read Stephen King’s essay Why We Crave Horror Movies . Digging even deeper, you might notice horror films can help us examine fears around eating, sexuality, religion, and more. You might even wonder about the characters that often die first and why, which is explained by Lindsay King-Miller in her essay A Love Letter to the Girls Who Die First in Horror Movies . Whatever it may be, in addition to the aforementioned texts, here are the best essays and books about horror movies.

Monsters in the Movies: 100 Years of Cinematic Nightmares

Director John Landis ( American Werewolf in London, Twilight Zone: The Movie ) wrote a book on movie monsters covers some of cinema’s most terrifying creatures and their development. Landis explores the design of movie monsters and special effects, both in high and low-budget films. Monsters in the Movies includes interviews with the minds behind the monsters, their historical origins, and tricks behind bringing these ghouls to life.

Nothing Has Prepared Me for Womanhood Better than Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2

Sarah Kurchak’s essay examines a subject people might not consider in horror movies. The truth is that many scary films express beliefs about women and their experiences via horror and gore. Kurchak dissects how Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 features female stereotypes in hot pants but also explores women facing the threats of men and emerging from adolescence completely altered. Kurchak argues that this horror comedy can teach female viewers about what to expect from the world and adolescence.

Stephen King At the Movies: A Complete History of Film and Television Adaptations from the Master of Horror

The chilling stories of author Stephen King have made both startling reads and frightening films. King’s works have established more than 60 horror movies and 30 television series. This book covers the making of all of them, including behind-the-scenes material and King’s opinion on some adaptations. If you’re looking to dive deeper into some iconic films based on King’s stories , consider picking up Stephen King at the Movies .

There’s Nothing Scarier than a Hungry Woman

Remember how we said that horror movies can contain messages that don’t appear obvious on the surface? Laura Maw notices how in many horror movies there is always a scene of a ravenous woman eating, and her fascinating essay considers the meaning behind that.

Related: Best Performances in Horror Films of All Time, Ranked

Maw writes that “horror invites us to sit with this disgust, this anxiety, and to acknowledge our appetite and refuse to suppress it.” Maw presents a feminist analysis of hungry women in well-known horror movies in a way which both explores and challenges preconceptions about women.

Behind the Horror: True Stories that Inspired Horror Movies

Dr. Lee Miller’s research into the origin stories of movies like The Exorcist and A Nightmare on Elm Street are compiled in this handy book. Miller details the true accounts of disappearances, murders, and hauntings that inspired these hit movies.

Behind the Horror explains the history of the serial killers featured in Silence of the Lambs and takes a good look at the possessions that motivated the making of The Exorcist and The Conjuring 2 .

My Favorite Horror Movie: 48 Essays by Horror Creators on the Film that Shaped Them

Arguably one of the best books to read if you are curious about the makers behind famous horror movies. My Favorite Horror Movie features over 20 essays from filmmakers, actors, set designers, musicians, and more about the dark works that solidified their careers.

The films discussed include It , Halloween , The Shining , and others. It’s a good book for looking at horror movies from different angles and recognizing the many minds that contributed to these iconic works.

The Art of Horror: An Illustrated History

Yet another great book for establishing a rounded perspective of horror movies, this time in a much more visual way. The Art of Horror sorts through famous illustrations, movie posters, cover art, comics, paintings, photos, and filmmakers since the beginning of horror with Bram Stoker’s Dracula and Mary Shelley’s infamous Frankenstein . Learn about these talented artists, their chilling work, and their impact on the direction of horror.

Wes Craven: Interviews

If you’re trying to hear from the best horror directors themselves, the Wes Craven interviews are a great place to start. Craven is responsible for films like Scream , The Hills Have Eyes , A Nightmare on Elm Street , and The Last House on the Left , and is often considered one of the greatest horror filmmakers of all time.

Related: The Best Scream Queens of All Time, Ranked

Craven established a particular style in his films that changed the way horror movies are made, and this book pulls information from the master himself. Wes Craven: Interviews includes almost 30 interviews with the director ranging from the 1980s until Craven passed away in 2015.

101 Horror Movies You Should See Before You Die

Ever wonder if you’re missing a great horror film from your spooky collection? This is the book for you. 101 Horror Movies You Should See Before You Die covers the absolute essentials of every kind of horror film, from gothic to slasher and international horror classics as well. Horror can take on so many different forms and this book is one of the best for finding horror films you might have missed.

The Science of Women in Horror: The Special Effects Stunts, and Stories Behind Your Every Fright

Authors Meg Hafdahl and Kelly Florence examine women in horror movies in this book that explores feminist horror films , and more misogynistic ones from the standpoint of feminist film theory. The Science of Women in Horror recalls the history of women in horror movies and goes on to analyze more recent, women-centered horror flicks and series such as The Haunting of Hill House and Buffy the Vampire Slayer . If you want to know more about the women on and off-screen in horror movies, check out this book!

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Why Do We Enjoy Horror Movies?

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• Explanations
• Personal Differences
• Therapeutic Effects

Horror is one of the most enduringly popular film genres in many areas around the world. While many people willingly buy tickets to the latest release, in our daily lives we often try to avoid anything that frightens us. So why would we pay to watch a movie that induces fear and terror ?

Here we explore several of the theories behind why people like horror movies. We also dive into who tends to gravitate toward movies designed to provoke feelings of fright, along with the ways in which these types of films can actually be therapeutic.

Reasons People Like Horror Movies

No single explanation provided by scholars accounts for every reason people enjoy watching horror movies. Below are among the most well-established explanations offered to explain this phenomenon.

Vicarious Experiences and Threat Mastery

Horror scholar Mathias Clasen suggests that a tendency to love horror can be traced back to the constant danger our ancient ancestors experienced in the environments where they lived. Constant vigilance was required to avoid becoming the prey of a larger or more deadly animal.

These long-ago experiences have granted people a highly responsive, albeit mostly unconscious, threat detection system. Because horror movies do such a good job of simulating threatening situations, this means our emotional responses to them are similar to those we'd experience if we encountered a real-life threat.

Because we don't encounter real-life threats as often as ancient humans, going to horror films can be a novel experience that lets us put our innate threat detection system to use. This not only makes horror movies more attention-grabbing for audiences, but it also allows them to experience things like post-apocalypse, alien invasions, and the threat of an attacker in a safe environment.

In short, horror movies are a risk-free way to vicariously experience threats and rehearse one's responses to those threats. Plus, after people get through a horror movie unscathed, they may feel a sense of accomplishment and mastery over the threat they've experienced, which then leads them to feel more confident in their ability to handle other anxiety-provoking situations .

In our everyday lives, we don't encounter scary situations all that often. But if we do encounter something threatening or dangerous, it attracts our attention.

Excitation Transfer Theory

One of the earliest psychological theories to explain people's enjoyment of horror movies is Dolf Zillmann's excitation transfer theory, which was developed in the 1970s. This theory proposes that our enjoyment is created by the negative affect created by the film followed by a positive affect or response when the threat is resolved, leading to a euphoric high.

More recent studies suggest that excitation transfer theory is still alive. One was published in 2017 and looked at permadeath (the idea that once a character dies in a video game, the game starts over from the beginning) in the survival-horror game DayZ. It concluded that permadeath was appealing to players due to excitation transfer.

Exploring the Dark Side of Humanity

Other studies theorize that our enjoyment of horror movies comes from a morbid curiosity about subjects like death and terror, also referred to as the dark side of humanity. One piece of research found that people with higher levels of morbid curiosity are more likely to watch horror films, less likely to be scared after watching them, and generally watch these flicks alone.

According to this theory, horror movies let us vicariously explore the nature of evil , both in others and in ourselves. They also allow us to grapple with the darkest parts of humanity in a safe environment.

Who Likes Horror Movies?

Not everyone enjoys horror movies. In fact, there are many who stay away from the genre as much as possible. Psychology has provided some insight into the individual differences that make someone more likely to enjoy horror films.

People Who Seek Sensations

Numerous studies have demonstrated that those high in the trait of sensation seeking tend to enjoy horror. Sensation seeking is the tendency to look for novel, risky, or intense experiences . People high in this trait tend to experience positive emotions when they have intensely stimulating experiences, even if those experiences are negative.

High sensation seekers are wired to enjoy the stimulating experience of horror films in a way people low in this trait are not.

People With Lower Empathy Levels

Research indicates that people lower in the trait of empathy tend to enjoy horror movies because they are less impacted by the suffering depicted onscreen. Not everyone agrees with this, however.

Some researchers contend that our empathy toward a real person is not necessarily the same as the empathy we feel for a fictional character. The problem is that this is difficult to determine in studies, making it hard to know if and when true empathy occurs.

People Belonging to the Male Sex

More than any other individual difference, sex is most predictive of enjoyment of horror films, with males tending to enjoy scary and violent movies far more than females. This difference can be at least partially explained by the fact that females tend to experience greater fear and anxiety than males.

In addition, females tend to be higher than males in the trait of disgust sensitivity. This could lead them to dislike horror movies that depict blood and gore.

Horror Movies as Therapy

There's a growing body of research that suggests horror movies could be used in clinical settings to help people with anxiety or trauma. For instance, one study found that people who watched horror movies were less psychologically distressed by the COVID-19 pandemic, and those who were fans of the apocalyptic subgenre of horror felt more prepared for additional waves of the pandemic.

This suggests that people who consume horror develop the ability to cope with stressful and anxiety-provoking situations.

If this is the case, watching horror movies and other media could be used by mental health professionals to help people with anxiety develop emotional and behavioral strategies to cope with their fears, which could ultimately make them more resilient in general.

While people who don't enjoy horror may not find this beneficial, for those who like the genre, watching horror movies could be akin to exposure therapy . More research needs to be conducted to determine if this approach is effective and, if so, in what instances.

American Film Market. The relative popularity of genres around the world .

Clasen M. Why horror seduces .

Clasen M, Kjeldgaard-Christiansen J, Johnson JA. Horror, personality, and threat simulation: A survey on the psychology of scary media .  Evol Behav Sci . 2020;14(3):213-230. doi:10.1037/ebs0000152

Scrivner C, Johnson JA, Kjeldgaard-Christiansen J, Clasen M. Pandemic practice: Horror fans and morbidly curious individuals are more psychologically resilient during the COVID-19 pandemic .  Pers Individ Dif . 2021;168:110397. doi:10.1016/j.paid.2020.110397

Martin GN. (Why) do you like scary movies? A review of the empirical research on psychological responses to horror films .  Front Psychol . 2019;10:2298. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2019.02298

Carter M, Allison F. Fear, loss and meaningful play: Permadeath in DayZ . J Gaming Virtual Worlds . 2017;9(2):143-158. doi:10.1386/jgvw.9.2.143_1

Sanders A. Exploring the dark side of humanity: Motivations of morbidly curious individuals . Murray State University.

Yang H, Zhang K. The psychology behind why we love (or hate) horror . Harvard Business Review.

Petraschka T. How empathy with fictional characters differs from empathy with real persons . J Aesthet Art Criticism . 2021;79(2):227-232. doi:10.1093/jaac/kpab017

Al-Shawaf L, Lewis D, Buss D. Sex differences in disgust: Why are women more easily disgusted than men? Emotion Rev . 2017;10(2):149-160. doi:10.1177/1754073917709940

Scrivner C, Christensen K. Scaring away anxiety: Therapeutic avenues for horror fiction to enhance treatment for anxiety symptoms .  PsyArXiv . 2021. doi:10.31234/osf.io/7uh6f

By Cynthia Vinney, PhD Cynthia Vinney, PhD is an expert in media psychology and a published scholar whose work has been published in peer-reviewed psychology journals.

Our Favorite Essays and Stories About Horror Films

Reading Lists

Make tonight's evil dead marathon more literary with our best writing about the genre.

It’s the spookiest day of the spookiest season, but you already had your party last weekend, and now you have to stay home and either hand out candy to grabby children or turn out all lights visible from the street and pretend you’re not home. What makes a night in both fun and seasonally appropriate? Horror movies, of course! So while you’re waiting for, or hiding from, trick-or-treaters tonight, put on a Nightmare on Elm Street marathon and make your way through some of the best stuff we’ve published about scary films.

“ There’s Nothing Scarier Than a Hungry Woman ” by Laura Maw

Maybe you haven’t noticed this, but horror movies contain a lot of scenes of women eating—and not only eating, but eating voraciously. Laura Maw has noticed, and she thinks she understands. This essay is both a sensitive cultural analysis of a horror movie trope and a beautiful personal narrative of coming to terms with both the threat and the banality of hunger.

As a woman, to say that you have found eating uncomfortable at times is not particularly groundbreaking. The anxiety has become mundane because it is so common for women, but isn’t that in itself noteworthy? Horror invites us to sit with this disgust, this anxiety, to acknowledge our appetite, to refuse to let us suppress it. There is something uncomfortable and enthralling about watching a woman devour what she likes with intent.

“ Horror Lives in the Body ” by Meg Pillow Davis

This Best American Essays notable is about the physical experience of horror—both horror films, and the familiar horrors we encounter in our normal lives, the ways we brush up against mortality and violation and fear. Why do we seek out this physical experience—”the pupil dilation, the quickening heart, the sweat forming on your upper lip and the surface of your palms, and the nearly overwhelming urge to cover your eyes or run from the room”?

If those other viewers are anything like me, they watch horror movies because they recognize the horror, because its familiarity is strange and terrifying and unavoidable. It is the lure of the uncanny filtering into the cracks and crevices of the cinematic landscape and drawing us in.

“ What ‘Halloween’ Taught Me About Queerness ” by Richard Scott Larson

Michael Myers wears a mask to hide his face while he kills—but is that the only mask he wears? Richard Scott Larson talks about watching Halloween obsessively as an adolescent, while he was starting to understand that his own desires were also considered monstrous.

The experience of adolescence as a closeted queer boy is one of constantly attempting to imitate the expression of a desire that you do not feel. Identification with a bogeyman, then, shouldn’t be so surprising when you imagine the bogeyman as unfit for society, his true nature having been rejected and deemed horrific.

“ If My Mother Was the Final Girl ” by Michelle Ross

The “final girl” is the one who’s left standing at the end of the film, the one who survives the carnage. But what do you call someone who’s still standing after childhood trauma? This short story is about horror films, but more than that, it’s about mother-daughter relationships—a deeper and more mundane form of horror than the kind in slasher flicks.

The one thing my mother and I share is a love for slasher films. When the first girl gets hacked up or sawed in half or stabbed in the breast, my mother says, “Now there’s real life for you.” And I glance at her sideways and think, you can say that again.

“ A Love Letter to the Girls Who Die First in Horror Films ” by Lindsay King-Miller

Unlike the “final girl,” the girl who dies first doesn’t have a catchy title. Lindsay King-Miller writes about the lost friend who taught her that we don’t all have it in us to be a final girl—and that we should celebrate the girl who dies first, because she’s not living in fear.

To survive a horror story you have to realize you’re in one. The girl who dies thinks she’s in a different kind of story, one that’s about her and what she wants: to dance, to party, to fuck, to feel good. She thinks she is the subject of this story, the one who watches, desires, sees, the one who acts upon the world. She does not feel the eyes on her, does not know she is being observed, that her fate is not to reshape the world but to be reshaped by it.

“ Nothing Has Prepared Me For The Reality of Womanhood Better Than ‘Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2’ ” by Sarah Kurchak

Yes, Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 is a cheesy horror-comedy hybrid in which women are menaced and their bodies are treated as set dressing. But so is adolescence. Sarah Kurchak writes about the many ways in which this movie taught her what to expect from the world.

Sure, this was, on many levels, a schlocky B-movie with so many of the expected hallmarks of the time — women in hot pants and peril, over-the-top gore. But it was a schlocky B-movie in which a woman faced men’s threats, both implicit and explicit, and was left breathing but almost unrecognizable at the end of it. That felt familiar.

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Why We Crave Horror Movies

27 pages • 54 minutes read

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Analysis: “Why We Crave Horror Movies”

The essay “Why We Crave Horror Movies” interweaves point of view , structure, and tone to address the foundational themes of fear, emotions, and “insanity” in relation to horror movies. It examines why horror films allow the expression of fearful emotions linked to irrationality. The essay integrates literary techniques and pop culture references to form a cohesive whole, and it highlights several key themes: Good Versus Bad Emotions , The Expression of Fear Through Horror Movies , and “Insanity” and Normality in Society and Horror Film .

King argues that fear and other negative emotions are universal and that horror movies are a key art form for expressing these emotions. The essay gives audiences permission to experience and enjoy these films as a vehicle for fears.

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Good & Evil

Why We Enjoy Horror Films Essay

• To find inspiration for your paper and overcome writer’s block
• As a source of information (ensure proper referencing)
• As a template for you assignment

Horror movie critics have asserted that there is a growing tendency in making much more violent and bloody movies. At a glance, it is difficult to understand why people pay money for the ticket to watch the most horrible, thrilling, and creepy scenes at the cinema. However, deeper examination explores much more sophisticated reasons for the public’s immense interest in horror movies.

King’s statement that horror movies “have a dirty job to do” (3) can be reinterpreted to stress that contemporary production or horror films premises on people’s desire to distract themselves from the monotonous routines and realities of grim daily activities by depicting ugliness and fear.

While deliberating on the essence and purpose of horror movies, Kinds notes, “[horror film] urges us to put away our more civilized and adult penchant for analysis and to become children again, seeing things in pure blacks and whites” (2). Therefore, most individuals interested in this genre search for psychic relief because most of such pictures are premised on the simple, primitive representation of the evil and the good.

Also, the illustration of unreasonableness and outright madness is rarely observed in real life. Even though such emotions as love, compassion, sympathy, kindness, or commitment are celebrated in society, the depiction of the opposite emotions in horror movie can only enhance individual’s awareness of the significance of these aspects. Society is too bored with constant practicing of politeness and attentiveness, love and friendships.

Under these circumstances, horror movies demonstrate what could happen in case social sanity will be distorted. Human perception of insanity is relative because its normality is usually accepted by the majority. Existence of social norms allows us to be distinct between the action that makes sense and unreasonable and irrational actions.

All these dilemmas could be solved as soon as people start watching thrillers and horror films. At this point, King emphasizes, “it is morbidity unchained, our most base instincts let free, our nastiest fantasies realized…and it all happens, fittingly enough in the dark” (3). In this context, supporters of just and good lifestyle will not be able to adhere to the concepts as soon as they realize the main purpose of horror movies, as well as the techniques directors, employ to achieve this purpose.

Modern horror movies often depict monsters, psycho, or zombies chasing their victims. The viewers realize what is going on, and they often strive to help the hero to escape death. While using these techniques, horror movie directors emphasize the helplessness of a person in front of the danger, which makes all people be frightened.

The feeling of unexpected capture makes people attend such pictures frequently because they lack such emotions in life. In such a way, they also entertain themselves and even have fun when watching creepy scenes. In conclusion, the admirers of horror movie genre attend such pictures to grasp the main attributes of a new reality in which irrationality and simplicity provide them with new emotions and experiences that are impossible to perceive in real life.

By employing unexpected appearance, depicting ugliness and monsters, and revealing the scene of violence, the directors expect to frighten people who are in search of new impressions and risky situations. Although modern movies have become more bloody, the idea of this genre remains unchanged to approve such emotions as love, compassion, and kindness.

Works Cited

King, Stephen. “ Why We Crave Horror Movies ”. Web.

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1. IvyPanda . "Why We Enjoy Horror Films." March 11, 2020. https://ivypanda.com/essays/horror-movies-art/.

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REVIEW article

(why) do you like scary movies a review of the empirical research on psychological responses to horror films.

• Faculty of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences, School of Psychotherapy and Psychology, Regent’s University London, London, United Kingdom

Why do we watch and like horror films? Despite a century of horror film making and entertainment, little research has examined the human motivation to watch fictional horror and how horror film influences individuals’ behavioral, cognitive, and emotional responses. This review provides the first synthesis of the empirical literature on the psychology of horror film using multi-disciplinary research from psychology, psychotherapy, communication studies, development studies, clinical psychology, and media studies. The paper considers the motivations for people’s decision to watch horror, why people enjoy horror, how individual differences influence responses to, and preference for, horror film, how exposure to horror film changes behavior, how horror film is designed to achieve its effects, why we fear and why we fear specific classes of stimuli, and how liking for horror develops during childhood and adolescence. The literature suggests that (1) low empathy and fearfulness are associated with more enjoyment and desire to watch horror film but that specific dimensions of empathy are better predictors of people’s responses than are others; (2) there is a positive relationship between sensation-seeking and horror enjoyment/preference, but this relationship is not consistent; (3) men and boys prefer to watch, enjoy, and seek our horror more than do women and girls; (4) women are more prone to disgust sensitivity or anxiety than are men, and this may mediate the sex difference in the enjoyment of horror; (5) younger children are afraid of symbolic stimuli, whereas older children become afraid of concrete or realistic stimuli; and (6) in terms of coping with horror, physical coping strategies are more successful in younger children; priming with information about the feared object reduces fear and increases children’s enjoyment of frightening television and film. A number of limitations in the literature is identified, including the multifarious range of horror stimuli used in studies, disparities in methods, small sample sizes, and a lack of research on cross-cultural differences and similarities. Ideas for future research are explored.

Horror: An Introduction

“It seems an unaccountable pleasure which the spectators of a well-written tragedy receive from sorrow, terror, anxiety and other passions, that are in themselves disagreeable and uneasy” ( Hume, 1907 ).

Why do people watch, and enjoy watching, horror films, and why is this an important or useful question to ask? The primary aims of the horror film are to frighten, shock, horrify, and disgust using a variety of visual and auditory leitmotifs and devices including reference to the supernatural, the abnormal, to mutilation, blood, gore, the infliction of pain, death, deformity, putrefaction, darkness, invasion, mutation, extreme instability, and the unknown ( Cherry, 2009 ; Newman, 2011 ). It is the emphasis on these characteristics that tend to distinguish horror from the related genre of thriller or psychological thriller ( Hanich, 2011 ). Thrillers are designed to create suspense and terror, but the creation of these feelings is dependent not on the presence of mutilation, gore, or the supernatural but via more human devices. These boundaries, however, can be fuzzy. If these features are utilized in thrillers, they are not the principal focus of the film but are incidental to it (an example would be the ear-cutting scene in Reservoir Dogs, which is bloody and brutal but is contained within a film, which has a non-horror theme). Together with Westerns, science fiction, comedy, musicals, documentaries, and other film genres, which are characterized by particular tropes, styles, themes, characters, and visual leitmotifs, horror sets itself apart from other film types via its distinctive characteristics.

Although commercially successful, the cinematic reputation of horror film has been less than stellar. It has been frequently regarded (if it is regarded at all) as the runt of the cinema family and held in lower esteem than other film categories ( Stone, 2016 ). Etchison (2011) observed that “The horror film occupies in popular culture roughly comparable to that of horror literature. That is to say, it is generally ignored, sometimes acknowledged with bemused tolerance, and viewed with alarm when it irritates authority - rather like a child too spirited to follow the rules that rendition has deemed acceptable” (p. ix), a view that is echoed elsewhere. For example, Tudor (1997) noted that “a taste of horror is a taste for something seemingly abnormal and is therefore deemed to require special attention” (p. 446). Part of the reason for the disdain, apart from the broad and base nature of the content, may be the relative cheapness of horror film: these are often much less expensive to create than are other genre films such as westerns, comedies, or science fiction. The first horror film can probably be dated to 1855/1856. The Lumiere Brothers’ L’arrive d’un train en gare de la Ciotat depicts the arrival of a train into a station, the appearance of which, if anecdotal although possibly apocryphal accounts are to be believed, resulted in the audience becoming consumed with a fear that the train would emerge from the screen, such was the novelty of such a depiction at the time.

In terms of industry regard, the reputation of horror has not been high. The American Academy of Motion Picture Arts, which awards the Oscars, has nominated only six horror/supernatural films for Best Picture, and only one has won the Award ( The Silence of The Lambs in 1992, which also won the award for Best Actress, Actor, and Director). Other horror films to have been nominated include The Exorcist (1973), Jaws (1975), The 6th Sense (1999), Black Swan (2010), and Get Out (2017). The latter also nominated for best comedy/musical at the Golden Globes and was winner of the Oscar for Best Screenplay. Industry recognition for horror film has tended to be reserved for technical achievements; hence, the Oscars awarded for best art direction and cinematography for Phantom Of The Opera (1943), best score for The Omen (1976), best visual effects for Alien (1979), and best-make up for An American Werewolf In London (1981) and The Fly (1986). The number of actors to have won an Oscar nomination for horror roles is low – Frederic March ( Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde , 1931), Ruth Gordon ( Rosemary’s Baby, 1968), Kathy Bates ( Misery , 1990), Natalie Portman ( Black Swan , 2010), and Hopkins are exceptions.

Despite the relative lack of formal industry recognition and professional respect, horror thrives. In 2017, the second cinema adaptation of the Stephen King novel IT (2017) generated $700.4 m in global ticket sales, making this the most financially successful horror film of all time based on recorded box office sales (its production budget was $35 m). The success led to a sequel released in 2019 ( IT: Chapter 2 ), which has achieved global ticket sales of $185 m in its first week of release. In 1989, two horror films had grossed over $38 m ( The Fly II and The Abyss , earning $38.9 and $89.8 m, respectively). In 2017, this number was 15, with IT leading and occupying 13th place in box office revenue. The Mummy occupied 23rd position, Resident Evil: Final Chapter the 30th position, Annabelle: Creation the 32rd, and Get Out the 37th ($255 m). Nine horror films earned more than $100 m in 2017. These numbers illustrate how successful and popular the horror film has become and that viewers’ appetite for it is rapacious.

This commercial enthusiasm exists against a backdrop of considerable fan enthusiasm for the genre, as evidenced by the number of major, significant genre-specific international film festivals which exist. These include the UK’s three Frightfest events, the Sitges International Fantastic Film Festival in Catalonia, Toronto’s After Dark Film Festival, Screamfest and Fantasticfest in the USA, the Brussels International Fantastic Film Festival, Australia’s A Night of Horror International Film Festival, Amsterdam’s Imagine Festival, Argentina’s Rojo Sangre, Italy’s Ravena Nightmare Film Festival, Wales’s Abertoir, and several others. A number of print magazines devoted to horror is available (such as Rue Morgue, Diabolique, Scream , and The Dark Side ) as are various horror websites, online film streaming services (such as Shudder and Screambox ), and specialist satellite/Freeview TV channels such as The Horror Channel and SyFy . The TV company AMC airs and produces original horror content (and created Shudder ), and an Asian-based pay-TV horror channel is available called Thrill . Given the popularity of horror film, a useful question to explore is why people are attracted to this genre of film, given its distinctive nature, and why people are attracted to horror in the first instance, a question addressed in this review.

Historically, horror has formed a significant part of “Western” literary tradition since the Babylonian Gilgamesh and the English Beowulf . The Gothic tradition, a period that covers 1,760–1,820 features fiction in which the omphalos is their archaic themes, haunted castles, stylized period settings, a supernatural element in the story telling, suspense, and chaos ( Punter, 2014 ). Examples include Walpole’s The Castle of Otranto , Radcliffe’s Mysteries of Udolpho, and The Italian and Lewis’ The Monk, among others. Although modern horror clearly has its roots and traditions in Gothic horror (and castles, spirits, and ghosts are well-documented tropes of horror films), very little modern horror film has been directly inspired by, nor has adapted, these works. Victorian literature has exerted a much greater and direct influence, as evidenced by the re-imaginings and remakes of films based on literary characters from this period, such as Dracula, Frankenstein (doctor and creation), Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, the Hunchback of Notre Dame, the Phantom of the Opera, Dr. Moreau, Dorian Gray, the monsters and protagonists in Grimm’s Fairy Tales, and the trolls of Nordic literature. These figures have been interpreted and re-interpreted throughout the twentieth and twenty-first centuries in different fictionalized forms – in theater, drama, radio, television, short stories, novels, and, especially, film.

Given the longevity of horror as a genre and its history in cinema, what is it that draws people to this particular genre and how does the genre create the psychological effects that it does? The study of individuals’ response to horror can be illuminating for several reasons. It may help us understand why people are attracted to a very commercially successful genre of film making but one which is seen as very distinctive and highly specialized. It may also help us to explain why some material that is perceived as being unpleasant and disgusting is appealing to some people more than it is to others. The study of horror film may also help us understand how emotions are generated and processed and may help us understand elements of fear (and the attraction of fear).

The current paper sets out to review the literature regarding the appeal of horror and why and how horror cinema exerts the effects that it does. Specifically, it will consider whether there are personality types or other individual differences associated with preference for, and enjoyment of, horror films; whether sex differences exist in the preference for, and enjoyment of, horror film; how fear of horror film develops and how coping strategies are recruited to manage the fear elicited by horror; the psychological and emotional consequences of watching horror and whether watching horror is associated with any adverse, short-term, or long-term psychological consequences; the behavioral responses reliably elicited by exposure to horror film; and the use of auditory stimulation to manipulate our response to horror. A number of texts exists that have discussed and addressed various aspects of horror and horror film, including the cinematic portrayal of the “mad scientist” ( Tudor, 1989 ; Frayling, 2013 ), the esthetics of horror film ( Sipos, 2010 ), the philosophy of horror ( Carroll, 2003 ), the process of horror fiction writing ( King, 2010 ), the use of sound and music in horror ( Hayward, 2009 ), and the marketing of horror films ( Hantke, 2004 ), among others. To the author’s knowledge, this is the first attempt to assimilate the psychology and related literature in a comprehensive review of our understanding of the enjoyment of horror film, the motivation to watch horror film and the effects of watching horror film. This review was based on keyword searches made via Google Scholar and PsycInfo between 2018 and August 2019 and included combinations of the words and terms “horror,” “terror,” “film,” “movie,” “cinema,” “fear,” “thriller,” “slasher,” “fright,” “gore,” “anxiety,” “the unknown,” “the uncanny,” “Gothic,” “blood,” “guts,” “scream/screaming,” “shudder,” shivering,” “trauma,” and “disgust/disgusting.” Material was also sourced from the reference sections of the papers obtained and of books where the topic was horror. The review begins with a definition of horror.

What is “Horror”?

The word “horror” derives from the Greek phryke (meaning “shudder”) and describes the physical manifestations of shivering, shuddering, and piloerection. In the fourth stasimon of Sophocles’ Oedipus Tyrannus , the chorus says after the protagonist blinds himself: “Alas, poor man, I cannot ever look at you … such is the shiver (phryke) you cause in me” ( Cairns, 2015 ). An exact and precise modern definition of horror, however, is difficult to determine. Horror has been defined as a “spontaneous response to shocking visual stimulus” (Ceirus, 2015) and as “a compound of terror and revulsion” ( Kawin, 2012 ). In Kawin’s interpretation, “imagined horror provides entry to the made-up world where fears are heightened but can be mastered … it accesses a core of fears we may share as humans, such as the fear of being attacked in the dark … it provides a way to conceptualize, give shape to and deal with the evil and frightening.” Horror, Stone (2016) argues, “confronts us with the disgusting and the fascinating simultaneously,” two aspects of horror returned to later. Horror, according to Marriott (2012) , is “the madwoman in the attic.”

One view of horror considers it to be of two types: horror, which is genuine and is designed to make us afraid because it is advantageous to our survival (e.g., fear arising from attack and being motivated to fight or flee), and “art horror,” which describes the imagined horror found in horror films ( Carroll, 1987 ). Carroll also argues that “horror novels, stories, films, plays and so on are marked by the presence of monsters of either a supernatural or sci-fi origin” (p. 52). In Carroll’s definition, it is the presence of a monster, which defines the essence of a horror film, as monsters do not exist within our conventional realm of understanding or reason; they defy science; they should not exist. Carroll views films that are typically classed as horror (e.g., Psycho ) to be of a different type (tales of terror) because “though eerie and scary, [they] achieve their hair-raising effect by explaining extreme psychological phenomena that are all too human.” This definition, of course, would exclude a significant number of obviously horrific horror films such as The Silence of the Lambs , Henry – Portrait of A Serial Killer , the Saw and Hostel franchises and other exemplars of the “torture porn” horror sub-genre and the cannibal films of the 1970s (e.g., Cannibal Holocaust and Cannibal Ferox ). The view has also been challenged ( Gaut, 1993 ). “Slasher” movies, for example, are clearly horror films but do not necessarily contain monsters as described by Carroll (although some, such as Freddie Kruger, Jason Voorhees, and Michael Myers, possess supernatural elements, and Freddie Kruger is an oneiric fiction). Also, Chewbacca and The Force defy the conventions of science, but Star Wars would not be classed a horror film.

Horror invariably includes an element of evil, channeled via a human, a creature, or a supernatural force, which has the power to change events causing disruption and instability and which must be challenged and defeated ( Kjeldgaard-Christiansen, 2016 ). If this force is not human or supernatural (ghostly, spectral), it is natural – plants, monkeys, ants, leeches, sharks, birds, dogs, bats, rats, bees, fish, earthworms, alligators, spiders, snakes, cockroaches, and dinosaurs have all been employed to create chaos and instability in horror films. Freud (1919/2003) referred to horror as the uncanny (a peculiar translation of “unheimlich, meaning “unhomely”): “the name for everything that ought to have remained secret and hidden but has come to light.” Horror films also invariably present a Manichean view of the world, where good battles evil (as is literally the case in films such as Dracula, The Exorcist, and The Omen ). There is a driving motivation to overcome “a pure and unmotivated desire to inflict suffering” ( Clasen, 2014 ). But horror film, despite the features that the genre shares, is not a unitary cinematic phenomenon and distinct sub-genres or branches exist which are characterized by similar features or styles of film making and storytelling. Often, these are post hoc classifications of films, which seem to share core features, and the classification can seem like an exercise in pattern recognition. There are films, which do not easily lend themselves to these classifications (and some may straddle boundaries). However, the most common and typical sub genres include gothic, supernatural/occult/parananormal, psychological horror, monster movies, slasher films, body horror/horror typified by extreme gore, exploitation cinema ( Cherry, 2009 ), and found-footage, which have a very specific technical film-making approach and its own identifiable tropes bequeathed from such films as Cannibal Holocaust (1980) but more demonstrably from The Blair Witch Project (1999).

Horror film is the only fictional genre, which is specifically created to elicit fear consistently and deliberately rather than sporadically or incidentally. Behaviorally, horror film can create shivering, closing of the eyes, startle, shielding of the eyes, trembling, paralysis, piloerection, withdrawal, heaving, and screaming ( Harris et al., 2000 ). It can produce changes in psychophysiology, specifically increasing heart rate and galvanic skin response (see below). Mentally, it can create anxiety, fear, empathy, and thoughts of disgust ( Cantor, 2004 ). One of the earliest empirical studies to examine the effect of watching horror or suspenseful cinema on behavior asked participants to watch three programs, which varied in suspense (high and low) and in outcome – where the film had a resolved ending or an unresolved ending ( Zillmann et al., 1975 ). The suspenseful programs with the resolved endings were better appreciated than were those with unresolved endings. However, similar – but smaller – results were also found for the unresolved endings (i.e., appreciation levels were high if the program was suspenseful). Cantor (2004) asked students to write about their experiences of horror films and analyzed 3 years’ worth of the students’ papers (530 in total). Approximately 46% of the sample reported experiencing sleep disturbances after the event and 75% reported having experienced anxiety. The four most frequently cited causes of frightening experiences were the films, Poltergeist (5.5%), Jaws (4.3%), Blair Witch Project (4.2%), and Scream (3.2%). There were some film-specific anxieties – respondents would express fear of swimming in lakes and oceans, uneasiness around clowns and televisions, and avoidance of camping and woods.

Behavioral change has also been examined experimentally. Hagenaars et al. (2014) , for example, asked 50 participants to watch neutral, pleasant, or unpleasant film clips while “standing on a stabilometric platform.” This device measures a person’s motoric behavior as participants engage in some exercise or task. They found that when participants watched unpleasant films, the participants would freeze, show reduced body sway, and heart rate deceleration. The reduced body sway was found early on in the viewing of the unpleasant material (1–2 s after stimulus onset) suggesting that the behavioral effects of watching horror are immediate. The study is one of the few, methodologically well-controlled studies of behavioral response to films designed to elicit strong emotions (pleasant or unpleasant) and demonstrated empirically how exposure to certain types of film affects physical behavior and, in this specific example, how certain types of film inhibit motor behavior.

People’s enjoyment of horror can also be affected by priming. Cantor et al. (1984) found that providing adults with information about the types of events they were about to see in four horror films increased the degree of fright and upset that the participants experienced. Neuendorf and Sparks (1988) extended Cantor et al.’s study by presenting 121 attendees of two horror films ( The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Night of the Living Dead ) at a US cinema with three levels of warning – the low warning involved the transmission of basic information such as the film’s name, the release date, and its R rating; the moderate warning involved all of the low information plus a description of the film’s content; the high warning included both of these plus a statement about a graphic scene in the film (e.g., a paraplegic being sawn in half by a saw-wielding maniac). If individuals reported being previously afraid of the specific types of content mentioned by the experimenters, these “cues” significantly predicted overall fear when prior experience of the film and anxiety was controlled for (fear was measured via questionnaire rather than behaviorally). There was no significant correlation between a trait known as sensation seeking (see below) and liking and enjoyment of either film. There was a correlation between prior experience and enjoyment for The Texas Chainsaw Massacre suggesting that viewers repeated their viewing because they enjoyed it the first time. Viewers’ anxiety level predicted the fright generated by Night of the Living Dead , as did fear cues. The greater the experienced anxiety and the fear cues, the greater the experienced fright. The availability of spoilers – the reveal of key scenes and plot points in a work of fiction in advance of viewing – appears to have little effect on the positive enjoyment of horror film or the experience of suspense ( Johnson et al., 2019 ).

Our behavioral reaction to horror tends to be consistent, although there is not much research that has explicitly investigated this response. The next section considers some of the reasons why people watch horror film and considers some of the dominant theories and models in interdisciplinary research that have been proposed to explain our enjoyment of horror film. It considers first some of the most salient ways in which horror film sets out to frighten viewers including sound.

Sound in Horror

In addition to the visual and verbal (dialogue) impact of horror, perhaps one of the most significant elements of horror film is auditory. To this end, some authors have argued that “horror is primarily a sound-based medium” ( Kawin, 2012 ): The creaking door, the scream, the shriek of an owl, the hiss of a cat, the squelching of a head as it meets a sledgehammer, the ringing of a phone, the bang of a falling object, and the crack of a branch in an otherwise quiet forest at night are all auditory devices deigned to make viewers and listeners afraid and to create suspense.

One of the most successful, and the most common, auditory tropes in horror is the use of a loud sound after a prolonged period of silence – the so-called “jump scare.” Often the sound is unconnected with what is on screen, but a loud noise might accompany a reveal, such as a face (an example from the genre would be a character opening a mirrored bathroom cupboard door, then closing to discover the reflection of another person standing behind them, with accompanying loud noise or musical note). A distinction is sometimes made between diegetic sound (which the characters can hear) and non-diegetic sounds (which is external to the characters, such as incidental music). Famous examples of the latter are the stabbing and screeching sound of Bernard Herrmann’s violins during the shower scene in Psycho, John Williams’s double bass that precedes the appearance of the shark in Jaws, John Carpenter’s “stings” and soundtrack in Halloween, and the foreboding chorus in The Omen. Carpenter has noted that when his film was screened without a soundtrack to a film executive “she wasn’t scared at all. I then became determined to ‘save it with music’” ( Hayward, 2009 ). The high strings and low bass of Psycho were influences on Carpenter and Dan Wyman’s score and its 4/5 signature leitmotif, as was the use of Mike Oldfield’s Tubular Bells from the opening of The Exorcist.

Some examples of diegetic sounds in horror film include the bangs and creaks caused by entities that are invisible to the actors on screen; one horror film that relies less on gore and blood and more on the potency of audition to increase suspense is The Blair Witch Project with its use of nocturnal wails, screams, and creaking branches. The use of sound to amplify horror can be identified in many early horror films – Ruben Mamoulian’s Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1931), for example, which includes the first use of the sound of a human heartbeat in film, is familiar for the creation of the “Mamoulian sound stew” of noise, and sound used to generate suspense and excitement in the film.

The second most common auditory influence in horror cinema is the use of music and soundtrack. Research suggests that different styles of music can affect the emotional perception of what is seen in film, regardless of the content ( Bullerjahn and Guldenring, 1994 ), and this accompaniment allows us to interpret what we see in the context of this music ( Gorbman, 1987 ). In horror film, music even has its own trope or leitmotif – the tritone or diabolus in musica (“the devil in music”) otherwise known as the Devil’s tritone ( Lerner, 2010 ) and can be heard in Beetlejuice, Hocus Pocus (1993), and The ‘Burbs (1989).

Some types of music are designed to be unpleasant, be perceived negatively, and to create tension, and there are many examples of this design in horror film, as discussed earlier. Discordant music has been associated with activity in different brain regions to those found when listening to harmonic or pleasant music; these regions include the right parahippocampal gyrus and precuneus and bilateral orbitofrontal cortex ( Blood et al., 1999 ) and may suggest that these regions are involved in mediating our auditory response to some aspects of horror film. Frightening music has been associated with changes in monoamine receptor activity in the caudate nucleus and right amygdala (decreases) and in the neocortex (increases) in 10 men ( Zhang et al., 2012 ). This study did not include a comparison film clip, however, so the conclusion that can be drawn from it is limited.

The most well-used auditory (and visual) device in horror film is the startle reflex (SR), and this tends to be provoked by the jump scare referred to earlier – the sound of a bump, a sudden burst of noise, some dialogue, or music ( Baird, 2000 ). The first known example of a startle effect in horror film is seen and heard in The Cat People (1942) when the sound of a bus door opening occurs just when the viewer is expecting an attack, but the film cuts to this noise and the shot of the door opening. A more recent example can be found in Fatal Attraction where a child’s scream and the whistling of the kettle in the reveal of the boiled rabbit overlap. In the same film, Glenn Close’s character’s resurrection in the bath provides another example of the jump scare that employs an auditory device.

Under laboratory conditions, a startle reflex (SR) is produced by delivering 50 ms of 95 db of white noise at unpredictable intervals, while eyeblink is measured. The stimulation is not always auditory and can be visual or tactile. The acoustic startle reflex describes an in involuntary eyeblink, measured at the orbicularis oculi muscle via EMG, in response to this noise. The startle reflex can be potentiated when individuals anticipate danger ( Grillon et al., 1993a , b ; Bublatzky et al., 2013 ; Bradley et al., 2018 ) and when pleasant stimuli signal threat ( via conditioning) ( Bradley et al., 2005 ). This is called affective modulation of the startle reflex, and the startle potentiation is thought to reflect a person’s emotional reactivity to threat. When people watch fear-related or violent films, the blink magnitude (SR) is larger than when people watch films with sexual content ( Jansen and Frijda, 1994 ), neutral content ( Koukounas and McCabe, 2001 ), or sad content ( Kreibig et al., 2011 ). The startle reflex is also greater when people watch unpleasant slides – and smallest when people watch pleasant slides ( Vrana et al., 1988 ) – and when people listen to unpleasant music ( Roy et al., 2009 ). Roy et al.’s study, however, includes a very small sample of 16 participants.

The SR is higher when people recall fear-related sentences than when recalling neutral sentences ( Vrana and Lang, 1990 ) and is higher when people are exposed to negative stimuli than positive or neutral stimuli ( Cook et al., 1991 ), and this is referred to fear-potentiated startle ( Grillon et al., 1993a , b ). Women’s SR tends to be higher than men’s when stimuli are disgusting ( Yartz and Hawk, 2002 ). Fear, however, is the stimulus that creates the greatest SR ( Bradley et al., 1999 ) and people with specific phobias show potentiated SR when phobia-related stimuli are viewed. Some studies find that a SR does not occur to some types of negative stimuli such as mutilation or surgery ( Stanley and Knight, 2004 ). The startle effect is a highly replicable behavioral phenomenon and can be reduced with the administration on anxiolytics and when lesions are made to the amygdala ( Hitchcock and Davis, 1986 ; Angrilli et al., 1996 ; Davis, 2006 ). It would be instructive to study whether those high and low in empathy or sensation seeking (see below) and whether individuals who like horror film and those who dislike horror film would generate different SRs.

Why do People Watch Horror?

Suspense and resolution of suspense are two important components of horror and our response to horror film. Suspense refers to the build up to threat, the tension created prior to the manifestation of threat, and the resolution/elimination of threat. It has been defined as “acute, fearful apprehension about deplorable events that threatens liked protagonists” and “an experience of uncertainty whose hedonic properties can vary from noxious to pleasant” ( Zillmann, 1996 , p. 108). The tension created during the feeling of suspense can arise from events, which signify conflict, dissonance, and instability ( Lehne and Koelsch, 2015 ). One theory of horror enjoyment, Zillmann’s (1980 , 1996) excitation transfer theory, argues that we derive our enjoyment of horror film from this feeling of suspense (this theory might also explain the enjoyment of non-horror film, which involves the invocation of suspense). When a threat is resolved, our negative affect converts to euphoria and suspense ends. The vital aspect of the theory is that enjoyment is derived from the degree of negative affect built up during exposure to the horror film and from the positive affect/reaction that results from the resolution of the threat. If the resolution does not occur, then residual negative affect will lead to increased dysphoria. If there is no suspense but a complete certainty about what will happen, suspense is replaced by dread ( Oliver, 1993a , b ). Very few studies have tested the theory, although limited reviews provide some support for the model ( Hoffner and Levine, 2005 ). Zillmann et al. (1975) showed children animated cartoons that varied in suspense and measured participants’ facial expressions, physiological arousal, and cognitive responses. They found that liking of the film increased as suspense increased. Liking was especially great when the threat was overcome, but the relationship between fear and liking was not examined in the study.

Individuals high in empathy will express more negative affect regardless of a successful resolution to the threat in the film ( Zillmann et al., 1986 ; Hoffner and Cantor, 1991 ; Sparks, 1991 ). Zillmann’s model has some difficulty accounting for the motivation to watch and for the enjoyment derived from horror films in which the sympathetic characters are (1) dispatched and (2) where the story does not end happily ( Hoffner and Levine, 2005 ). There is also evidence that enjoyment of horror may not be affected by the availability of resolution and that unresolved horror is perceived as just as enjoyable as resolved horror ( Hoffner and Cantor, 1991 ).

An alternative model to Zillmann’s suggests that enjoyment is associated with the presence of destruction, excitement, and unpredictability in films ( Sparks, 1986a , b ; Tamborini et al., 1987 ; Tamborini and Stiff, 1987 ). This model, the uses and gratification theory of film consumption ( Katz et al., 1973 ; Palmgreen, 1984 ), argues that the enjoyment and seeking out of material are determined by their specific need for stimulation and the satisfaction they derive following the achievement of gratification. Some research suggests that certain personality types and individuals who are high or low on some psychological traits may seek out horror or violent material for gratification but that the material itself may not always provide this satisfaction (see the Individual Differences section below). Sensation seeking, verbal aggression, and argumentativeness, for example, have been found to be positively correlated with enjoyment of horror and violent films, but these are not consistent predictors of liking for horror/violent material ( Greene and Krcmar, 2005 ).

Zillmann (1980) has argued that a positive outcome for the protagonist and a poor one for the antagonist are the key predictors of satisfaction with a film. If neither occurs but a threat is removed, this would also lead to a satisfactory experience, but the experience would be diluted. A positive outcome is, however, necessary for the “cognitive switch from dysphoria to euphoria” (p. 148). There is no consistent evidence to support this view and the success of films where the threat is still very much present in some way at the end of a horror film (e.g., The Exorcist, The Omen, Friday the 13th, and so on) and even in thrillers such as Basic Instinct and Presumed Innocent, suggests that this explanation may not account fully for why we watch and enjoy horror.

It has been proposed that arousal itself might be self-rewarding – the act of watching horror provides us with a thrill regardless of the resolution and we like and enjoy the film for this reason ( Tamborini, 1991 ). The pleasurable experience of arousal motivates us to continue watching in order to sustain that level of arousal, as Berlyne (1967) suggests. Sparks and Spirek (1988) , for example, found a positive correlation between skin conductance (a physiological measure of emotional arousal) and self-reported arousal in people who watched a clip of A Nightmare On Elm Street , suggesting that the arousal we report also correlates at the physiological level, although whether the psychophysiological changes determine the arousal or the cognitive and emotional arousals (the interpretation of the material) determine the psychophysiological changes is an argument, which dates back to James.

Individual Differences in Response to Horror

Carroll (2003) asked, “How can horror audiences find pleasure in what by nature is distressful and unpleasant?” Some research has attempted to answer this question by studying the type of individual who enjoys and likes horror. Some of the personality traits and cognitive/affective traits that have been implicated in horror preference and/or enjoyment of horror include sensation seeking, empathy, theory of mind, need for affect, the dark tetrad, and personality. Other individual differences include age and sex (considered later). Unless a person expresses an interest and liking of horror, the response to graphic violence tends not to be positive. Weaver and Wilson (2009) , for example, assigned 400 people to one of three groups who watched either clips from five television programs showing graphic violence, clips with the violence sanitized, or clips with the violence removed. The non-violent programs were regarded as more enjoyable than the violent versions, a finding which is consistent with earlier research indicating that removing the violent content from a film does not reduce the film’s enjoyment ( Sparks et al., 2005 ). A meta-analysis of the enjoyment of media violence (not horror film specifically) found that greater selective exposure to violence (i.e., choosing to watch violent media) leads to a reduction in the enjoyment of its content ( Weaver, 2011 ). The implication of this finding appears to be that even though individuals may seek out exposure to violent media, they do not often enjoy what they find. In addition, participants may vary according to the degree of material they are routinely exposed to. When graduate nursing students and psychology students were shown videos of graphic medical procedures, for example, the nurses expressed less disgust and fear but more sadness ( Vlahou et al., 2011 ). Both groups, however, showed evidence of psychophysiological arousal (measured via Galvanic Skin Response) in response to watching the procedures.

Sensation Seeking

The most widely studied trait in the research on horror is sensation seeking. According to Zuckerman (1994) , sensation seeking is the “seeking of varied, novel, complex and intense sensations and experiences, and the willingness to take physical, social, legal and financial risks for the sake of such experiences” (p. 27). It peaks in the teenage years and declines thereafter ( Zuckerman, 1988 ). Zuckerman’s measure of sensation seeking describes four related but different factors: (1) thrill and adventure seeking; (2) experience seeking; (3) disinhibition; and (4) boredom susceptibility. In the original conception of the model ( Zuckerman, 1979 ), individuals thought to be high sensation seekers would experience much more positive emotion when highly aroused and stimulated and would seek negative stimulation to maximize their arousal because this stimulation was intense. A negative stimulus (such as a horror film) might, therefore, be interpreted by a person high in sensation seeking as being very positive; but a person low in sensation-seeking would find the stimulus unpleasant. High sensation-seeking individuals would also be less vulnerable to the experience of threat in these films ( Franken et al., 1992 ).

All four factors of the sensation-seeking scale have been found to predict enjoyment of horror film to some extent, but some factors are better predictors than others. For example, disinhibition was found by Edwards (1984) to be the strongest predictor, followed by experience seeking, thrill and adventure seeking, and boredom susceptibility. Edwards reported a positive correlation between high sensation seeking (in general) and interest in horror film. Tamborini and Stiff (1987) found a positive correlation between liking for horror and a combination of the sensation-seeking factors. Zuckerman and Litle (1986) found that frequency of horror film attendance correlated with disinhibition, thrill and adventure seeking, and boredom susceptibility, but in men only. The sex difference in this study highlights an important constraint on the model, and that is, individual differences (such as sex) may interact with sensation-seeking type to predict viewing, preference for, or enjoyment of horror film (see below). Cantor and Sparks (1984) found that sensation seeking was positively correlated with the enjoyment of frightening films in men and women. However, components of sensation seeking predicted enjoyment differently – thrill and adventure seeking were the best predictor for men, whereas disinhibition was the best predictor for women.

Other studies have reported no positive correlation between sensation seeking and liking and enjoyment for horror films ( Neuendorf and Sparks, 1988 ). Aluja-Fabregat (2000) found that disinhibition and psychopathy – a personality trait which describes a charming, remorseless, callous, and manipulative personality type – correlated with curiosity about morbid events in 470 eighth graders in Catalan. Sensation seeking correlated with consumption of violent films and consumption was associated with psychopathy, specifically in boys.

In a study of the enjoyment of fear experiences in video gaming, Lynch and Martins (2015) found that in their sample of 269 18–24-year-old players, men reported more enjoyment of violent video games and played more games and played more often. Sensation seeking and enjoyment were positively correlated, with high sensation seekers reporting less frequent fear (although p = 0.05) and low empathizers enjoying the violent games more. Low empathizers also played more but did not play more frequently. Resident Evil was the most commonly played game, and the game’s inclusion of zombies and surprises was cited as a cause of fear and fright. Agency in such games, however, appears to be important to the experience of the medium. When players were either asked to watch or to play a horror computer game (Konami’s “ PT ”), players showed increased heart rate and galvanic skin response (emotional arousal) compared to participants who watched ( Madsen, 2016 ). There were no differences between the two groups in self-reported fear.

While sensation seeking might be strongly associated with enjoyment of horror, it may not be the strongest predictor of attendance at horror films. Tamborini and Stiff’s (1987) study of 155 people (78 men; average age 21 years) attending a horror film in a US Midwestern city reported that men and younger participants scored the highest on the sensation-seeking scale, but that men and women attended for different reasons: men attended because they sought sensation and to experience the destructive nature of the horror while women attended because of they wanted to experience a just ending. More important than sensation seeking appeared to be participants’ expectations of the film: The greatest predictor of film attendance was not sensation seeking but a desire to experience a satisfying resolution (especially by women) and to see destruction (men).

Also of note is that there is evidence that sensation seeking is related to the startle potentiation described earlier. Lissek and Powers (2003) found that people low in sensation seeking (as measured via the thrill and adventure-seeking subscale) produced the typical startle potentiation during the viewing of threatening (vs. neutral) images but that those high in sensation seeking showed equal levels of startle to neutral and threatening images. One explanation for this finding is that high levels of sensation seeking are related to low levels of reactivity to threatening images. Because high sensation seeking involves a degree of sensory overload, less stimulation is required for a startle potentiation to occur and those scoring high in sensation seeking show less fear startle potentiation.

The literature on sensation seeking, therefore, suggests that this trait and specific components of it, especially disinhibition, may predict enjoyment of horror film, but this prediction does not apply to men and women consistently (a conclusion considered in more detail in the section on sex differences below). The literature also highlights a limitation in this – and other areas – of the horror research literature in that samples are often heterogeneous, the film selections are heterogeneous, and sample sizes tend to be small. These limitations are returned to at the end of the review.

Empathy is a multidimensional concept whose components have been defined in different ways but which in general are reflected in two types: a cognitive component (e.g., perspective taking) and an affective/emotional component (sympathy and concern for others and sharing of negative affect). One model suggests that empathy comprises a wandering imagination (a tendency to fantasize and daydream about fictional situations), fictional involvement (transposition of oneself into a story), humanistic mentation (a sensitivity to the emotional welfare of others), and emotional contagion (a susceptibility to be influenced by the emotions around oneself) ( Tamborini et al., 1990 ). Zillmann has proposed a three-factor model of empathy in which emotional behavior arises from the interaction of between these dispositional (a “response-guiding” mechanisms, which result in motor reactions to a stimulus), excitatory (“response-energizing” mechanism, which enables immediate arousal), and experiential (the conscious experience of the first two). Davis (1983) , who originally developed the Interpersonal Reactivity Index, argued that empathy was not a unitary or binary concept but was best considered as a set of constructs, which involve our reactions to others but are distinct from each other. These constructs included perspective taking, a fantasy scale (which measures the degree to which a person transposes themselves into the feelings or actions of fictional characters), empathetic concern (which measures the degree of sympathy felt for others), and personal distress (a description of unease or distress experienced in interpersonal relationships).

There is evidence that each component can predict enjoyment of horror film, with low empathy consistently associated with greater enjoyment. In one study ( Tamborini et al., 1990 ), 95 young people in same-sex pairs watched clips from two 1-h documentaries or two full length horror films ( A Nightmare on Elm Street and Boogens ). The study found that tendency to daydream and fantasize predicted the ability to sense the feelings and actions of the films’ characters. Those scoring high on the wandering item, fictional involvement, humanistic mentation, and contagion scales described above found graphic horror less appealing. Those scoring low in empathy preferred graphic horror. People low in fearfulness also prefer graphic horror ( Mundorf et al., 1989 ). Hall and Bracken’s (2011) study of 199 undergraduates found that fantasy empathy (but no other type) predicted narrative transportation (immersion in a text/film or “getting lost” in a story) and was associated with increased enjoyment of the film, although not necessarily horror film exclusively.

In a variant of this procedure, Tamborini et al. (1993) asked participants to watch a pleasant (a comedy) or an unpleasant ( Videodrome ) film, with a confederate. To evoke empathy, after the film, the confederate said they were distressed because they thought they were going to be thrown out of school and asked “what am I going to do?” If there was no reply, the confederate left. If they received a reply, the responses would be rejected. Those participants scoring high in fictional involvement and empathetic concern provided more comfort and more social support. Those who watched the horror film, however, provided less support than did those who watched the comedy. While providing a potentially useful contribution to the study of how people respond to horror and the effect of this on our interaction with others – the greater the empathy, the greater the responsiveness to others’ distress – the sample size is small ( N = 21).

Empathy has also been associated with less enjoyment of suffering displayed in frightening films but with more enjoyment of danger, of excitement, and of happy endings ( Hoffner, 2009 ). People high in enduring negative affect have been found to experience more distress and less enjoyment of suffering. Those who had prior exposure to frightening films enjoyed danger more and enjoyed happy endings less.

Classifying participants according to the degree of empathy and sensation seeking has not been the only approach that has been taken to determining the types of people who watch and enjoy/prefer horror. Johnston (1995) , for example, notes that not all audiences respond to horror in the same way, as this section has demonstrated and has typologized viewers and their motivations to watch into three types: (1) resolved-ending types; (2) thrill watchers; and (3) gore watchers. Resolved-ending types enjoy film with a satisfying, definite closure; thrill watchers enjoy being frightened and empathize with the principal characters; gore watchers watch because they enjoy the destructiveness in film. The typology is based on some of the research reviewed here. A prediction that can be made from this typology is that thrill watchers will have higher levels of empathy and adventure seeking, whereas gore watchers will be low in empathy and fearfulness but will be high in adventure seeking and will seek out high arousal ( King and Hourani, 2007 ). Research suggests that gore watchers are curious about the ways people are killed, are vindictive (they require satisfaction that characters receive their just desserts), and are attracted to blood and guts (gore) in film ( King and Hourani, 2007 ). Gore watchers are more likely to be men, to identify with the killer in films and are less likely to identify with the victim.

King and Hourani identified types of watchers from 229 individuals and showed them four horror films. Half the sample saw the films with a traditional ending (in which the evil antagonist is destroyed) or with teaser endings (in which the evil antagonist is revived/resurrected). The traditional ending was more entertaining than was the teaser ending, but it was especially enjoyable and entertaining for high gore and thrill watchers than low gore and thrill watchers. Traditional endings were less distressing and more frightening for high than low gore watchers and were regarded as being more frightening by high thrill watchers. High thrill watchers found the teaser ending version of the film to be less scary than did low thrill watchers. High gore watchers regarded the teaser to be more predictable than did low thrill watchers. The traditional ending was considered to be less predictable by high gore watchers than by high thrill watchers and by high thrill watchers than by low thrill watchers. Very little research exists on this typology, however.

Although individual studies indicate a relationship between empathy and horror enjoyment, a meta-analysis of studies investigating the enjoyment of mediated fright and violence has found that empathetic concern and personal distress were negatively correlated with enjoyment, but correlations for personal distress were not consistent ( Hoffner and Levine, 2005 ). The authors note that the inconsistencies may be attributable to differences in the content of the film employed in these studies, and this is a problematic issue common to the field: There are no consistently chosen materials in either nature, content, length, age, or narrative. What is noteworthy, however, is that Hoffner and Levine’s review found that the strongest effects (reported in two studies) were for studies, which included horror films, and those films depicted torture ( Johnston, 1995 ) or brutal horror with no positive resolution ( Tamborini et al., 1990 ). When these studies were removed, the correlation between empathy and enjoyment became non-significant. The authors note that the other four films measured participants’ enjoyment of horror film as a genre (rather than their enjoyment of specific horror films or acts of graphic violence), and this methodological limitation in the literature is returned to the conclusion of this paper.

Need for Affect

A different form of individual difference – need for affect – may also mediate horror film preference and enjoyment, but the literature is limited. Need for affect ( Maio and Esses, 2001 ) is based on the assumption that we are motivated to seek interesting or positive experiences and avoid unpleasant ones. Need for Affect (NfA) is measured via a questionnaire, which comprises two subscales: the tendency to approach and the tendency to withdraw. People who prefer sad films experience more enjoyment when watching sad films, for example, because they regard viewing sad films as an enjoyable and a gratifying experience; their need for affect is satisfied by watching sad films ( Oliver, 1993a , b ; Oliver et al., 2000 ; Maio and Esses, 2001 ). Few studies have explored the relationship between NfA and horror film viewing. One study asked 119 attendees (mean age = 23 years) at a German cinema how likely they would be to watch United 93 or the 2006 horror film remake, The Omen ( Bartsch et al., 2010 ). Participants with higher NfA approach scores experienced more intense emotions and experienced more negative emotions such as anger, fear, and disgust. United 93 evoked more negative emotions than did The Omen . Higher NfA withdraw scores were associated with a more negative evaluation of emotions. Controlling for personality did not affect these results significantly. While NfA is little studied in horror, one possible research question that could be explored is whether preference for film genres correlates with NfA; no study to date has systematically examined this relationship.

Other Personality Traits

Other personality traits thought to be implicated in horror film preference or enjoyment include the Big Five, the Dark Tetrad, and repressive coping style. Dark personality traits are those which express some abnormal, sinister, and unpleasant aspect of behavior. Four such traits are Machiavellianism, Narcissism, Psychopathy (described earlier), and Sadism. Machiavellianism (the enjoyment of power and the manipulation of power) has been found to correlate with enjoyment of horror, and the correlations between these two variables are stronger than the correlation between Machiavellianism and sensation seeking ( Tamborini and Stiff, 1987 ). High psychopathy scores have been associated with preference for graphically violent horror movies ( Weaver, 1991 ), and individuals scoring high in callousness and who habitually express little or no emotion show reduced facial expressions of sadness and disgust when watching violent films ( Fanti et al., 2017 ).

A repressive coping style is characterized by the repression of negative affect caused by stressors ( Weinberger, 1990 ; Sparks et al., 1999 ). Sparks et al. investigated repressive coping style and enjoyment of horror film stimuli in 59 individuals. Based on a median split, 30 repressors and 29 non-repressors were identified and were asked to view a 25-min extract from When A Stranger Calls (in which a babysitter receives frightening phone calls and discovers that the calls have been coming from inside the house she is in). Women in general expressed greater negative affect than did men, as expected (see section below), but the repressors in general showed greater physiological arousal during the film than did non-repressors. An interesting pattern emerged across the course of exposure. Physiological arousal was similar for both groups at the beginning of the first two sections of the movie and then diverged in the final three sections as the suspense increased. No explicit analysis was provided of the psychometric response to the film (how much it was liked, how frightening it was, and so on). The study suggests that those who repress negative affect may nonetheless show high levels of physiological arousal during exposure to frightening films. What is less clear in this study is the relationship between this phenomenon and enjoyment of the film. It is also based on a very low sample of participants, and little subsequent research has focused on this particular personality trait/style.

Despite being the most commonly accepted model of personality, the Big Five has been the focus of very little published research in the context of horror film enjoyment and consumption. The Big Five proposes that personality is comprised of five core traits along which individuals differ. These traits are Conscientiousness, Openness to Experience, Extraversion, Neuroticism, and Agreeableness. One study employing a version of the Big Five found that a trait described as Intellect/Imagination (defined as a proclivity to engage in imaginative activity) was the strongest predictor of horror media consumption ( Clasen et al., 2019 ). There was a small but statistically significant and positive correlation between extraversion and frequency of horror media use, using horror media with others, enjoying horror media with others and being more scared with others. Agreeableness was positively correlated with being easily scared by horror media, using horror media with others, enjoying horror media with others, and negatively correlated with being more scared with others. People high in conscientiousness were less scared after using horror media, and people high in emotional stability were found to be less easily scared than those low in emotional stability, a finding which was also reported by Reynaud et al. (2012) , who found that psychophysiological arousal was greater in participants who were high in neuroticism when they watched a film designed to elicit fear. The number of participants in Reynaud et al.’s study, however, was small.

The finding regarding agreeableness contrasts with research on violent video game playing where people lower in agreeableness have been found to be more frequent violent video games players; individuals who score high in extraversion and openness and low in neuroticism have also been found to be more frequent users ( Chory and Goodboy, 2011 ). Low agreeableness is a significant predictor of enjoyment of the horror film genre but not exclusively – it is also a significant predictor of enjoyment of parody, animation, neo-noir, and cult genres across different media including books, television, and film ( Cantador et al., 2013 ). While the findings of Chory and Goodboy (2011) are informative, they are limited in terms of the measurement of response to horror film specifically because the stimuli used were not specifically horror film. A similar limitation can be found in Clasen et al.’s (2019) large Mechanical Turk study of 1,070 participants which asked participants for their responses to and perceptions of horror media generally, not horror film specifically. The study also administered a variant of the Big Five personality inventory and a variant of the sensation-seeking scale (Hoyle et al.’s (2002, Brief Sensation Seeking Scale) not normally administered in research examining the relationship between personality and horror film. Although research on violent video games might help understand some of the correlates between use frequency and personality trait, it should be acknowledged that violent video games are qualitatively different stimuli to films. Films are a passive experience – viewers are unable to influence the action they see on screen – whereas gaming is specifically an active experience where the player engages with what they see and are expected to do so as this is the principal motivation for gaming. Horror films and horror games are not equivalent stimuli, although they share many characteristics and elements of content.

In conclusion, the literature studying the relationship between personality and horror film consumption has been limited in number and scope. Two studies have reported a correlation between low agreeableness and preference/enjoyment of horror media, and one has not. It is noteworthy that in one of the studies reporting an association, agreeableness was the only trait to be significantly associated with horror media use. This aspect of personality may be worth exploring further.

Sex Differences

The most consistent individual difference predicting individuals’ response to horror film is biological sex: men and boys enjoy frightening and violent visual material more than do women and girls ( Zuckerman and Litle, 1986 ; Harris et al., 2000 ; Hoffner and Levine, 2005 ). Correlations between intensity of “scary media” or horror and the enjoyment of horror in men are consistently positive ( Hoffner and Levine, 2005 ). Men enjoy horror media more than do women, are less scared by horror media, use horror media more, and show a greater preference for frightening horror media ( Clasen et al., 2019 ). One of the earliest experimental studies of sex differences investigated the role of social comparison in individuals’ response to horror. Zillmann et al. (1986) asked 36 men and 36 female undergraduates to watch horror films ( Nightmares , Nightmare on Elm Street ) in the presence of a same-age, opposite-sex companion who either expressed control, indifference, or distress during the film. Men enjoyed the horror more and found it less boring and more satisfying and frightening than did women. Men expressed more distress if the female companion expressed distress (but engaged more with them than with a masterful woman) and less if the female companion was masterful. Zillmann et al. also manipulated initial appeal of the companion (high and low). Women enjoyed the films more in the company of a man with high appeal, but women’s appeal had little effect on men’s responses. Women engaged more with masterful than with distressed men. Cutting violence from films can increase enjoyability and decrease arousal in women (but has no effect on men): women regard these films to be generally more disturbing than do men ( Berry et al., 1999 ).

Male undergraduates experience less distress and anxiety than do women when watching horror film ( Sparks, 1991 ), and women find film clips depicting sadness and fear more unpleasant and distressing; they also show greater arousal to fear clips than to clips depicting compassion ( Davydov et al., 2013 ; Maffei et al., 2015 ). The findings reflect a more general sex difference in that women, in general, report greater fear and anxiety than do men. Women have been found to express more fears, more severe fears, and greater fear of repulsive but harmless animals ( Tucker and Bond, 1997 ), a finding that applies cross-culturally ( Arrindell et al., 2004 ). Anxiety disorders are more commonly reported by women than men ( McLean and Anderson, 2009 ), and women appear to be more susceptible to variety of anxiety-related disorders such as panic disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, PTSD, and agoraphobia ( Kessler et al., 1994 ). The exception to this pattern is fear of bodily injury, social stimuli, noise, or enclosed spaces, where no consistent sex differences have been reported ( McLean and Anderson, 2009 ). Disgust sensitivity – the degree to which individuals find stimuli repulsive – also tends to be higher in women, and this phenomenon might provide an explanation for the sex difference in the fear of animals – and horror film ( Connolly et al., 2008 ). This is considered in more detail below. Women and girls, for example, are less likely to enjoy violent media when blood and gore portrayed are described as extreme, rather than mild or moderate ( Hoffner and Levine, 2005 ).

The sex difference is not only reported in the horror genre but also across a number of cinematic genres. One study of 150 undergraduates in Germany ( Wühr et al., 2017 ) asked participants to indicate which types of films they believed that men and women would generally prefer. In a second study, participants were asked to indicate the films they themselves preferred. In the first study, men were regarded as preferring action, adventure, erotic, fantasy, historical, horror, sci-fi, thriller, war, and western films, whereas women preferred animation, comedy, drama, heimat, and romantic films. Both sexes liked crime and mystery equally. In the second study, women expressed a preference for drama and romance, and men preferred action, adventure, erotic, fantasy, horror, mystery, sci-fi, war, and Western films. Animation, comedy, crime heist, history, and thrillers were liked by both sexes.

Enjoyment and liking of the degree of explicit (graphic) horror also appear to show sex differences. Men tend to prefer very graphic horror material more than do women ( Hoffner and Levine, 2005 ). Men also report watching more violent television and attend more horror films. One explanation for this finding has been proposed by gender socialization theory ( Zaslow and Hayes, 1986 ), whereby boys and men are socialized to not be afraid and to not make expressive shows of fear, whereas girls are not constrained by such expectations and can “express their sensitivity by being appropriately disturbed” ( Hoffner and Levine, 2005 ). Such an explanation is probably locked in a prison of its own time in the sense that it is unclear whether such attitudes still exist now, at the end of the second decade of the twenty-first century.

Sex differences have been reported in the context of other behaviors such as the identification with a film’s character. Tamborini et al. (1987) asked 44 male and 50 female undergraduates to rank their preference for two different versions of 13 films (12 of which were fictional). In one version, the victim of graphic violence was male; in the other, the victim was female. One theory of horror enjoyment discussed earlier (the uses and gratification perspective; Rubin, 1994 ) argues that our reasons for watching horror and the benefit and gratification we derive from it will determine whether we identify with a victim or an aggressor ( Johnston, 1995 ). Viewers who identify with a female victim are usually more likely to experience distress ( Zillmann and Cantor, 1977 ) and are not satisfied by happy endings ( Tannenbaum and Gaer, 1965 ). Oliver’s (1993a , b) study of 96 16-year-old high school students found that there was a correlation between gore watchers and enjoyment of retribution (liking to see victims get what they deserve). Participants’ high punitive sexual attitudes have been found to be positively correlated with higher ratings of enjoyment; men prefer horror films in which the female rather than the male is the victim, but there is no significant association between enjoyment and the films’ portrayal of victimization of sexual characters, of women, or of women expressing their sexuality.

Tamborini et al. (1987) found that participants’ recent and past viewing of horror film strongly predicted enjoyment of graphic horror in general. However, the responses to men and women as victims in the film interacted with other viewing preferences. For example, men’s enjoyment of pornography was correlated with preference for graphic horror, which depicted female victimization but not male victimization. Preference for graphic horror correlated with disinhibition, moderately for boredom susceptibility and experience seeking, and not at all for thrill/adventure seeking. Sensation seeking in general did not predict preference for graphic horror. Women regarded the films with female victims to be higher in violent content than films featuring male victims; the opposite pattern was found in men. Boredom susceptibility was a good predictor of preference for graphic horror in men. No one factor was a strong predictor of graphic horror preference in women when the victim was male. Deceit and boredom susceptibility predicted graphic horror preference when the victim was female. Physiological arousal (measured via GSR) has also been correlated with enjoyment of horror after men finish watching a film ( Sparks, 1991 ).

A retrospective study of 233 psychology students (125 men) asked participants to recall details of a date they had been on as a teenager/young adult during which they watched a frightening film ( Harris et al., 2000 ). The participants reported that the films most commonly seen were Scream, Scream 2 , I Know What You Did Last Summer, and I Still Know What You Did Last Summer . Men were younger when they watched the film (16.7 vs. 17.6 years), and the study found some notable and significant sex differences: Thirty-one percent of women reported looking away from the screen, whereas only 7% of men did. About 61% of women reported feeling anxious, whereas 44% of men did; 34% women reported that it had increased their imagination (men – 1%); 19% of women said they feared sleeping alone afterward (men – 8%); 67% of women said their heartbeat were faster (men – 53%); 56% of women said they became very jumpy (men – 31%); 41% of women were amused and entertained (men – 59%); 55% of women held onto their date (men – 21%); 32% of women screamed (men – 6%); and 26% of women felt disgusted (men – 10%). Men gave more positive reactions than did women, and women gave more negative reactions than did men, and women reported more sleep disturbances than did men. About 80% of women reported being somewhat or very afraid (men – 46%), and 18% reported not being afraid or being a little afraid (men – 51%). This study also measured empathy and found a positive correlation between overall empathy scale scores and negative reactions but not between negative reactions and any one specific subscale. There were some associations between negative reactions and empathetic responses. Low empathetic concern, for example, predicted sleep disturbance. Higher boredom susceptibility was associated with fewer negative reactions and with increased liking but not with sleep disturbance. Women who scored high on empathy were more likely to be scared at the time of the study (i.e., they were more likely to express fear as adults) than were low-scoring women or men generally.

In a similar study, Hoekstra et al. (1999) asked 202 introductory psychology students to describe their reactions (especially fear reactions) when they recalled the frightening movies they watched as children. The mean age at watching was 10.8 years, a similar finding to Cantor (2004) . Female participants as adults liked slasher films less than did male participants as adults – of the 14 categories included, this was the least liked by women. The most liked genre by women was romantic comedy; by men, action and adventure. Men reported choosing to watch horror more often than did women. Both sexes noted fear-related changes after watching films as children but not during the film, with women reporting more negative reactions during the watching of the films when they were girls. The earlier their exposure to horror films as children, the greater was the sleeping disturbance they experienced afterward. The behavioral measures indicated the typical sex differences reported earlier: more girls than men hid their eyes (64 vs. 26%), held someone (35 vs. 6%), and were jumpy (65 vs. 45%).

In terms of the enjoyment of specific content, one study asked participants to rate a 10-min horror film in which the sex of the victim and sexual content was manipulated ( Oliver, 1994 ). The context of this study concerned the types of victim and protagonist in slasher films. An earlier content analysis of 10 slasher films found that a third of sex scenes concluded with the death of a character ( Weaver, 1991 ). Women, however, are not more likely to be killed. In an analysis of 56 slasher films, Cowan and O’Brien (1990) found that men and women were equally likely to be killed off. Women were more likely to be survivors, a cliche that has its own term in horror film: the Final Girl. More screen time is devoted to the deaths of women than men, however, and non-surviving women are more likely to be promiscuous, wear revealing clothes, appear nude, use sexual language, and undress and engage in sex when they are killed. Non-surviving men appear to be identified only by their use of sexual language. Oliver (1994) found that sexual portrayals of victims were associated with increased viewer enjoyment, especially in men. These films were also regarded as more frightening.

As discussed earlier, one possible explanation for women’s reaction to horror may be their disgust sensitivity. Women in general report greater disgust sensitivity than do men. Disgust is a protective response to a direct threat to survival, such as contamination, lesions, sores, or disease ( Krusemark and Li, 2011 ). People high in disgust sensitivity show higher levels of disgust toward low, moderate, and severe facial disfigurement ( Shanmugarajah et al., 2012 ). Individuals with anxiety disorders are more prone to be disgusted, especially those who are anxious about contagion ( Olatunji et al., 2017a , b ). People who are exposed to disease primes are more likely to judge themselves to be less extravert and open to experience ( Mortensen et al., 2010 ), and people distance themselves from contagion or symptoms of contagion ( Neuberg et al., 2011 ). Women’s disgust thresholds for imagining incest, reacting to images of insects, seeing open sores, feces or dirty clothing, and statements about death and sex are significantly lower than those for men, and women are less likely to work in environments in which pathogen exposure is likely ( Al-Shawaf et al., 2018 ). Women’s sexual disgust and pathogen disgust are higher than that for men, but their moral disgust appears to be no difference. This elevated sense of disgust sensitivity in women may partly explain why they enjoy horror film less than do men.

The literature on sex differences in response to, and preference for, horror film provides the most consistent finding in the field that men and boys prefer and enjoy horror film more than do girls and women. One possible explanation for this, besides differences in empathy, may lie in differences in higher-order traits such as anxiety proneness and disgust sensitivity. This possibility, and the evidence for it, is discussed in a later section.

Horror Films and Mental Health

While a typical person’s response to horror film is fear and anxiety, some studies have suggested that exposure to horror films can lead to abnormal stress or distress reactions requiring psychological or psychiatric intervention, a condition called cinematic neurosis ( Ballon and Leszcz, 2007 ). The rarity of these case studies and the details they present – Ballon and Leszcz found only seven such case studies – suggests that the individuals’ behavior arise because of causes unrelated to the horror film and that the horror film was a catalyst for provoking an underlying and pre-existing pathology that would have been provoked by any, other relevant stimuli. The pattern of behavior has echoes in Freud’s (1919/1971) account of seventeenth century “demonological neurosis,” whereby depression or psychosis arose from experiencing the death of a father and individuals made a pact with the Devil to relieve their distress.

According to Johnson (1980) , at least a quarter of horror film viewers had experienced “stress-type” reactions, although this is likely to be within the confines of the normal stress reaction that horror is specifically designed to evoke. Many of the studies reported are case studies, lacking in control participants and largely anecdotal. In a typical example, Horowitz and Wilner (1976) observed that after the release of The Exorcist in 1973, individuals lost “control over thought and emotions,” experiencing “denial and numbing … extremes of anxiety, tension and impaired relationships.” The Exorcist is the source of a number of abnormal behaviors reported by individuals responding extremely to horror film.

Bozzuto (1975) described four adults who developed abnormal stress behavior within a day of watching the film; participants reported insomnia, excitability, hyperactivity, irritability, and decreased appetite. The symptoms dissipated after seven sessions of psychotherapy. Mathai (1983) reported the case of a distressed 12-year-old boy who felt that when somebody touched him, they would go right through him and that when sitting on a chair, he would fall through it. Prior to presentation, he had watched The Invasion Of The Body Snatchers with two of his siblings. Waking from his sleep, he saw “an awful face with bulging veins staring at him.” Hamilton (1978) reported the case of a young woman who had seen The Exorcist and presented with “acute unremitting anxiety and a pervasive fear of being alone especially at night” and refused to go to work. She felt that the “Devil was in a young girl” and “she dreamt of the Devil with a penis in his mouth” (p. 569).

Five of the cases identified by Ballon and Leszcz (2007) cited The Exorcist as the cause of their distress. The other two were Jaws and Invasion Of The Body Snatchers . Robinson and Barnett (1975) reported the case of a 17-year-old girl who had watched Jaws and experienced anxiety and sleep disturbances consequently. She was found the next day jerking her limbs, screaming about sharks. Turley and Derdeyn (1990) reported the case of a 13-year-old boy who became “addicted” to horror films, particularly A Nightmare On Elm Street . One study found that two 10-year-old boys experienced anxiety for up to 8 weeks after watching the TV program Ghostwatch ( Simons and Silveira, 1994 ). Symptoms included fear of ghosts and of the dark, refusal to go upstairs alone, nightmares, sleeping with the light on, and panic attacks. Ballon and Leszcz (2007) reported the case of a 22-year-old unemployed woman with three children who were at 23 weeks’ gestation but felt possessed and had flashbacks of watching The Exorcist . According to the authors, all of the cases of “cinematic neurosis” they reviewed involved individuals who had experienced a recent loss (or potential loss) of a family member about whom they were ambivalent. Individuals also held strong religious or cultural ideals, and their behavior included recalling imagery from the films they had seen. The films also appeared to have some personal meaning to the individuals.

Sparks (1989a , b) found that around half of the women and the quarter of the men surveyed in his study reported enduring fright after watching horror. Women appeared to be particularly affected ( Sparks et al., 1993 ) with around half of the women subsequently avoiding such films, 68% perceiving specific rooms as anxiety provoking (compared with 10% of men), and 43% reporting nervousness. Harrison and Cantor (1999) found that 90% of their sample of 136 young people (average age – 20.6 years) had experienced a film that was so frightening that the experience had lasted beyond the viewing of the film. More than 50% of the sample reported sleep disturbances and eating problems.

The rarity of such extreme emotion distress requiring psychiatric intervention suggests that horror film, while designed to evoke fear and panic, has no significant long-term consequences than can impair an individual’s mental, social, and occupational function and that those individuals who do report this impairment in functioning have other characteristics or have undergone other experiences, which may underlie the condition they report. While there is no evidence that exposure to horror films has adverse or sustained effects on mental health in individuals with no pre-existing mental health issue, there is evidence that watching horror films can lead to self-reported short-term anxiety and disturbed sleep.

Development of Fear and Horror Liking/Avoidance

Children express fear to horror, just as adults do, and they also express enjoyment of horror and graphic violence, just as some adults do, and some have argued that this interest peaks at adolescence ( Twitchell, 1989 ). The form of the stimulus children fear appears to change as they develop, with unfamiliar or threatening versions of concrete objects the source of anxiety in infancy and imaginary and symbolic stimuli the source of fear in the pre-school years. Fear stimuli become more concrete and realistic when children are at school age ( Hyson, 1979 ). Bauer (1976) found that drawings of imaginary feared objects decreased with age (from kindergarten to age 11 or 12), whereas depictions of realistic injury increased. Fright reactions occur to violence, injury, or physical danger ( Cantor and Wilson, 1988 ).

Early Childhood

An early study of children’s preferences for scary movies found that 24% of 43 7–8-year olds and 13% of 46 11–12-year olds reported having nightmares, and younger girls reported more fears than did younger boys ( Palmer et al., 1983 ). Younger boys liked scary films more than did younger girls. About 40% of the younger children liked scary programs; 65% of the older children did. Seven percent of older children and 28% of younger children disliked scary films; 68% of younger children said they avoided scary TV shows, whereas 11% of the older group did. Cantor and Reilly (1982) found that 11–12-year olds reported avoiding frightening TV and films more than did 15–16-year olds, and Cantor et al. (2010) found that the most common content causing fear in 219 8.5-year olds was the supernatural (imaginary/fictional monsters) with someone being hurt the next most common. Having a television in the bedroom was the best predictor of fright severity, and the average age of exposure to stimuli was 6.6 years; 67% were able to provide the name of the show. Seventy-one percent could not stop thinking about the experience; 52% worried about it; 36% reported shaking; 59% did not want to sleep alone; and 56% had nightmares. When another sample ( N = 164) was asked why they watched, 40% said it was because they wanted to and 40% because someone else was watching. A study of 314 7–12-year-old Dutch children’s response to TV-induced fright found that interpersonal violence was the most fear-inducing content and fantasy the least; the films, which caused the greatest fear, had been intended for adult audiences – Gremlins, IT, Commissaris Rex, and The X Files ( Valkenburg et al., 2000 ). Girls experienced more fear than did boys but fear in both sexes declined with age. Girls physically intervened and used social support and escape more than did boys. Cognitive reassurance was the most common coping strategy, and social support was the least common.

How children cope with horror has been the subject of some research on child development and horror because of the potentially harmful psychological consequences of exposure to frightening stimuli. Cantor and Wilson’s (1988) review of the effect of horror stimuli on children’s behavior concluded that two methods of coping were generally employed. Non-cognitive strategies were those which did not involve the processing of verbal information and which might involve desensitization (the gradual exposure to the fear stimulus); cognitive strategies were those whereby children were encouraged to think about the source of their fear as a means of coping with the stimulus. There is evidence that desensitization is successful ( Wilson and Cantor, 1987 ). For example, children (5–7 and 8–9 year olds) who had been gradually introduced to a videotape of snakes showed less fear when watching the snake pit scene from Raiders Of The Lost Ark . A similar effect was found in a study of 5–7- and 8–11-year olds in which participants played with a rubber tarantula and later saw a scene from Kingdom Of The Spiders ( Wilson, 1987 ), and in a group of kindergarteners and 5–6-, 7–8-, and 6–9-year-old children who were exposed to photographs of worms and then saw a frightening film featuring worms. The children who had been previously exposed to the creatures enjoyed the film more than did those not exposed; exposure to live worms reduced the fear evoked by the film in boys ( Weiss et al., 1993 ). Cantor et al. (1988) found that 3–5-, 6–7-, and 9–10-year-old children’s fear of the Hulk in The Incredible Hulk could be reduced if children saw a TV program, which showed the making of the TV series, and how the make-up of Lou Ferrigno (the actor who played the Hulk) was applied. Children of different ages become afraid at different stages of the TV program and the Hulk’s transformation ( Sparks and Cantor, 1986 ): 3–5-year olds became more frightened after the transformation, whereas 9–11-year olds became more frightened before the transformation. Cantor et al.’s finding is also anecdotally illustrated in the preface to Englund (2009) . Here, Wes Craven (the director of A Nightmare On Elm Street ) describes filming Robert Englund (Freddy Krueger in Elm Street) explaining that he was the actor who played a character so that the video could be sent to a distressed child who found Krueger very frightening.

Younger children (4- and 5-year olds) appear to benefit from adopting more physical strategies such as holding on to a blanket/toy or eating/drinking ( Wilson et al., 1987 ). The reasons for the success of this strategy might be the provision of relief from anxiety and the provision of tactile contact in linguistically developing children or by the occupation of working memory, which reduces the cognitive resources available to think about and process fear stimuli. Proximity to a parent is perceived as being the most successful fear-reduction coping strategy in young children ( Wilson et al., 1987 ). Very young children (under 2 years) experience less fear through covering their eyes; in 3–5-year olds, this behavior increases fear ( Wilson, 1989 ).

Cognitive strategies, such as talking about films and programs with parents or other adults, have been found to be effective ( Cantor and Wilson, 1988 ). By far, the most common type of cognitive strategy employed by parents is reassuring children that the stimulus children are afraid of does not exist ( Cantor and Hoffner, 1990 ), although this is likely to be successful in older children but not in younger children (4–5 years; Cantor and Wilson, 1984 ). Explaining that the source of fear is not likely to be harmful is also successful in older (8–9 year old) children ( Wilson and Cantor, 1987 ). Wilson and Cantor’s study, which involved informing children that most snakes were not poisonous and telling them about the behavior of snakes, found that these instructions increased fear in 5–7-year olds. Verbal explanations may be ineffective in younger children who are less likely to discuss horror materials with their parents. Cantor et al. (1986) found that none of their 3–7-year-old children discussed a film with parents, but 43% of 8–12-year olds and 50% of 13–18-year olds did. However, verbal priming prior to seeing the film can sometimes increase the child’s emotional response to what they (see Cantor et al., 1984 ). If children are informed that a film has a happy ending, they report less fear ( Hoffner and Cantor, 1990 ; Hoffner, 1997 ). Introducing probability information about events prior to watching a film such as telling children the likelihood of an event occurring appears to have no effect on 5–9-year olds’ emotional response ( Cantor and Hoffner, 1990 ). If children rehearse verbal information (e.g., “this tarantula cannot hurt people; they are not poisonous”), older and younger children respond less emotionally to a film about tarantulas ( Wilson, 1987 ). Children also regard the spiders as less dangerous after being given these instructions.

Two physical means of coping with frightening stimuli studied in children are blunting (avoiding threat or transforming a threat by distraction; looking away, for example) and monitoring (being action oriented and attending to the threat). Sparks and Spirek (1988) found that high blunters and low monitors were less physiologically aroused by horror films than were high monitors and low blunters suggesting that underlying physiology might predict or predispose individuals to react in a given emotional way to frightening stimuli; Sparks (1989a , b) also found that low monitors were less negative about horror when given information about the film but this information had no effect on blunters. A study of 228 14–15- and 15–16-year olds examined the role of blunting and monitoring on coping with scary films ( Hoffner, 1995 ). Hoffner investigated empathetic concern (EC, other-oriented) and personal distress (PD, feelings of anxiety/discomfort in response to suffering) by examining four coping methods – interpersonal comfort (IC), distraction (D), momentary avoidance (MA), and unreality. Davis and Kraus (1997) had previously reported that high empathetic concern was associated with less loneliness and unsociability; high personal distress was associated with shyness, poor interpersonal functioning, and social anxiety. Empathetic concern was found to encourage altruism, whereas personal distress prompted people to reduce their own emotion expression ( Batson, 1987 ).

Hoffner found a series of interesting results. A belief that something was unreal was the most common coping strategy, followed by interpersonal comfort and momentary avoidance; these were used more than was distraction. About 50% of the sample considered unreality and momentary avoidance to be effective; 26% considered distraction to be effective. The study found that boys preferred scary films more than did girls, a finding consistent with the literature, that girls reported more empathetic concern and personal distress, that personal distress correlated with empathy and with monitoring and blunting, that these correlated negatively with liking for scary films, that blunting predicted use of distraction and unreality, that monitoring was more widely used and was more effective, that monitoring and blunting were associated with increased interpersonal comfort, that girls were more likely to use momentary avoidance and interpersonal comfort and consider them more effective, that people who reported using one strategy were more likely to use all four, that empathy, but not personal distress, was associated with greater use of reality, IC and personal distress were associated with increased use of distraction, and that higher empathy scores were associated with greater use of Unreality. People who liked horror were less likely to use distraction, unreality, and momentary avoidance as coping strategies, which suggest that coping is related to the dislike of horror – it is something that must be done to mitigate the effects of something that is disliked. If people thought the coping strategies worked, they enjoyed the films more.

Hoffner also noted that participants who reported finding scary films and television to be violent were likely to use all four coping mechanisms; those who found the material to be realistic were more likely to report using distraction, unreality, and interpersonal comfort as coping mechanisms. Material featuring blood and gore was more likely to lead to the use of momentary avoidance. Girls reported using momentary avoidance and interpersonal comfort more than did boys and considered these to be more effective strategies than did boys.

Adolescence

As children enter adolescence, their reasons for seeking out horror develop and change – they will watch to be thrilled, to rebel (because parents have prohibited them), or to enjoy gore because they are interested in how people die ( Oliver, 1993a , b ). One study of 220 13–16-year-old boys and girls examined their motivation for watching slasher movies ( Johnston, 1995 ). Reasons for watching included gore watching, thrill watching, an increased feeling of independence bravery, and problem avoidance. Thrill watching and independence were positively related to positive affect; positive views of slashers were associated with high gore and thrill watching and gore watching predicted preference for graphic violence. Boys were more likely to watch graphic horror because they were motivated to seek out gore, and they were also more likely to identify with the killer than were girls; girls were more likely to identify with the victim. A larger survey of 6,522 10–14-year-old US adolescents in 2003 found similar sex differences: watching violent films was associated with being male, older, non-white, having less educated parents, and having poor school achievement ( Worth et al., 2008 ); teenage boys in another study who were regarded as aggressive and excitable found violent cartoons to be as funny or thrilling ( Aluja-Fabregat and Torrubia-Beltri, 1998 ). Both boys and girls who found violent cartoons funny and thrilling also scored higher on neuroticism, psychoticism, and sensation seeking.

Aging and Horror Enjoyment

The majority of the research on the development of horror preference and response to horror film has recruited children and adolescents as participants. There is very little research on how horror film and horror media in general are perceived as individual’s age and approach caducity, a paucity that is also reflected in humor research. There is some, but not much, research on how older people respond to horror, and this suggests that the preference for horror declines with age ( Tamborini and Stiff, 1987 ; Hoffner and Levine, 2005 ). Clasen et al. (2019) , for example, found a negative correlation between age and enjoyment of horror media and horror use suggesting that both decline as we age. As Clasen et al. concede, however, their sample was clustered around the 35-year age. The average age of those who agreed that they strongly liked horror media was slightly lower than those who disagreed (33.5 vs. 36.5 years). They also note that since sensation seeking also declines with age, this might explain the reduction in enjoyment and seeking out of horror with increasing age post adolescence.

The literature from developmental research mirrors the findings from that in the adult sex differences research in that boys prefer, and seek out, horrifying/scary material more than do girls. Children tend to express greater fear to different types of stimuli and content depending on the age of the child. There are also differences between boys and girls (and between age groups) in the types of coping strategies they adopt during and after watching frightening television and film material. Cognitive strategies, in particular, have been found to be effective with talking about film content and explaining that “monsters” do not exist or that the characters can actually cause no harm being the most effective.

What Causes Fear?

One of the principal purposes of horror film is to induce fear. The nature of fear and its etiology has a long history in psychology, and various models have been proposed, which have attempted to explain why we become afraid and to what types of stimulus. One model, for example, has proposed that we have evolved a “fear module,” a theoretical construct, which comprises a number of domain-specific programs and which is “preferentially activated … by stimuli that are fear relevant in an evolutionary perspective” ( Öhman and Mineka, 2001 ). Fear, it is argued, motivates us to escape and escape very quickly from potential threat and threats to survival ( Mineka and Öhman, 2002 ). The module has four features: it is selective, it is automatic (when encountering fear-relevant stimuli, it responds without mediation), it is encapsulated (i.e., it relies on proven strategies to deal with threat), and it is underpinned by specific neural behavior ( Öhman and Mineka, 2001 ). It is considered to be an adaptive mechanism for allowing us to avoid physical danger rapidly ( Schaller and Neuberg, 2012 ). In the context of horror film, this is, of course, counter-intuitive as horror film viewers who enjoy horror may not wish to escape the horror and deliberately and proactively approach and seek it, and those that do not enjoy horror and who may serendipitously watch horror engage in other withdrawal behaviors such as shutting the eyes or holding on to a companion (they may also leave a cinema or turn off a screen). What occurs during horror film viewing is the willing acceptance that the film will induce fear and that a contract is reached between the medium’s manufacturer and the viewer that this is what is to be expected. The questions that then arise are whether there are specific stimuli or situations, which horror films deploy or recruit which are more likely to induce a fear response and, if so, what are these stimuli and why do they have this effect.

Mineka and Ohman’s conceptualization draws on the (controversial) notion that there are some stimuli to which we are evolutionarily predisposed to fear – that evolution has rendered us more afraid of some objects and situations – and there are stimuli to which we have become socially or cognitively conditioned to fear (e.g., examinations, being in objectively non-threatening social groups). The latter stimuli pose no immediate and real physical threat to survival (i.e., they are not fatal), but the former may potentially present this threat by endangering or causing death, may generate threat, and, therefore, make us more alert to our environment, and these stimuli and situations were experienced by “pre-technological” humans ( Seligman, 1971 ). These stimuli and situations were those which once posed threats to our ancestors and that we, therefore, developed an evolutionary disposition to avoid or to respond with fear, a form of selective association. Guns, for example, are not fatal unless used, and our exposure to them is limited; guns are not phobic stimuli and seeing photographs of guns – or seeing guns – does not elicit significant fear, and not the degree of fear that stimuli to which we are evolutionarily predisposed to fear evoke. A person pointing a gun at us, however, with the intention to fire or with the threat of the intention to fire is clearly a direct threat but not one that is evolutionarily created.

One of most common phobias is arachnophobia, and spiders have been a staple of horror films since the 1950s, although only 0.1–0.3% of spider species are venomous ( Gerdes et al., 2009 ) and conditioned fear to spiders is very difficult to extinguish ( Davey, 1994 ). Individuals are faster at detecting images of spiders and snakes among innocuous stimuli than they are innocuous stimuli placed in an array of threatening stimuli ( Öhman et al., 2001 ). This predisposition facilitates vigilance (occasionally, over-vigilance and we see threat in ambiguous situations) to sources of threat or danger with greater attention paid to some stimuli ( Clasen, 2014 ; March et al., 2017 ). It is a self-protection and survival-enabling mechanism motivating us to confront (and, therefore, remove the potential source of threat) or flee (thereby, removing us from the context in which a threat could result in endangerment).

Fear is related to expressions of disgust, and the literature on phobia suggests that the strength of fear for phobic objects is closely related to disgust sensitivity but not trait anxiety ( Davey, 1994 ) such that people who express abnormal fear of an object also show high degrees of sensitivity to disgusting stimuli but are not dispositionally, highly anxious. A specific phobia, which appears to be qualitatively and quantitatively different from others and is relevant in the context of horror film, is the fear of blood or blood-injection-injury phobia ( Wani et al., 2014 ; Brinkmann et al., 2017 ). This accounts for 3–4% of phobias and is characterized by fear of blood withdrawal, medical intervention, and seeing others’ blood ( Brinkmann et al., 2017 ). Vasovagal syncope (fainting due to low blood pressure and heart rate caused by exposure to a stimulus) is seen in 75% of phobic individuals – there is a short increase followed by a decrease in heart rate. Individuals experience fear, anxiety, and disgust and avoid or decline medical treatment because of the strength of their phobic reaction ( Wani et al., 2014 ). This extreme experience may explain why some people feel squeamish at the sight of blood in horror: blood is unique as a stimulus, which evokes a strong fear or disgust reaction.

Neuropsychology and Horror Film

Fear is the most widely studied emotion in science because it can be easily conditioned, studied, and observed in non-human organisms. There is a substantial literature, which has attempted to explain fear conditioning and learning through reference to its underlying neuropsychology, and much of this work has been conducted on non-human species ( LeDoux and Hofmann, 2018 ). In humans, much of our understanding of the neurology of fear has derived from neuroimaging research and studies of brain injury. One of the brain regions involved in fear recognition and experience is the amygdala ( Martin, 2008 ; March et al., 2017 ), and a considerable literature exists examining the role of this structure in the conditioning and maintenance of fear.

No study has specifically examined the effect of exposure to horror film on brain activation, although hundreds of studies have examined the effect of exposure of fear-related stimuli, including films designed to induce fear, on brain activation measured via MEG, PET, fMRI, and EEG. Many studies have examined the consequence of brain injury on the fear response, and one study is especially relevant to horror film as it examined the effect of bilateral amygdala injury on responses to fear-related stimuli in a film-related context ( Feinstein et al., 2011 ).

In this study, a 44-year-old woman with normal IQ and language showed impaired fear conditioning, impaired recognition of fear in faces, and impaired social-related fear. Feinstein et al. attempted to induce fear by taking her to the pet shop where there were snakes and spiders, walking her through a haunted house, and having her watch horror films. Although she verbally indicated avoidance of the spiders she physically approached them and asked 15 times if she could touch one; at the haunted house (a visitor attraction), she volunteered to lead a group of visitors, did not hesitate in walking around, and was not scared by the monsters (she scared the actors). None of the 10 horror film clips elicited fear (other film clips designed to elicit other emotions successfully elicited those emotions) and she asked for the name of one so that she could rent it. She recognized that most people would be scared by them. This is only comprehensive study of the effect of region-relevant brain injury on the perception of horror films and horror-related stimuli in a single-case study, and while single case studies need to be interpreted cautiously, the study does provide the opening for other studies to confirm the role of these structures in horror appreciation. One possible extension of this study would be to examine whether amygdala reactivity is associated with enjoyment of horror film (those with highly reactive amygdalae may fear or enjoy horror more than those with less reactive amygdalae) or whether the amygdala becomes increasingly active with greater stimulation, and the intensity of the experience correlates with the increase in activity while watching.

Conclusions

The current review sought to determine why people watch horror film and how exposure to horror film affects behavior. Based on the literature from various disciplines, the following conclusions can be reached: (1) low empathy and fearfulness are associated with more enjoyment and desire to watch horror; (2) specific dimensions of empathy are better predictors of people’s responses than are others, but these dimensions are inconsistently predictive; (3) empathetic concern and personal distress are negatively correlated with enjoyment of horror involving torture; (4) there is a positive relationship between sensation seeking and horror enjoyment/preference, but this relationship is not consistent and may depend on the component of sensation seeking; (5) men and boys prefer to watch – and enjoy and seek out – horror more than do women and girls; (6) women and girls report experiencing more fear and anxiety generally than do men and express greater anxiety and fear when watching horror than do boys and men; (7) this sex difference may be attributable to women’s typical higher disgust sensitivity and anxiety proneness (both of which are inter-related); (8) women report more empathetic concern than do men, and this may be another explanatory mechanism; (9) no study to date has systematically explored disgust sensitivity as a mediator in horror enjoyment and preference, but the evidence would suggest that the former will predict the latter; (10) older children are more afraid of concrete objects/stimuli when very young but of symbolic stimuli when younger; (11) individuals tend to prefer horror less as they age, but there is little literature on this topic; (12) children use various coping strategies to overcome horror film-related fear and the success of these depends on the age of the child; (13) physical coping strategies are more successful in younger children; (14) priming with information about the feared object helps reduce fear and increase enjoyment when children watch a film featuring the feared stimulus; (15) the startle reflex is amplified in the presence of threatening stimuli; and (16) little is understood about the role of neuropsychology in the response to horror film generally although the understanding of the structures and regions of the brain implicated in fear and fear conditioning is well documented; the amygdala is likely to be involved in the reaction to (and enjoyment of) horror.

Limitations and Future Directions

The conclusions in the previous paragraph are based on a very limited set of data. The studies from which such data have been drawn have varied in sample size, methodology, and materials, and these are three clearly identifiable and major limitations in this field. Hoffner and Levine (2005) have highlighted similar limitations in their meta-analysis. The type and selection of stimuli used in behavioral studies of horror film and researchers’ definition of what constitutes a “horror” or “graphic” horror film has led to a literature, which renders making generalizations about horror’s effects difficult, the summary above notwithstanding. Studies have used a variety – although a very restricted variety – of horror films over 30 years of research, and the films share little in common apart from being classed as horror film. The Silence of the Lambs, Cannibal Holocaust, The Babadook, Saw, The Blair Witch Project, Psycho, Dracula , and The Devil Rides Out are all horror films, but each has distinctive mechanisms of evoking fear and disgust based on story, film making, plot, characters, sound, performance, visual effects, credibility, and use of music. No one study can fully take into account our response to horror because not all horror films are the same ( Oliver, 1993a , b ), and this limitation needs to be more clearly recognized and addressed in future work.

Hoffner and Levine (2005) have concluded that the nature of the media content in these studies can explain the failure to find homogeneity in the correlations between enjoyment of horror media and empathic concern in their meta-analysis. As noted earlier, when correlations were found for empathy and horror enjoyment, the most consistent correlations found were in those studies in which victimization formed the dominant aspect of the horror stimuli. When these studies were removed, the correlations for the remaining studies fell to almost zero. These studies measured participants’ responses to the enjoyment of horror film as a genre (or response to a drama with a likeable victim), rather than their responses to specific horror films or their experience of watching specific horror films. Hoffner and Levine’s analysis identifies at least two limitations in the field noted here: the heterogeneity of the material used as stimuli in experiments, and the nature of the question asked in these studies (for example, whether the question is: do you enjoy this specific film/film clip? or Do you enjoy this genre of film?). The former limitation can be easily resolved via empirical research. Studies, for example, might examine the role of the nature of the character, the narrative drive of a film (point of view), the esthetics of the film, a film’s use of music, the number acts of violence, and the types of acts of graphic violence and the perpetrator of the violence, the characteristics of the perpetrator, and the victim (their attractiveness, age and sex, for example), a film’s use of color and the use of specific tropes and techniques (such as found-footage and types of horror film). This is not to say that some of these elements have not been studied – this review and others have described studies in which they have – but there has been little research which has examined these elements systematically and methodically, and some elements have not been explored at all.

The issue of self-report – and self-report based on very small samples – is another possible limitation in that authors rely on individuals’ subjective reports based on their impressions and perceptions, and these reports are based on responses to standard questionnaires or questionnaires developed by the authors. This is an issue for any research, which aims to determine how people think and feel and is currently the most effective way of measuring people’s responses. It is possible to study non-verbal measures (such as movement, EEG, brain activation, GSR, and so on), but these are indirect, correlational measures of what an individual might be thinking or feeling. Motor behavior, however, may be a very informative indicator of response to horror, as some of the studies reviewed here suggest.

Given the current accessibility of film and media generally via smartphones, as well as internet-ready TVs and, of course, computers, one topic of research that has been little studied is whether the medium affects the perception and enjoyment of horror films. Filmmakers may bemoan the viewing of material on a smartphone that was designed for a screen that is 1,000 times larger, but it would be instructive to examine whether screen size affects people’s esthetic, emotional, and cognitive response to horror. Screen size and its effect on the enjoyment of displayed material have been relatively well-studied (see, for example, Grabe et al., 1999 ; Lombard et al., 2000 ; Rigby et al., 2016 ). In the context of horror, however, it is hypothesizable that increased screen size leads to increased visibility and that this would result in a stronger fright reaction because more of the horror can be seen and seen more clearly. It is also possible that the augmentation of the screen would also augment the sound (an auditory-sound illusion) so that bigger screens might affect our perception of horror because of this visual illusion.

There is also scope for further research on coping with the effects of watching horror film and of mitigating the fright if the experience is considered too intense or too unmanageable. Of course, individuals could choose not to watch or could chose to watch selectively if they are in front of the screen. But there may be more imaginative strategies that might be adopted such as the introduction of non-visual, non-verbal, and non-auditory stimuli (e.g., scent). It is possible that the presence of a pleasant scent might alleviate some of the fright generated by horror film if such alleviation is required (either because it distracts or because it creates or elevates positive mood). There is some evidence that this might be possible ( Martin, 2013 ), and this is a question that merits pursuit. Wes Craven’s film, The Last House On The Left , utilized a similar, if non-olfactory distraction technique in the tagline for the film, which was “Keep repeating, it’s only a film…it’s only a film…”

The majority of the studies reviewed here has included mono-cultural samples, and the current review was unable to uncover any cross-cultural research on horror enjoyment or preference. An understanding of the cultural influences on film preference (especially horror) and the individual differences that may underpin them warrants investigation given that certain genres of horror appear to be more popular and appear more often, in specific cultures: Different cultures place different emphases on certain types of content and Japanese horror with its emphasis on ghosts, the supernatural is an obvious example ( Balmain, 2008 ; McRoy, 2008 ). Others have argued that the European horror film is distinct from other types of horror film and has a specific “esthetic” ( Allmer et al., 2012 ). There is a considerable literature on the difference between collectivistic and individualistic cultures with research suggesting that the psychological responses of individuals from each type of cultural background are different ( Matsumoto et al., 2008 ; Alotaibi et al., 2017 ; Gendron, 2017 ). In the field of horror film perception, experience, and enjoyment, it could be hypothesized that individuals from collectivistic cultures might respond differently to horror (and victims in horror) than do individuals from individualistic cultures – specifically individuals from collectivistic cultures may express greater fear compared to those from individualistic cultures – and this is an hypothesis that can be easily tested.

With interest and appreciation in horror increasing, the scope for undertaking research into horror film has never been more timely. There is still much to discover and still much to understand. Horror, said Adorno in another context, was beyond the scope of psychology. The research would suggest that the weight of evidence is on the side of one of horror’s innovators. Without psychology, Dario Argento once said, the horror film does not exist.

Author Contributions

The author confirms being the sole contributor of this work and has approved it for publication.

Conflict of Interest

The author declares that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Acknowledgments

The author would like to thank Dr Charlie Allbright, Phil Hughes, and four reviewers, especially reviewer 2, for their detailed and thoughtful comments on earlier drafts of this paper, and to Edward Lionheart for planting the seed for this review.

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Keywords: horror, terror, fear, film, cinema

Citation: Martin GN (2019) (Why) Do You Like Scary Movies? A Review of the Empirical Research on Psychological Responses to Horror Films. Front. Psychol . 10:2298. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2019.02298

Received: 07 February 2019; Accepted: 25 September 2019; Published: 18 October 2019.

Reviewed by:

Copyright © 2019 Martin. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) . The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

*Correspondence: G. Neil Martin, [email protected]

Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

Horror Film - List of Free Essay Examples And Topic Ideas

Horror films are a genre of movies aiming to create a sense of fear, panic, alarm, and dread for the audience. Essays on horror films might explore the evolution of the genre, the techniques used to evoke fear, the sub-genres of horror films, or the societal and psychological factors that contribute to the popularity and appeal of horror films. They may also delve into the impact of horror films on popular culture, the representation of gender, race, and social issues within horror narratives, or the critical analysis of specific horror films and directors. We have collected a large number of free essay examples about Horror Film you can find in Papersowl database. You can use our samples for inspiration to write your own essay, research paper, or just to explore a new topic for yourself.

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How to Write a Great Horror Movie

There's only one genre out there that everyone is buying. so in honor of halloween, i want to walk you through how to write a horror movie. get your knives ready. .

The horror genre is tried and true. It's the one genre every studio and streamer is buying. Why? 

Because it's the one that usually delivers the most profitable movies. Horror films come with a huge audience, and the nature of the stories usually keep them pretty cheap. 

But are there tricks to writing a horror screenplay that makes the process different?

I don't know about any tricks.... but I can assure you this post is a real treat! 

Okay, if that didn't chase you away or horrify you enough to stop reading, let's forge ahead into the unknown...

What's the worst that could happen? 

Table of Contents

Horror movie definition .

What is a horror movie?  

A horror movie is a film whose plot is  designed to frighten the viewer. The story must cause some sort of existential dread and invoke our very worst fears. Horror films are roller coasters for viewers often climaxing in a shocking finale. They can be cathartic or just plain fun. 

What kinds of horror movies are out there? 

There are so many different kinds of horror movies in the world. This genre contains a bunch of subgenres. Before you start writing, you should pick one, or mash a few up.

I want to address something that comes up in the comments a lot. I often get people replying "This is fine, but what actually sold with this stuff?"

I know we aren't supposed to read the comments, but the comments section is my horror movie. 

I usually don't address this stuff but I want to this time. 

Mostly because as a professional writer, horror is where I've found most of my recent work. 

Last year I wrote on a horror anthology series that was on Netflix called Don't Watch This . My episode was called Keep Out.  I've done extensive work for CryptTV .  Keep your eyes out for it. 

My point is: I have worked in this space and I want to help. 

I'm not calling myself "the authority" but I'm only going to give you the things I've used for my screenplay work. 

So let's look at some of the horror sub-genres and see what each entails. 

Horror movie sub-genres 

Slasher movies usually have killers who use knives or hooks or machetes to hack up their victims. They can be like Texas Chainsaw Massacre or Scream in tone. There can be one or multiple killers. They have a lot in common with the mystery genre and thrillers. 

From Godzilla to The   Fly , monster movies come in all shapes and sizes. Usually, these monsters terrorize a small community, like in Jaws , but they can also be a global threat, like in Cloverfield . We don't always need a direct scientific explanation for why or how the monster exists, but that might clue everyone in on how you can defeat them. 

Supernatural  

Ghosts, demons, and Satan all exist within these worlds. Your demons can be like Freddy Kreuger or they can be like the possessor in The Exorcist . They can be spirits like in The Others or a riff like in Ghost . Or just straight-up horrific like in Poltergeist . 

Inanimate Objects 

A few years ago it felt like every movie had a scary doll in it. Now, with the Chucky reboot and Anabelle , these dolls don't seem like they're going away. But what about something like The Fog or Christine ? They also fall into these types. 

Found Footage 

I know this is technically a WAY to make a movie, but I wanted to address it last. While these movies are not as popular as they once were, the staples are still the most famous. The Blair Witch, The Visit, and Paranormal Activity  changed the way we viewed cinema. You have to write for found footage for it to be found footage. 

How to Write a Horror Movie (Free Outline)

Before you sit down to write or outline, I wanted to go over some of the tropes within these kinds of films. These tropes can be things you subvert or lean into depending on the situation. You can learn about them here or see them in action by d ownloading 80 Horror Screenplays for inspiration ! 

So let's ask the question...

What are some horror screenplay tropes? 

Guys, I love a great horror screenplay. They make the hairs on the back of your neck stand up and make you shake with excitement. 

Common tropes of horror screenplays include:

• Action : People often creep around with little dialogue. 
• Suspense: Pacing in horror is a must. Think Hitchcock ! 
• Jumpscares : Sudden noises or reveals should POP off the page. 
• Gore : Gruesome death or torture scenes are commonplace in these movies. 
• A memorable villain: Create someone who will haunt dreams for years to come. 

Okay, you picked your horror subgenre and found our logline and treatment pages so you did your prep work. Now it's time to jump into the outline and then in your screenwriting software to type some pages. 

So what does a horror screenplay outline look like? 

The horror screenplay outline:, 1. unraveling the terror  - do you have an opening scare that defines the movie.

Do you like  Scream ? The opening scene of the  screenplay  sets the tone for the entire story. 

2. The Entry Point  - Who will be involved in these terrifying escapades and what are they dealing with? 

In a movie like  Dawn of the Dead , it's the series of scenes where we meet who will inhabit the mall. 

3. Before It Goes to Shit  - What’s a normal day look like in this world?

Think about the way the family gets by in  Poltergiest  before the ghosts show up. 

4. The Horror Sets In  - What horrific thing sets our characters off on their journey?

Nothing is worse than realizing your daughter is possessed as the characters do in  The Exorcist .   

5. The Uneasy Path - Everyone is together, what keeps them moving this way?

In something like  Godzilla , it's the reason why they deal with the monster at hand? What do they have to gain? 

6. Walking Over Broken Glass - How do our heroes deal with the problems as they go?

In the  Saw  franchise, this is how people try to get out of the sick traps and hunt Jigsaw. 

7. Through The Dark Cave  - Do you have a B story? Set that story off on its own now too.

B-stories, like the marital tension in  Rosemary's Baby , are great scenes to juxtapose against the horror at hand. 

8. Reassess the Terror  - You’re in the middle. Is there another way to get out alive?

In  Shaun of the Dead  its when they decide to go to the Winchester. 

9. People are Going to Die  - Things begin to fall apart, let the body count rise and show how they deal with it. 

In  The Descent , this is when the people in the group begin to be picked off one by one. 

10. The Fall  - The worst thing happens, something so bad you don’t think you can get up.

I n a horror movie like  The Mist , it's when they are forced outside and surrounded by the actual mist. 

11. The Hidden Clue  - What do your characters discover that they never saw before?

Is there a way out? Something they never realized, like in the  Sixth Sense  when David realizes he's a ghost. 

12. Race To the Final (Girl)  - They’re up and running no matter what. They can make it! 

This is the series of scenes that carries us toward your thrilling finale. In  Alien , it's when Ripley is confronted and has to think fast. 

13. The Moment of Relief  - Did they make it out alive? Has life returned to normal?

What does their day feel like with the problem corrected? Think about when  Jaws  finally blows up?

14. Where We Go From Here? - Show us the world in a new light, hint what’s next. Maybe the killer or monster returns for one final scare!

In every horror movie, it feels like there's one last scare. Like in  I Still Know What you did Last Summer  when it turns out the hook-handed man is under the bed! 

Horror Movies and Comedy Movies 

One last thing I wanted to address is the addition of humor to your screenplay. 

So many horror movies use comedy to help bring levity to dark things. Sure, it doesn't happen all the time, but comedy helps ease people into scenes., If you're laughing, you might be more susceptible to a jump scare or a misdirect. 

You can be as funny as Shaun of the Dead , or use the deadpan humor of The Dead Don't Die. 

Even titles as unsettling as Midsommar contain humor that helps the audience engage. 

So consider adding humor to your pages to keep them turning. 

Sam Raimi, one of the best to do it, uses comedy in all his horror films. 

What's next? Learn about Movie and TV genres ! 

Film and TV genres affect who watches your work, how it's classified, and even how it's reviewed. So how do you decide what you're writing? And which genres to mash-up? The secret is in the tropes. 

How to Write Your Script's Climax

Learning how to write a climax will help keep your script tight and exciting. but how do you do it.

When you're writing your screenplay you'll find mapping things out based on story structure can be cathartic. It eases you into each scene and provides a story map for where you are going.

For me, writing the climax is the most satisfying part of screenwriting. You get to anticipate the audience. Surprise them. And it means you're almost done.

But how can you write those scenes with confidence and learn how to master writing the climax?

Today, we'll learn how to write a climax in your script and talk about the basic tenents that can push your climax over the edge.

Let's go.

How to Write a Climax

Many people cite the climax as their favorite part of a movie or television episode. But what does the climax truly mean?

A climax is the most intense, exciting, or important point of a movie or television show. It marks the amalgamation of all the scenes that came before it and includes most of the payoffs within the film or episode.

When you're writing the climax there are certain elements you want to keep in mind no matter what genre you're writing.

The climax may involve:

1. expensive set-pieces.

Climaxes are usually where all the money is spent. They have set pieces that are huge. Think about what has never been done before? Where can you do something that blows an audience away and showcases your unique talents? How and you amp up your wow factor?

Example : Think the helicopter chase from Mission Impossible: Fallout

2. Outrageous stunts

As a Jackie Chan fan, I knew the best stunts came at the end of the movie. You can write anything and let the coordinators figure it out later. So write something nuts. It can even be as nuts as just getting hit by a bus, like in Mean Girls . Just make it memorable.

Example : Think the ending on Police Story

3. Intense emotional payoffs

Climaxes don't only happen in action movies. And no matter what your story is about either, you need people juked ed at the end. That means giving them all the emotions they can handle. In a drama, that might be a final farewell or just the reunion of two characters kept apart. You want the emotions to mix with both points above to make the story exciting.

Example : Mad Men 's last call between Betty and Don

The beats of the climax

Every climax has specific story beats that make them clue the audience in that we're approaching the end. Take a look at these examples from our Beat Sheet.

Story Beats:

• Rock Bottom

What's the lowest point for your character?

• The Bounce Back

How does your protagonist face the odds to persevere?

How does your character win out against the odds? Or maybe they lose...

Climax examples

While these beats don't have to happen in the climax, I thought it would be good to look at some examples as you structure your climaxes. When you think about your climax, you want to approach it like writing any other scene . There should be conflict, drama, and intrigue. But this time, since it's at the end of your movie or episode, you want it to pay off what we've seen previously.

So, in something like Breaking Bad S05 E16, when Walt takes on the meth-making gang of white supremacists, you want to understand everything he's set up with the machine gun, car, and remote control. We also know his continued losses to this gang and his determination to make them pay.

His triumph here comes at a great coast, but it frees his best friend.

Again, this doesn't all have to be action. One of my favorite movies of all time is Young Adult.

The climax of that underrated film happens at a baby shower, where Mavis tries to get the father of the baby -- and her old crush -- to leave the city with her. Here, we get a huge reveal of who the self-centered Mavis is and why she behaves this way. We find out about the trauma she has endured and actually begin to feel sorry for her.

In this drama, the bounce back and triumph come a scene later: She finds the adulation she's always wanted and therefore is able to revert to her high school mindset once again.

Summing up how to write climaxes

Now that you understand what goes into the climax, it's time for you to assess your own story and see what it needs. As you approach your screenplay, ask yourself what character moments you can pay off to see the arc .

These answers should be in your character's development .

If you're struggling for a place for the climax to be set, go back to act one and see if you can plant a location and then pay it off later. And if you're having trouble writing the final pages, maybe scrolls through our action genre and comedy genre pages to see how the masters do it.

Now get out there and get writing!

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My Favorite Horror Movie: 48 Essays By Horror Creators On The Film That Shaped Them Paperback – May 8, 2018

The lights go down. 90 minutes from now, your feeble mind will never be the same. Thoughts of flowers, puppy dogs, and serene shopping malls will be replaced with ghosts in your TV, zombies tearing your flesh, and chainsaws ripping through your chest! This singular horror movie experience, which caused you to forever hold disdain for preppies, wear black to family functions, and scare your siblings to death, is now embedded in your DNA! Long live horror!

Produced and edited by horror filmmaker Christian Ackerman, My Favorite Horror Movie is a ghoulish celebration of how the singular viewing of a horror film can inspire someone to find their identity and develop an obsession of dark arts. Featuring contributors with various professional horror backgrounds such as filmmakers, actors, writers, directors, painters, musicians, journalists and film festival directors, the essays in My Favorite Horror Movie celebrate classic films from the likes of George Romero, John Carpenter, Sam Raimi, Tobe Hooper, Dan O’Bannon, Wes Craven, Alfred Hitchcock, and many more!

Contributors From the World of Horror: Alex Napiwocki, Arielle Brachfeld, B. Harrison Smith, Bill Shafer, Blake Reigle, C. Courtney Joyner, Calder Greenwood, Cerina Vincent, Chris Hampton, Christian Ackerman, Christopher Jimenez, Chuck Foster, Chuck Parello, Clint Carney, Dave Parker, Eric Spudic, Ernie Trinidad, Esther Goodstein, Felissa Rose, Frank Merle, Graham Skipper, Hank Braxton, Hunter Johnson, Jack Bennett, James Cullen Bressack, Jared Rivet, Jeffrey Reddick, Jonathan Martin, Josh McKevitt, Joshua Lou Friedman, Julia Hapney, Ken Jacobsen, Matt Mercer, Michael Gingold, Michael Klug, Miguel Rodriguez, Nick Phillips, Rolfe Kanefsky, Ryan Lambert, Sarah Nicklin, Sean Decker, Spooky Dan Walker, Staci Layne Wilson, Tammy Sutton, Terry Wolfinger, Todd Robey, Tony Timpone, & Trista Robinson

• Print length 240 pages
• Language English
• Publication date May 8, 2018
• Dimensions 5.5 x 0.55 x 8.5 inches
• ISBN-10 1732270201
• ISBN-13 978-1732270206
• See all details

Editorial Reviews

About the author, product details.

• Publisher ‏ : ‎ Black Vortex Cinema (May 8, 2018)
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Paperback ‏ : ‎ 240 pages
• ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1732270201
• ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1732270206
• Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 9.9 ounces
• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.5 x 0.55 x 8.5 inches
• #49 in Horror Movies
• #82 in Movie Guides & Reviews
• #352 in Movie History & Criticism

About the authors

C. courtney joyner.

C. Courtney Joyner is a screenwriter and director with over 25 produced movies to his credit, including the cult films PRISON starring Viggo Mortensen and directed by Renny Harlin, Mark Lester's CLASS OF 1999, THE OFFSPRING starring Vincent Price, and entries in both the PUPPETMASTER and TRANCERS series for Full Moon/Paramount. A graduate of USC - and a teenage extra in George Romero's DAWN OF THE DEAD - Courtney's first movie was THE OFFSPRING starring the legendary Vincent Price. His work in television has included TV movies for CBS, (DISTANT COUSINS), the USA Network (BETRAYAL, GUILTY AS CHARGED), and Showtime (WHITE RUSH). For the SyFy Channel, he co-wrote all 13 episodes of the series, WILLIAM SHATNER'S FRIGHT NIGHT. His latest screenwriting work is COP WAR with Sheldon Lettich and a biography of the outlaw Belle Starr.

As a film journalist, his articles have appeared in TRUE WEST, WILDEST WESTERNS, ROUND-UP, FANGORIA, FAMOUS MONSTERS OF FILMLAND, THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER, and others. He is the author of the very well-recieved THE WESTERNERS: INTERVIEWS WITH ACTORS, DIRECTORS AND WRITERS, and has made major contributions to non-fiction books such as LON CHANEY, JR, THE CINEMA OF H.P. LOVECRAFT, THE BOOK OF LISTS: HORROR, IT CAME FROM THE VIDEO AISLE, TRASH CINEMA, MOVIES FROM THE END OF THE WORLD, HIGH CONCEPT MOVIE MASSACRE, DUKE: WE'RE GLAD WE KNEW YOU, and EMPIRE OF THE B's. He has also been an on-cmaera historian and commentator on more than 50 dvd and blu-ray releases of western, horror, and science-fiction movies and TV shows, including, BROKEN ARROW, THE INCREDIBLE SHRINKING MAN, THE THING, DOC, STAGECOACH, MYSTERIOUS ISLAND, RUNAWAY TRAIN, THE MAD MAGICIAN, COUNT YORGA- VAMPIRE, RAWHIDE, THE CULPEPPER CATTLE CO, THE GRAND DUEL, COMPANEROS, HE WALKED BY NIGHT, T-MEN, GORGO, EDGE OF ETERNITY, REVENGE OF THE CREATURE, THE COMANCHEROS, THE BIG TRAIL, CHARLIE CHAN AT THE OPERA, APACHE RIFLES, THE TWILIGHT ZONE, THE BIG GUNDOWN, THE LONER, ANNIE OAKLEY, MYSTERY SCIENCE THEATER 3000, and many, many more.

He has appeared in the feature-length docs, OUT OF PRINT and the upcoming RAOUL WALSH: THE TRUE ADVENTURES OF HOLLYWOOD'S LEGENDARY DIRECTOR. Joyner is also the Co-Executive Producer of the feature-length documentary CELLULOID WIZARDS IN THE VIDEO WASTELAND, about the rise and fall of "B" move company Empire Pictures, that will be released in 2018.

Joyner's novel-length western fiction includes creating the SHOTGUN series for Pinnacle books: SHOTGUN, SHOTGUN: THE BLEEDING GROUND, BUSHWHACKED: THE BLOODY SAGA OF JOHN "SHOTGUN" BISHOP, SHOTGUN: THESE VIOLENT TIMES, and the upcoming SHOTGUN: BULLET KISSED. He is also the author of the fantasy adventure NEMO RISING from Tor Books, which continues the story of Jules Verne's legendary characters, and was released on Dec. 25th, 2017.

Joyner's short fictions can be found in the anthologies LAW OF THE GUN, BEAT TO A PULP, FISTFUL OF LEGENDS, THE TRADITIONAL WEST, SIX GUNS AND SLAY BELLS, HELL COMES TO HOLLYWOOD, and others. His story "Two Bit Kill" from LAW OF THE GUN was nominated for a Peacemaker Award by the Western Fictioneers as Best Short Story of 2010, while "Christmas for Evangeline" from SIX GUNS AND SLAY BELLS was nominated for the same award in 2013. In 2014, SHOTGUN was nominated for a Peacemaker as Best First Novel. Among other awards, Joyner has received the President's Award from The Western Writers of America. He is a member of The Horror Writers Association and The International Thriller Writers. Courtney lives in Los Angeles.

Christian Ackerman

Los Angeles-based producer, writer, and director Christian Ackerman began his career as a production assistant at The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. Since then, he has gone on to produce 29 features including Collide, Deltopia, Portal, and Bethany, and the upcoming grindhouse film Night of the Bastard.

As a writer, he wrote Night of the Bastard (with partner Chuck Foster), Joe Bob's Haunted Drive-In (with Foster and Joe Bob Briggs), and Deadly Reunion.

Starting in 2018, he spearheaded the revered My Favorite Horror Movie trilogy of books, featuring 150 essays by horror legends and luminaries on the film that shaped their lives.

Besides writing, directing, and producing, Christian has worked on over 2000 hours of television, including over 200 episodes as an Art Director.

He served as curator and/or judge for Filmquest, SoCal Creative & Innovative Film Festival, Joe Bob's Haunted Drive-In Festival, and Comedy Ninja Film Fest.

His films have won over 35 awards and played around the world.

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101 Terrifying Horror Story Prompts

Welcome to the story den of horror, scares, and the macabre.

Most writers are often asked, "Where do you get your ideas from?" A majority of the time, writers find it difficult to answer that question.

We get our ideas from a plethora of sources — news headlines, novels, television shows, movies, our lives, our fears, our phobias, etc. They can come from a scene or moment in a film that wasn't fully explored. They can come from a single visual that entices the creative mind — a seed that continues to grow and grow until the writer is forced to finally put it to paper or screen.

In the spirit of helping writers find those seeds, here we offer 101 originally conceived and terrifying story prompts that you can use as inspiration for your next horror story.

They may inspire screenplays, novels, short stories, or even smaller moments that you can include in what stories you are already writing or what you will create in your upcoming projects.

But beware! If you scare easily — and have active imaginations like most writers do — turn up the lights and proceed with caution...

1. A girl goes missing in the woods, and her parents find only a decrepit and scary doll left behind. They soon learn that the doll is actually their daughter. And she's alive.

2. New residents of an old neighborhood are invited by their friendly neighbors to a Halloween party. The neighbors are vampires.

3. A family dog runs away from home. He returns a year later to the delight of his family. But there's something different about him. Something demonic.

4. A girl goes missing. Fifteen years later, her parents get a call from her older self. But they listen in fear because they killed their daughter that dark night years ago.

5. A man reads a novel, soon realizing that the story is his very own — and according to the book, a killer is looming.

6. A scientist clones his family that died in an airplane crash — but soon learns the repercussions of playing God.

7. A man wakes up bound to an electric chair.

8. A man wakes up in a coffin next to a freshly dead body.

9. A woman wakes up to find her family gone and her doors and windows boarded up with no way to escape.

10. A man afraid of snakes is shipwrecked on an island covered with them.

11. Serial killers worldwide are connected by a dark web website.

12. The world's population is overtaken by vampires — all except one little child.

13. A woman afraid of clowns is forced to work in a traveling circus.

14. An astronaut and cosmonaut are on the International Space Station when their countries go to Nuclear War with each other. Their last orders are to eliminate the other.

15. A treasure hunter finds a tomb buried beneath the dirt.

16. A young brother and sister find an old door in their basement that wasn't there before.

17. Winged creatures can be seen within the storm clouds above.

18. A man wakes up to find a hobo clown staring down at him.

19. Residents of a town suddenly fall dead while the dead from cemeteries around them rise.

20. A doctor performs the first head transplant — things go wrong.

21. A man is texted pictures of himself in various stages of torture that he has no memory of.

22. A girl wakes up to find a little boy sitting on his bed, claiming to be her younger brother — but she never had one.

23. A scare walk in the woods during Halloween is actually real.

24. A bartender serves last call to the only remaining patron, who is the Devil himself.

25. Earth suffers a planet-wide blackout as all technology is lost.

26. A boy's stepfather is actually a murderous werewolf.

27. Something has turned the neighborhood pets into demonic killers.

28. A priest is a vampire.

29. A woman wakes up with no eyes.

30. A man wakes up with no mouth.

31. A monster is terrified by the scary child who lives above his bed.

32. An astronaut jettisoned into the cold of space in a mission gone wrong suddenly appears at the doorstep of his family.

33. A woman answers a phone call only to learn that the voice on the other end is her future self, warning her that a killer is looming.

34. A boy realizes that aliens have replaced his family.

35. A woman wakes up in an abandoned prison that she cannot escape.

36. A bank robber steals from the small town bank that holds the riches of witches.

37. A door-to-door salesman circa the 1950s visits the wrong house.

38. Deceased soldiers return to their Civil War-era homes.

39. Kidnappers abduct the child of a vampire.

40. An innocent circus clown discovers the dark history of the trade.

41. A homeless man is stalked by faceless beings.

42. A spelunker stumbles upon a series of caverns infested with rattlesnakes.

43. A group of friends is forced to venture through a chamber of horrors where only one is promised to survive.

44. He's not the man she thought he was. In fact, he's not a man at all.

45. Suburbia is actually purgatory.

46. Someone discovers that we are all actually robots — who created us and why?

47. She's not an angel. She's a demon.

48. An old shipwreck washes ashore.

49. A sinkhole swallows a house whole and unleashes something from beneath.

50. A man has sleep paralysis at the worst possible time.

51. A woman out hiking is caught in a bear trap as the sun begins to go down.

52. Naked figures with no faces stalk campers in the woods.

53. An astronaut is the sole survivor of a moon landing gone wrong — only to discover that the moon is infested with strange creatures.

54. A woman is wrongfully condemned to an insane asylum.

55. A mother's baby will not leave its womb and continues to grow and grow and grow while doctors try to cut it out but can't.

56. Friends on a road trip stumble upon a backcountry town whose residents all dress up as different types of clowns.

57. Tourists in Ireland retreat to an old castle when the country is taken over by greedy and vengeful leprechauns.

58. A boy on a farm makes a scarecrow that comes alive.

59. A figure dressed in an old, dirty Easter Bunny suit haunts the children of a town.

60. The abused animals of a zoo are unleashed and wreak havoc on a small town.

61. A deceased grandma's old doll collection comes alive.

62. Little Red Riding Hood was a vampire.

63. Somebody clones Hitler and raises him as a white supremacist.

64. A pumpkin patch comes alive — beings with heads of pumpkins and bodies of vines.

65. An endless swarm of killer bees wreaks havoc on the country.

66. Christ returns to Earth — at least that is who people thought he was.

67. A natural anomaly brings all of the country's spiders to a horrified town.

68. A woman finds old 16mm film from her childhood and sees that she had a sister — what happened to her?

69. Something ancient rises from an old pond.

70. A woman suddenly begins to wake up in somebody else's body every morning — each day ends with her being stocked and killed by the same murderer in black.

71. An Artificial Intelligence begins to communicate with a family online, only to terrorize them through their technology.

72. A family buys a cheap house only to discover that an old cemetery is their back yard.

73. Years after the zombie apocalypse subsides, survivors discover that the epidemic was caused by aliens that have appeared to lay claim to the planet.

74. A woman has memories of being abducted by aliens — but she soon learns that they weren't aliens. They were...

75. A boy has a tumor that slowly grows into a Siamese twin — the older they get, the more evil the twin becomes.

76. A cult that worships history's deadliest serial killers begins to kill by copying their methods.

77.  Stone gargoyles suddenly appear on the tops of buildings and houses of a small town.

78. A family on a boat trip stumbles upon an old pirate ship.

79. A winter snowstorm traps a family in an abandoned insane asylum.

80. A little girl comes down from upstairs and asks her parents, "Can you hear it breathing? I can."

81. A town is enveloped in unexplained darkness for weeks.

82. A jetliner flies high in the sky as Nuclear War breaks out below.

83. Children discover a deep, dark well in the woods — an old ladder leads down into it.

84. A child sleepwalks into their parent's room and whispers, "I'm sorry. The Devil told me to."

85. As a woman showers, a voice comes from the drain whispering, "I see you."

86. A child finds a crayon drawing of a strange family — it's inscribed with the words we live in your walls .

87. All of the cemetery's graves are now open, gaping holes — the dirt pushed out from underground.

88. A woman is watching a scary movie alone on Halloween night — someone, or something, keeps knocking at her door.

89. Someone is taking a bath as a hand from behind the shower curtain pushes their head into the water.

90. A farmer and his sons begin to hear the laughter of children coming from his fields at night — no children are in sight.

91. Someone looks out their window to see a clown standing at a corner holding a balloon — staring at them.

92. Mannequins in a department store seem to be moving on their own.

93. What if the God people worshiped was really Satan — and Satan had somehow kept God prisoner?

94. A man dies and wakes up in the body of a serial killer — and no matter how hard he tries to stop killing, he can't.

95. A prisoner awakens to find the prison empty — but he's locked in his cell.

96. A woman jogging stumbles upon a dead, bloody body — she then hears a strange clicking sound and looks up to see a dark figure running towards her.

97. A girl hears laughter downstairs — she's the only one home.

98. An Uber driver picks up the wrong person — and may not live to tell the tale.

99. There's someone or something living and moving up in the attic — but it's not a ghost.

100. A child's imaginary friend is not imaginary.

101. The reflections that we see of ourselves in the mirror are actually us in a parallel universe — and they are planning to do whatever it takes to take our place in this world.

Share this with your writing peers or anyone that loves a good scary story.

For some more scares, check out ScreenCraft's  20 Terrifying Two-Sentence Horror Stories and  8 Ways Horror Movies Scare the S*** Out of Audiences!

Sleep well and keep writing.

Once you're inspired, take your idea to the next level and  Develop Your Horror Movie Idea in 15 Days .

Ken Miyamoto has worked in the film industry for nearly two decades, most notably as a studio liaison for Sony Studios and then as a script reader and story analyst for Sony Pictures.

He has many studio meetings under his belt as a produced screenwriter, meeting with the likes of Sony, Dreamworks, Universal, Disney, Warner Brothers, as well as many production and management companies. He has had a previous development deal with Lionsgate, as well as multiple writing assignments, including the produced miniseries  Blackout , starring Anne Heche, Sean Patrick Flanery, Billy Zane, James Brolin, Haylie Duff, Brian Bloom, Eric La Salle, and Bruce Boxleitner. Follow Ken on Twitter  @KenMovies 

For all the latest ScreenCraft news and updates, follow us on  Twitter  and  Facebook !

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7 most creative horror movies that defied all the tropes.

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10 Annoying Horror Movie Tropes That Can Ruin A Scary Film

10 classic horror movie rules that are still being followed today, 10 cult classic '80s horror movies that don't get enough credit.

• Tropes in horror movies can be subverted to draw audiences in with unexpected twists and creative choices by filmmakers.
• Classic horror movies like Scream broke conventions by commenting on traditional tropes, setting new standards for the genre.
• Movies like Raw delve into complex themes like cannibalism and coming-of-age, pushing boundaries in modern horror storytelling.

Horror movies, like any other genre, are capable of subverting or adhering to tropes depending on how creative the script and direction are. Tropes are a useful tool in cinema, as they indicate to an audience what to expect from the story and have helped to develop a universal visual language that viewers use as part of their media literacy skills. However, as storytelling has progressed and filmmaking has become more advanced, it's the undermining of tropes and audience expectations that draws people to movies. Subverting tropes through creative choices demonstrates the skills of a filmmaker and their team.

One of the ways that horror has been the most innovative in discussions of trope usage is in drawing direct attention to the story moment where a trope would go.

It's important to remember that horror movies aren't the only films that rely on clichés, as bad blockbusters and franchise movie tropes can be seen everywhere in modern cinema. One of the ways that horror has been the most innovative in discussions of trope usage is in drawing direct attention to the story moment where a trope would go. This meta-textual analysis of how scripts and narrative structure work can even go to the lengths of having the characters discuss the nuances of movie tropes onscreen. Though this can get confusing, it's also exciting to see these boundaries pushed.

While movie tropes are unavoidable, certain clichés in horror films can detract from the overall viewing experience once they become apparent.

7 Scream (1996)

Directed by wes craven.

Not available

Wes Craven flips the horror-slasher genre on its head with the 1996 release of Scream, the first in the long-running franchise. The residents of Woodsboro discover a series of murders are being committed by a dangerous ghost mask-wearing killer with an obsession for classic horror movies. To survive, a group of high school students, a reporter, and a town deputy will have to subvert horror expectations and stay one step ahead of the killer.

The director, Wes Craven, was behind many of the most successful horror films of the 1980s and was intimately familiar with the mechanics of how morality and murder went hand-in-hand in scary movies.

As a franchise, Scream has gone through ups and downs in terms of quality and content, but the original movie, released in 1996, was well ahead of its time. The director, Wes Craven, was behind many of the most successful horror films of the 1980s and was intimately familiar with the mechanics of how morality and murder went hand-in-hand in scary movies. He uses this to his advantage in Scream , in which he comments on the tricks every horror movie falls victim to. Additionally, Scream looks at the way the media influences young minds with depictions of violence.

Scream 7 will have Sidney back as the lead character , and it will be exciting to see what this means for the future of the franchise. Sidney is an important part of the original Scream movie as the protagonist, but also because of how her character changes the way the final girl archetype is used onscreen and her unexpected relationship with the killer. Many films have tried to copy Scream and capitalize on its success, but few have come close to the perfect balance of self-awareness and genuinely scary elements that Scream perfected.

6 Cloverfield (2008)

Directed by matt reeves.

Cloverfield

Directed by Matt Reeves, Cloverfield is a found-footage disaster movie that follows a group of people seeking safety during a state of emergency. When New York City is attacked by an unknown monstrous entity, chaos ensues. A group of friends document their attempts to flee the city and find sanctuary from an onslaught of monsters on a handheld camcorder - footage which is designated as an account of the "Cloverfield" incident.

Cloverfield successfully redefined the found footage genre for the modern era and successfully blended genres by using many different niches of horror to create a cohesive project. Seeing only bits and pieces of the characters and the monster allows the audience to use their imagination and fill in the blanks left by the movie, which increases the terror and anxiety. Even though the story is split up and told through a scattered narrative, it's easy to follow the throughline and become emotionally invested in the characters and their relationships.

Further developments in the Cloverfield universe, including 10 Cloverfield Lane and The Cloverfield Paradox ​​​​​​, have continued the trend of breaking away from expectations in the way the franchise has progressed. The sequels have been characterized as spiritual successors of the original film and avoid the pitfall of trying to recreate the magic of the first movie, as this would be impossible. Monster movies are a celebrated aspect of the horror genre, and Cloverfield managed to create a new and exciting addition to the creature feature without ripping off the most iconic monsters from cinema.

5 The Cabin In The Woods (2011)

Directed by drew goddard.

The Cabin in the Woods

The Cabin in the Woods strictly follows the traditional slasher movie dynamic: a group of teens heads to a remote location for the weekend only to find themselves beset by monsters. However, what they don't know is that the inevitable horrors they will face have all been arranged by a mysterious team watching from a facility deep underground.

Blending comedy, horror, and science fiction, The Cabin in the Woods is much more than a horror film and is an indictment of humanity's desire to see others suffer.

There are few more iconic settings for a horror movie than an isolated cabin in the woods, and the movie The Cabin in the Woods is well aware of this. Blending comedy, horror, and science fiction, The Cabin in the Woods is much more than a horror film and is an indictment of humanity's desire to see others suffer. The movie's conceit is that a cult of people controls the deaths and experiences of a group of college students during a weekend away. They're killed in the fashion of a classic slasher film, but the students realize what's going on.

Joss Whedon collaborated with the director, Drew Goddard, on the script for the film, and the pair's experience in the horror-comedy niche comes through. Having worked on the TV shows Buffy The Vampire Slayer and Angel , the writers were familiar with how to undermine the issues with the horror genre, as Buffy is a hero rather than a damsel in distress, and Angel is a vampire who fights for the side of goodness. While The Cabin in the Woods doesn't have the happiest ending, it cements the central theme that humanity is often its own worst enemy.

4 The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974)

Directed by tobe hooper.

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre

Texas Chainsaw Massacre is a multimedia franchise that began with Tobe Hooper's 1974 horror film, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. After the film's initial release, there were a total of eight additional films added to the franchise, as well as comic books from various publishers, including Avatar Press and Wildstorm Comics. In 2023, the video game The Texas Chain Saw Massacre was released on PlayStation 4/5, PC, Xbox One, and Xbox X/S.

While the slasher genre had already existed before The Texas Chainsaw Massacre came out, it developed a new facet of the niche and changed horror forever. One of the earliest examples of the final girl trope in its purest form is present in the movie, as are the other traditional character archetypes that would later come to be known as the definitive roles in horror. Additionally, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre was different from anything else seen on screen because it was essentially plotless and had no problem making the violence and chase the only conflict in the story.

Few, if any, of the sequels in the franchise are worth watching, as most of them fundamentally misunderstand the premise and themes of the original. When watching The Texas Chainsaw Massacre today, it might seem as if it plays into tropes. The horror movies that Hollywood puts out into the mainstream today are rife with the story elements that films like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre invented. It's important to remember that in 1974, witnessing the violence and intensity of this movie was unlike anything audiences had ever seen.

3 Jennifer’s Body (2009)

Directed by karyn kusama.

Jennifer's Body

Directed by Karyn Kusama and written by Diablo Cody, Jennifer's Body is a horror-comedy film starring Megan Fox and Amanda Seyfried. When a newly possessed high school cheerleader (Fox) turns into a succubus specializing in seducing and killing her male classmates, her best friend (Seyfried) is the only thing that stands in the way of her sultry killing spree.

Jennifer, Fox's character, is interested in using her sexuality and physical attractiveness as a source of her power and not letting the men in her life use it as a tool to control her.

The cult classic collaboration between Karyn Kusama and Diablo Cody was a critical and commercial flop when it premiered in 2009. However, a large part of this was due to the incorrect assumption on the part of audiences that the movie was going to be more similar in theme and tone to a B-movie exploitation film that capitalized on Megan Fox's sexuality. This wasn't an unfounded assumption, as the marketing team made the story seem this way. However, viewers were surprised to learn that Jennifer's Body is a subversion of the very things it seemed to affirm and celebrate.

Jennifer, Fox's character, is interested in using her sexuality and physical attractiveness as a source of her power and not letting the men in her life use it as a tool to control her. Her most compelling relationship is with her best friend, Needy, played by Amanda Seyfried, and their interactions are some of the most nuanced and complex in the story. One of the biggest subversions occurs because a group of men try to sacrifice Jennifer to fulfill all their wishes, but she comes back as a demon, intent on killing men to make herself stronger.

2 Us (2019)

Directed by jordan peele.

In 1986, Adelaide Thomas encounters a terrifying doppelgänger, traumatizing her into silence. Years later, on a beach vacation with her family, eerie coincidences resurface. Strangers appear at their doorstep, revealing themselves as twisted doubles. The Wilsons must battle their counterparts, the Tethered, who seek to overthrow their above-ground counterparts.

Although Jordan Peele's earlier film, Get Out , spurred a bigger reaction from critics and at the box office, Us , his follow-up, is even more creative in its execution and thematic narrative. The film stars Lupita Nyong'o as the protagonist, and while there are few performances in which the actress hasn't blown away audiences, this might be one of her best portrayals. Nyong'o and the other actors all have the difficult job of playing two characters, the people on the surface and the Tethered. The dichotomy between the two versions of the characters represents the people's willingness to ignore human suffering.

There are a few ways in which the relationship between the Tethered and the humans living on the surface can be interpreted, and all of them make incisive comments on exploitation and the poverty of the subjugated class. The twist that Peele includes later in the movie is a reminder of why all of his films have been highlighted as essential viewing for the modern horror audience. Us is a movie that requires its audience to sit up and pay attention, but it doesn't lose any thrilling elements or strong storytelling in this endeavor.

Using tropes can be a pitfall for genre movies like Horrors, but modern takes on the classics show why certain horror rules are still utilized.

1 Raw (2016)

Directed by julia ducournau.

Raw is a French-Belgian horror drama film directed by Julia Ducournau. The film follows Justine, a vegetarian veterinary student, who undergoes a drastic transformation after a hazing ritual introduces her to raw meat. As she grapples with newfound cravings, her identity and morality are challenged. Raw stars Garance Marillier and Ella Rumpf in leading roles, offering a unique exploration of coming-of-age themes interwoven with darkly compelling horror elements.

Raw is an example of a modern horror movie that proves body horror is back , as it is one of the more graphic depictions of cannibalism ever seen in a film. The movie follows Justine, a young veterinary student, who finds that she can't control her craving for human flesh after she eats raw meat for the first time. It's a disgusting and unsettling story, and the visuals become increasingly violent as the movie progresses. However, it's also interested in telling a coming-of-age story about the nuances of being a young woman and having a complex relationship between sisters.

Other horror movies have touched upon these topics in the past few years, like Bones and All , but Raw subverts the genre even further.

Telling the story through an artistic lens and from the perspective of the cannibal was an unexpected choice, but it works perfectly for Raw . Other horror movies have touched upon these topics in the past few years, like Bones and All , but Raw subverts the genre even further. Instead of being overly concerned with catching a killer or running from the police, Raw looks deeply into the family dynamic that Justine grew up with and her emotional drive to eat flesh, which consumes her. Few female protagonists in horror have had the agency and development of Justine.

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15 Horror Movies About Showbiz

First thing you gotta know about showbiz is how tough it can be. No matter how starry-eyed your dreams of fame and fortune make you, it’s best to remember that you may not be cut out for it — and if you’re in a showbiz horror movie, you may be cut out of it literally.

Ti West’s MaXXXine, the concluding chapter in his trilogy looking at the slasher genre’s relationship with 20th-century entertainment, makes good on Pearl ’s promise to be recognized as a star; expect Tinseltown, Hollywood legacies, and a medically inadvisable amount of seediness. But it’s by no means the first film to recognize the veneer of celebrity as fertile ground for salacious, disturbing narratives. Horror films set in Hollywood, critiquing its fanatic appeal or implicating everyone complicit in its ongoing abuse and exploitation, have been around for decades.

The best possible outcome for dreams of stardom is fame, fortune, and a fantastic legacy, while the worst possible outcome is some variation on surreal, ambition-related psychosis, being butchered in shadowy production lots, and the meticulous craft of making a movie being ironically mirrored in a murderer’s modus operandi. Tons of horror films argue that Hollywood’s dream is killing us; the promise of glitz and glamour actively encourages desperate people to render themselves vulnerable to horror’s malign grip.

All that grim stuff aside, most horror movies about showbiz are also funny! The cartoonishness of the industry’s façade and the whiplash of injecting it with grisly violence lends itself to self-parody, camp, or acid-tongued satire. We delved into the vaults to find the best horror movies about showbiz ahead of MaXXXine seeing her name up in lights.

Opera (1987)

Dario Argento has made much more precise, subversive, and provocative giallos than Opera , but it’s hard to deny the luscious scale of what was at the time his most expensive production to date. It also feels like a capstone to the filmmaker’s impeccable run through the ’70s and ’80s, where he underlines his sadistic, off-kilter brand of horror with an expressive, theatrical vibe — very fitting for a film taking place during a grand Verdi production in one of Italy’s most historic opera houses. (Opera is Hollywood for Italians.) The swelling emotions of the opera performance, however, are no match for a masked killer sneaking around committing grisly murders that he forces our ingenue soprano lead (Cristina Marsillach) to watch. It’s impressive that Argento can take such a theatrical style and still find a confronting intimacy — now we’d love to see a staged opera version of Suspiria , please.

Wes Craven’s New Nightmare (1994)

This self-reflexive meta-slasher was Wes Craven’s return to his landmark franchise, as it breaks Elm Street continuity and takes place in the real world, where actress Heather Langenkamp (herself) finds the walls between film sets and reality crumbling. To sum up, a real demon haunted the director’s nightmares, and he was able to control its malignant powers by depicting it as Freddy Krueger across the original series — and now this neo- or proto-Freddy is going to rip Heather’s family apart. New Nightmare is an audacious studio horror with real faults (it gets close to some incredible psycho-horror but fumbles the payoffs; it’s about 20 minutes too long), but coursing through the film is an unsettling concept. Even if personal artistic expression was therapeutic for this fictionalized version of Craven, the expanded capitalist scope of a movie series ends up aggravating the forces of darkness that actors like Langenkamp and Robert Englund profited from. If the silly Elm Street sequels turned Freddy into a clownish figure, then his metaphysical inspiration will emerge darker and crueler than could be imagined on the safety of a film set.

Scream 3 (2000)

For a film that has the reputation of being the worst Scream movie, it’s pretty good! Yes, the formula established and rehashed in the first two installments has been sucked free of a lot of joy and inventiveness, but it’s fitting that when the series relocated to a Los Angeles setting (where our Woodsboro characters witness the events from the first film being restaged for a Stab sequel), everything feels more brutal and bombastic. It’s a souped-up, hollow film for a souped-up, hollow place. There’s no better spot than studio lots for unearthing seedy secrets, although the film’s criticisms of systemic Hollywood exploitation are greatly harmed by how overt the Weinstein presence is on this Miramax production. It is, however, the first of two films on this list with a Carrie Fisher cameo, which is always welcome.

Shadow of the Vampire (2000)

For those who are still replaying that Robert Eggers Nosferatu trailer and can’t believe Willem Dafoe was not cast as the titular vampyr , you’ll be glad to know that Shadow of the Vampire exists. It’s a film where Dafoe plays a real vampire playing a fictional vampire (Count Orlok, the actual name of Nosferatu) who F. W. Murnau, director of Nosferatu (1922), convinces the cast and crew is not a vampire but an obscure theater actor, Max Schreck. It blends dramatized accounts of making a pioneering horror film and intense gothic fascination with a strange creature hiding in plain sight, and like Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992) , it finds common ground with the spread of the vampire myth and the early days of cinema. This film gets credit for making simmering gothic horror out of what sounds like a terrific sitcom premise.

Seed of Chucky (2004)

You’re either of the opinion that this is where the Chucky franchise went off the rails, or this is where the Chucky franchise went off the rails and landed cleanly on an entirely new and insane set of rails. Here, Chucky and his bride, Tiffany, go to Hollywood, where they’re used as lifeless animatronic puppets for a film version of the Chucky urban legend. They’re brought back to life by their child, a genderqueer doll called Glen/Glenda, and immediately launch into more depraved violence, kidnapping Jennifer Tilly and Redman (themselves) to transfer their consciousness into their bodies. If there’s one person who can perfectly straddle earnest terror and pantomime pastiche, it’s Tilly. Seed of Chucky takes the heightened black comedy of Scream ’s satire and pushes it into full camp without skimping on any gruesome kills — John Waters gets his face melted with acid, ladies and gentlemen!

Inland Empire (2006)

If Mark Fisher was correct in saying that Inland Empire is like “witnessing a direct feed from the unconscious,” then the transmission itself has come from the radio tower in the RKO Radio Pictures production logo. That is to say: The nightmares that make up the film are the product of years of Hollywood dreaming and image-making. In his first feature-length digital project, Lynch undercuts the Technicolor glamour of his previous media pastiches (the knowing saccharine soapiness of Twin Peaks , the unnerving artifice of Mulholland Drive ) to give a three-hour descent about an actress (Laura Dern) on a path toward a dirty, exposed stretch of Hollywood Boulevard pavement — and along the way, we’re thrown into states of pants-wetting terror and numbing anxiety. Mulholland Drive was scary, but it also stressed the erotic and sensory texture of believing in a dream town built on pain. Inland Empire corrodes its genre motifs at every stage: Noir, mystery, melodrama, and one crazy dance scene all feel subservient to the trembling eeriness humming through Lynch’s epic — no matter what we recognize about showbiz, there’s a palpable sense we are in the wrong place.

Antiviral (2012)

Brandon Cronenberg (son of David, more on him below) made his debut with a sterile and pallid sci-fi noir in which our capitalist version of the celebrity-consumer hierarchy has been stripped of all joy and color — but retained its inherent fanaticism and invasiveness. Set in a world where people can purchase viral loads from their favorite public figure whenever they fall ill just to feel close to them, one sickly-looking man (Caleb Landry Jones, ’cause who else are you gonna get to look like that?) gets caught up in the illicit “celeb meat market” surrounding this industry. Antiviral is just as airless and measured as Cronenberg Sr.’s 21st-century work and often veers into the too-direct, “wouldn’t this be mental” commentary of the Black Mirror variety — but there’s something squirmy but recognizable about this celeb culture’s promise of constructed, self-destructive intimacy.

Berberian Sound Studio (2012)

Set far away from the glitz and glamour of red carpets and packed movie houses, this ode to the isolating craft of unprestigious film production injects you with a deep distrust of the artifice separating real and artificial horror. A sound engineer (Toby Jones) travels to an Italian horror studio to record some squishy, squelchy, and generally sickening Foley for a giallo film, but his own psychological hang-ups soon start invading the impersonal-but-visceral postproduction haven. Director Peter Strickland always applies such a curious and lo-fi perspective to recognizable genre archetypes, and this horror tale of losing yourself in film (not in a fun way) occupies a unique space in the margins of moviemaking.

This Is the End (2013)

Not the most sophisticated or thought-provoking film, this broad comedy from Seth Rogen and Jay Baruchel about millennial Hollywood stars facing a biblical apocalypse during one of James Franco’s house parties does admittedly feature quite a lot of A-list celebrities facing terror from a demonic realm. The only problem is that most of these celebrities are friends of Rogen, so their reaction to face-melting horror is usually some variation of “oh shit!” But instead of a filmmaker looking at celeb culture from the outside in, we get an interesting new perspective from a group of self-aware comedians pastiching themselves with skewed, heightened versions of their own star status. Hey, most of these guys just play themselves in every movie; at least they do literally play themselves here.

Starry Eyes (2014)

Is Starry Eyes too direct, or is the bluntness of its horror metaphor the point? The 2014 psychological cult horror (as in, a horror about cults) tracks the stripping of agency from aspiring actress Sarah (Alexandra Essoe) as she warily steps further into producers’ abusive reach. Erratic behavior, bodily mutations, and hallucinations line her journey to industry approval, with striking imagery from future Pet Sematary directors Kevin Kölsch and Dennis Widmyer whenever Sarah gives dubious consent to transforming her body on the whims of Hollywood’s powerful. On one hand, Starry Eyes ’ equating of abusive, self-protecting elites with literal Satan worshippers feels didactic and simple; on the other, there’s something visceral and uncomfortable about making an unmistakable connection between the conspiratorial evil of the horror genre and the open secrets that the industry still refuses to address.

Map to the Stars (2014)

One of the most overt and salacious Hollywood satires, you could tell Map to the Stars was made by someone with expert horror instincts even if you didn’t know it was from David Cronenberg. The Canadian maestro shot in America for the first time in his career (but production only moved to Los Angeles after principal photography in Toronto) for a venomous take on the sun-bleached and anxiety-ridden City of Angels. There’s some titanic work here from Julianne Moore in motifs and moods from classic L.A. noir like Chinatown and Sunset Boulevard — but with all the obsessive and perverted themes dialed up to a delirious pitch. When they combine with Cronenberg’s stifling, withdrawn “late style,” it creates an uncanny, unpleasant vibe that’s delightful to dive into.

The Neon Demon (2016)

Set in one of the other exploitative industries centralized in Los Angeles, the fashion industry, this divisive film proved to be another reason why a lot of the fans waiting for another Drive from Nicolas Winding Refn were doomed to be forever disappointed. But for fans of immaculate-looking women festering a dark, envious rot from within a vice-ridden corner of the world, it’s hard to fault The Neon Demon. After the death of her parents, Jesse (Elle Fanning), an underage model, arrives in Los Angeles looking for success and guidance and soon becomes an object of fascination for harpy-esque models suffering intensely from the psychosis-inducing misogyny of their work culture. For all the ambiguous story beats and extended synth-scored sequences of Fanning catwalking into a glowing triangle, The Neon Demon picks up in a barbaric final act that crystallizes Refn’s themes in shocking images and acid-tongue dialogue. It’s a film that shows remarkable restraint by not dropping the line “You look good enough to eat.”

Everybody Dies by the End (2022)

There have been a couple found-footage movies about Hollywood (the violent and unpleasant porn-star-killer film Lucky Bastard comes to mind), but seeing as how the genre is about careful, unpolished documentation, you’d think it would be used more to fictionalize people and processes behind the scenes. Nevertheless, this charming and ominous feature debut from Ryan Schafer and Ian Tripp easily fits the bill. It’s a darkly comedic look at filmmaking labors of love, where aged cult filmmaker Alfred Costello (Vinny Curran) tries to repair a damaged legacy by staging one last passion project, ominously titled “Everybody Dies by the End.” Costello is a domineering presence on the remote mountain ranch set, badgering his male and female leads to act better and enjoying cultlike devotion from his uniformed crew, but the behind-the-scenes documentarians filming Costello’s efforts soon bear witness to an upsetting filmmaking practice that goes beyond dedication to craft. Schafer and Tripp’s film hits a lot of routine “slowly realizing you’re in danger” thrillers, but the tonal and aesthetic shift from grindhouse filmmaking pastiche to found-footage terror is deftly done.

The Substance (2024)

Coralie Fargeat followed up her throat-catching debut, Revenge, with a heightened, glossy, and nasty look at a heightened, glossy, and nasty town, with a disturbing, body-horrific take on Hollywood’s rules for how women are permitted to age in the industry. After being pushed out of her exercise television show, middle-aged celebrity Elizabeth Sparkles (Demi Moore) starts experimenting with a clandestine bio-product that allows her to birth a new, younger self (Margaret Qualley) who will take turns living celebrity life to the fullest. The Substance , in its best moments, taps into a Fifth Element or Showgirls “here is a European director pointing out all the weird, accepted excesses of American life” energy that’s always a hoot. Body horrors, especially splintered-self ones, works best if we’re pressed into an uncomfortably intimate space with the opposing doubles, something that Fargeat evades throughout the 140-minute run time. But in choosing to platform the squelchy and gooey streaks of the genre — especially in a jaw-dropping, Frank Henenlotter–riffing climax — we instead get an explosive and unmistakable attack on Hollywood’s mandate of physical perfection.

MaXXXine (2024)

It’s taken two movies and two years, but finally someone gets to be a star in one of these Mia Goth x Ti West films. After committing senicide in X , Maxine Minx (Goth) hightailed it to Los Angeles and made her career in porn but now wants to graduate to mainstream entertainment with the scandalous religious-horror sequel The Puritan II. A fun twist on this much grander and more mainstream trilogy closer is that it’s basically a giallo mystery, with a black-gloved killer and obscene kills bathed in vibrant colors, all pointing our heroine toward a personal and dangerous mystery. We once again approach porn and horror as marginalized (and therefore potentially radical) art, now with the sour context of subversive expression being flattened by a moralizing, arch-conservative capitalist hierarchy. But what makes MaXXXine shine is that, more than either entry in West x Goth’s trilogy, the film indulges in the pure joy of the dark, splatterful noirs it so palpably admires — it’s like if all those vulgar nasty VHS horror films were allowed a cane-twirling, firework-popping celebratory musical number.

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Home — Essay Samples — Entertainment — Movies — Horror

Essays on Horror

The importance of writing an essay on horror.

Writing an essay on horror is essential for several reasons, as it allows individuals to explore the genre's significance, impact, and cultural relevance. Horror literature, films, and art have long been integral parts of human culture, reflecting societal fears, anxieties, and taboos. By delving into the genre through essays, individuals can gain a deeper understanding of its complexities and contributions to literature, cinema, and art.

One of the primary reasons for writing an essay on horror is to explore fear and its profound effect on human psychology and society. Horror confronts us with our deepest fears and forces us to confront the darker aspects of human nature. By analyzing horror works, individuals can gain insights into human behavior, emotions, and the human condition itself.

Furthermore, essays on horror allow us to understand the cultural and social dynamics that shape the genre. Horror often reflects the fears and anxieties prevalent in society during specific historical periods. By examining horror works within their cultural contexts, individuals can gain valuable insights into societal norms, values, and concerns.

Moreover, writing essays on horror provides an opportunity to examine the literary and cinematic techniques used to evoke fear and suspense. From Gothic literature to contemporary horror films, the genre employs a wide range of stylistic devices, symbolism, and narrative structures to create chilling experiences for audiences. By analyzing these techniques, individuals can deepen their appreciation for the artistry and craftsmanship behind horror works.

Essays on horror also challenge assumptions and stereotypes associated with the genre. While horror is often dismissed as mere entertainment or dismissed as lowbrow, it encompasses a diverse range of themes, styles, and perspectives. By critically evaluating horror works, individuals can challenge preconceived notions and recognize the genre's artistic and intellectual merits.

Finally, writing essays on horror encourages individuals to engage in meaningful discussions about important societal issues. Horror often addresses topics such as power dynamics, gender roles, identity, and morality in thought-provoking ways. By analyzing these themes in horror works, individuals can contribute to broader conversations about culture, politics, and human nature.

Writing essays on horror is essential for gaining insights into the genre's significance, exploring fear and humanity, understanding cultural dynamics, examining artistic techniques, challenging stereotypes, and engaging in meaningful discussions. Through thoughtful analysis and reflection, individuals can appreciate the richness and complexity of horror as a genre and its enduring impact on literature, cinema, and art.

What makes a good Horror essay topic

When it comes to choosing a horror essay topic, it's important to consider what will captivate and engage your audience. To brainstorm and choose an essay topic, start by considering your own interests and fears. What scares you? What keeps you up at night? These personal experiences can serve as a great starting point for a horror essay topic. Additionally, consider the cultural and societal fears that are prevalent in today's world. What are people afraid of? These considerations can help you choose a horror essay topic that is relevant and thought-provoking. A good horror essay topic should be intriguing, thought-provoking, and capable of eliciting strong emotions from the reader.

Best Horror essay topics

• The psychological impact of isolation in horror films
• The role of the supernatural in modern horror literature
• The evolution of the zombie in popular culture
• The use of sound and music in creating horror in film
• The portrayal of mental illness in horror movies
• The significance of setting in gothic horror literature
• The cultural significance of urban legends in modern society
• The symbolism of monsters in horror literature
• The impact of technology on the horror genre
• The intersection of horror and comedy in film
• The role of gender in horror storytelling
• The influence of folklore on modern horror narratives
• The portrayal of fear in contemporary horror literature
• The impact of censorship on the horror genre
• The representation of trauma in horror films
• The use of suspense in horror storytelling
• The depiction of evil in horror literature
• The role of religion in horror narratives
• The use of body horror in contemporary cinema
• The impact of social media on horror storytelling

Horror essay topics Prompts

• Write a horror story from the perspective of the monster.
• Imagine a world where everyone's deepest fears come to life - what would this look like?
• Write a horror essay exploring the concept of "survival horror" in video games.
• Create a horror story set in a haunted house, but with a unique twist.
• Write an essay analyzing the role of the final girl in slasher films and its impact on gender representation in horror.

The Reflection of Society's Fears in Horror Movies

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Horror is a film genre that seeks to elicit fear or disgust in its audience for entertainment purposes.

Horror films often explore dark subject matter and may deal with transgressive topics or themes. Broad elements include monsters, apocalyptic events, and religious or folk beliefs. Cinematic techniques used in horror films have been shown to provoke psychological reactions in an audience.

Body horror, Comedy horror, Folk horror, Found footage horror, Gothic horror, Natural horror, Slasher film, Supernatural horror, Teen horror, Psychological horror.

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‘it ends with us’ blooms with $80m global opening; ‘despicable me 4’ tops $800m as ‘deadpool & wolverine’ crosses $1b – international box office, breaking news.

• Alfonso Cuarón Says He’s Been Trying To Develop A Horror Film And Talks Why David Fincher & James Cameron Told Him To Ditch ‘Gravity’ – Locarno

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• Locarno Pro Awards: Experimental Feature ‘Dream Of Another Summer’ From Beirut-Based Filmmaker Irene Bartolomé Takes Top Prize

Palestinian Activists Host Alternative Piazza Grande Screening At Locarno 

Alfonso Cuarón was reflective but playful this afternoon as he headlined the latest session in the Locarno Film Festival’s popular masterclass series.

The discussion was mostly geared to discuss Cuarón’s origins and most successful projects, all of which he has discussed at length many times before. The four-time Oscar winner did, however, give some insight into projects he has yet to get off the ground. 

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The one genre film Cuarón did manage to launch successfully which went on to bring him commercial success was 2013’s Gravity , starring Sandra Bullock and George Clooney. Cuarón said the multi-Oscar-winning project was one of the films that “came to save my life” during a dark time.

“After Children of Men , which was a complete commercial flop, the appetite to work with me plummeted,” he said. “So I started writing and developing a film with my son. I started prepping and the cast featured Charlotte Gainsbourg and Guillaume Canet. It was about a road trip from the South of France to the north of Scotland. It was very difficult to finance and the film fell apart. At the same time, I was going through the worst times in my personal life.” 

Cuarón said he was “completely out of money” and told his collaborators that he needed to “write something but no arty shit.” He needed a screenplay “that would let a studio give me a cheque.” 

“That same evening we came up with the outline of Gravity ,” he said. 

After knocking out a workable screenplay with his son, Jonás, Cuarón said Warner Bros. bought in but said they wouldn’t give him much money. He accepted and took the screenplay to his longtime collaborator, DoP Emmanuel Lubezki. 

“Fincher told us to forget about it, there’s no tech, wait 6 years. And he wasn’t wrong,” Cuarón said. “James Cameron told us how we could do it but that was a 400 million dollar film. We told him only you can do that. And he said yeah you’re right. So we developed our own way.” 

Cuarón and Lubezki’s “own way” included a mix of animation work and live-action camera work that utilized Industrial Light & Magic’s LED-based StageCraft technology known as The Volume. 

“We developed the film over three or four years technologically,” he said. “Thank God we had an Exec who was very geeky.” 

Cuarón’s troubles with Gravity didn’t stop there. He told the Locarno audience that Warner Bros. was adamant about testing the film with audiences, despite his reservations. The film’s complex VFX work had yet to be completed. As Cuarón expected, the film tested poorly, with audiences slamming the visuals. Cuarón said the studio subsequently began to cool on the project and it was only “thanks to film festivals” that the project became a commercial success.

“It opened at Venice and the reception was amazing,” he said. “That’s when the studio started to love it.”

As part of his trip to Locarno, Cuarón will also receive the festival’s Lifetime Achievement Award. The ceremony will take place this evening at the festival’s famous Piazza Grande cinema after the filmmaker presents a screening of Alain Tanner’s Jonas qui aura 25 ans en l’an 2000 ( Jonah Who Will Be 25 in the Year 2000 , 1976) 

Cuarón will continue on the European festival circuit later this month as he once again heads to Venice to screen his latest work Disclaimer , a seven episode limited series for Apple TV+, starring Cate Blanchett and Kevin Kline. The limited series will make its global debut on October 11 with the first two episodes followed by new episodes every Friday through November 15.

Written and directed by Cuarón,  Disclaimer  is based on the best-selling novel of the same name by Renée Knight and follows journalist Catherine Ravenscroft (Blanchett), who built her reputation revealing the misdeeds and transgressions of others. When she receives a novel from an unknown author, she is horrified to realize she is now the main character in a story that exposes her darkest secrets.

The Locarno Film Festival runs until August 17.

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‘Cuckoo’ Review: Never Has a Movie Been More Aptly Named

Dan Stevens and Hunter Schafer face off in this unexpectedly fun and undeniably nutty horror-comedy about cross-species pollination.

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By Jeannette Catsoulis

“Is this normal?” a bewildered hotel guest in “Cuckoo” inquires after witnessing a fellow guest stagger, vomiting, into the lobby. Viewers might be wondering the same thing about a movie whose title could reveal as much about the sensibility of its director as the nature of its plot.

Possessed of a singular, at times inexplicable vision, the German filmmaker Tilman Singer proves once again — after his experimental debut, “Luz” (2019) — that he’s more drawn to sensation than sense. Liberated from logic, his pictures dance on the border between bewitching and baffling, exciting and irksome. Sidling several steps closer to an identifiable plot, “Cuckoo” flaps around Gretchen (an excellent Hunter Schafer), a grieving, unsettled 17-year-old whose mother has died and whose father (Marton Csokas) has brought her to live with his new family in a resort in the Bavarian Alps.

From the moment she arrives, nothing seems quite right. Missing her mother and her life in America, Gretchen is slow to connect with her brisk stepmother (Jessica Henwick) and her much younger half sister, Alma (Mila Lieu), who is mute and suffers from unexplained seizures. Adding to Gretchen’s uneasiness is the resort’s touchy-feely owner, Herr König (Dan Stevens), who seems weirdly fixated on Alma. Strange screechings fill the woods, and a frightening figure in white appears to be stalking Gretchen as she walks home from her job at the resort’s reception desk. Maybe that switchblade we saw her unpack will come in handy, after all.

A tale of human-avian experimentation with phantasmagoric flourishes, “Cuckoo” is unsubtle and frequently unhinged. The narrative may be blurred, but the mood is pure freak show, and Stevens, bless him, immediately grasps the comic possibilities of the movie’s themes and the nuttiness of his character. Reprising his flawless German accent from the charming 2021 sci-fi romance “I’m Your Man,” he gives König a seductive creepiness that’s less mad scientist than horny ornithologist. Obsessed with replicating — in unspeakable ways — the breeding behaviors of the titular bird, König requires the cooperation of willing young women. Gretchen is not eager to become one of them.

Shooting on 35-millimeter film, Paul Faltz, backed by Simon Waskow’s whining, fidgety score, leans into the surreality of Gretchen’s predicament with bizarre close-ups. Ears jerk and twitch in response to mysterious calls; throats flutter with a rapid, stuttering pulse; slimy secretions are passed from one woman to another. And as the resort’s dangers escalate and Gretchen’s injuries multiply, the film’s bonkers, body-horror ambitions become the means by which she will overcome her grief and heal her emotional dislocation.

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'Like something out of a horror movie': Scientists tackle invasive sea lampreys in the Great Lakes

Invasive sea lamprey populations spiked in the Great Lakes during the pandemic. But scientists are finding new ways to keep their numbers in check.

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About to embark on a world tour, global pop sensation Skye Riley begins experiencing increasingly terrifying and inexplicable events. Overwhelmed by the escalating horrors and the pressures ... Read all About to embark on a world tour, global pop sensation Skye Riley begins experiencing increasingly terrifying and inexplicable events. Overwhelmed by the escalating horrors and the pressures of fame, Skye is forced to face her past. About to embark on a world tour, global pop sensation Skye Riley begins experiencing increasingly terrifying and inexplicable events. Overwhelmed by the escalating horrors and the pressures of fame, Skye is forced to face her past.

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