Horror Movies Are Changing You The Shocking Truth About What They Do to Your Mind and Body
Movies that depict aggressive and terrifying behavior have always attracted heightened attention, both from ordinary moviegoers and from specialists, which is explained by the specifics of their influence on mass consciousness. Among films that cause the greatest anxiety, horror and mysticism take one of the first places, which include violence, bloody scenes, murders and characters of repulsive appearance – vampires, werewolves, zombies, etc. The first horror film (in English – "horror") "Castle of the Devil" was shot by Georges Méliès in 1896. Today, in the 21st century, watching horror films is possible at home on a laptop or computer with internet access, in a cinema, and also on media. It is believed that horrors affect the psyche of a person. Let us consider both the negative and positive sides of their influence on a person.
In This Article:
Horror Films Defined: Scares, Suspense, and the Debate Over Genre
Horror films are a genre of feature films. They include films whose aim is to scare the viewer, instill feelings of anxiety, fear, and to create a tense atmosphere of horror or dreadful anticipation of something terrible – the so‑called effect of suspense (from the English suspense – uncertainty). But there are other points of view on this matter. For example, Christopher Lee stated that the term "horror" is incorrect, because the convention of such films makes them harmless, and he insisted on the use of the term "film du fantastique" (a film of fantasy). Monsters, corpses, zombies, ghosts and vampires influence human imagination, provoke a storm of emotions, existing in the depths of our consciousness, and create a sense of the unknown and inner panic. Fear, shock, adrenaline, tremor, and shudder – these are the main emotions of horror films. They make one think about distancing from society, about various phobias and even about death. As the Russian philosopher Nikolai Berdyaev said: "Высочайший, истинный страх, или экзистенциальный ужас, человек способен ощущать не перед реальными опасностями обычной, повседневной жизни, а лишь перед вечной тайной бытия". Alfred Hitchcock put it this way: "Я слыхал, что давно слыву сущим монстром, потому что рассказываю о преступлениях. А между тем вряд ли сыщешь человека, который боялся бы всего этого в жизни больше меня". Considering Hitchcock's difficult childhood, one can suppose that by filming horrors he was experiencing his own fears, “bringing them to life” in cinema, that is, cinema he used as a means of overcoming phobias. For example, psychologist David Radd uses horror films to help his patients overcome different kinds of phobias. The theoretical basis of his practice is that with regular exposure to something that induces fear (films, books), a person begins to get used to it and, in the end, stops experiencing negative feelings. In the work "Youth and Cinematography: Manipulation of Consciousness" N.P. Romanova and M.V. Skripkar note that horror films can relieve mental tension, thus performing a function of a stimulator of the nervous system. From this one can conclude that people who want to overcome their fears and phobias watch the horror genre films.
Horror Films and the Body: Real Physiological Effects of Fear
The desire to tickle the nerves and visit some bloody film about maniacs with axes carries danger not only for the psyche but for the entire organism as well. Thus, in 2009 in RBC daily (a daily analytical newspaper) the results of an experiment were published, conducted by biochemists from Washington. This study showed that watching frightening films affects a person not only psychologically but also physically. Scientists tend to explain the body's behavior by the fact that strong fear and inner anxiety of a person while watching a film saturated with violence are signals of danger to the organism. But since a person does not try to stop this process and respond to the self-preservation instinct, i.e., to "escape", the body assumes that the "focus of infection" is inside. The search is directed toward the antibodies, which begin to destroy healthy cells of the body. A synthesis of medical materials allowed doctors to conclude that such stress causes not only temporary biochemical changes but also contributes to the appearance of various diseases. Thus, the inability to release aggression leads to the development of hypertension and peptic ulcer disease, increases the likelihood of myocardial infarction, stroke and even the appearance of migraines.
Horror for Kids? A 2011 Study on the Effects of Horror on Children
In 2011, with the participation of the author, a study was conducted on the influence of horror cartoons on the psyche of children. During it, subjects were asked, together with their parents, to watch horror films at home for 30 minutes every day for a week. The goal was to identify the influence of horror animated films on third‑grade students aged 8–9 years. After watching the films, parents were asked to record how the children behaved during the session, after the session, and at night. Before the test they had never watched horror cartoons. After three days of cinema sessions, more than half of the parents in the class forbade watching any horrors. At the same time, we observed the subjects during breaks at school. At the end of the week, the observations and parents’ records were collected. After the test, the following conclusions were drawn: Conclusion: parents should, where possible, limit the viewing of these cartoons.
A Growing Appetite for Fear and Its Mixed Side Effects
Interestingly, in recent years more people watch horror. The viewings of horror films rose by 65% (1970 – 3%, 2010 – 68%). This is due to horror films’ high degree of manipulative influence on consciousness, as well as to a longing for adrenaline. In the past, survival conditions were harsh and humans constantly faced danger from predators and deadly diseases. Today this is almost absent. Medicine is advancing, people live in homes with central heating, and the most dangerous predators we meet are in zoos or circuses, and only behind bars. Therefore people seek adrenaline artificially – mountain climbing, skydiving, and also horror films. It turns out these films have not only negative aspects, but also positive ones. Firstly, horror is an excellent training ground for the nerves; people who watch horror are harder to upset because they experience with their hero the given situation and cope with the fear. Secondly, it is a great way to obtain adrenaline. There are many people with adrenaline dependence. As noted above, professor of clinical psychology David Radd asserts that when watching horror films a person experiences some pleasure because our brain correctly evaluates reality vs unreality of danger. Understanding that the real threat is absent, the viewer experiences a thrilling sensation from the adrenaline surge. Thirdly, according to Texas scientists, this fact may provide indispensable help in treating phobias and other mental disorders. When watching these films, the body stops reacting to threat. And this can greatly aid treatment of phobias and other mental disorders, i.e., horror films can be used in clinical medicine. The danger of developing a mental disorder is not obvious, so horror fans continue to watch them, ignoring all the negatives of horror. In general, the influence of horror films depends on age (children should refrain from viewing, this conclusion was drawn based on the study), on the psychological characteristics of each particular viewer, on their susceptibility to suggestion, and also on the type of cinematic preferences. Thus, with the illusttripetal type (characterized by a tendency to watch light films with special effects), which is most often found among youth aged 14–19, the influence of such films is most pronounced.
Conclusion and a Note on the Research Source
Muromova Yu.V. The Influence of Horror Films on the Psyche of a Person.
