Why I love horror films.

Earlier today I bought and watched The Exorcism of Emily Rose, the 2005 film based on the real-life negligent homicide case against a Catholic priest. Not a particularly remarkable fact, I grant you. But my watching of …Emily Rose becomes perhaps slightly more interesting when I tell you that this is my second exorcism film in as many weeks, and my third in as many months. It’s been right up there with my better home cinema experiences of late, along with Insidious, Paranormal Activity 2, Let the Right One In, and Thirty Days of Night.

Having reviewed my recent DVD purchases, I have decided that it’s time to face facts. A fact, really. And not one I would have foreseen myself facing up to. You see, the thing is… I love horror films. In fact I really love horror films. I can take or leave chick flicks, action movies or even epics- I have to be in the right mood or frame of mind for those. But rare is the occasion when I’m not in the mood for a good old fashioned horror.

I’ve wondered at length as to why this is. I’m not a particularly big fan of being scared for the sake of being scared- my hatred of fairground rides and rollercoasters is notorious amongst those who know me well. So why do I actively seek out and spend good money on films designed to send shivers down my spine? The conclusion I’ve come to is that it is not because they do send shivers down my spine, but because they can.

You see, horror films are really quite clever- they have to be. Even the most low-budget badly made horrors need to be incredibly carefully considered. They’re trying to draw a reaction from you, after all. They have to tap into what scares us, and, with the better films of the genre, why. 

As with my other great genre love, comedy, horror films fascinate me because they exist purely to shock as big a reaction as possible out of their audience. The more they make your brain behave differently, the more the panic sets in, the shortness of breath, the more you hide your face in your boyfriend’s jumper or draw your girlfriend to you, the more scared you find yourself feeling if you nip to the loo before the end of the film- the more stars there are on the reviews.

True, some of them are cheesy, and don’t scare us at all. But it’s the fact that they have to try that really is fascinating. They cannot rely on the parts of human nature other films do, like empathy, or on more structural things like dialogue and plot. They have to tap in to real caveman psychology like the fight or flight response, as well as more modern fears like our suspicion of technology. The simple fact is that, in order to work, they have to know what you’re thinking before you do.

Scary in itself? Maybe. But of course that just makes me, and the millions of other horror fans out there, love them all the more.