Research : Independent Research - Why do people like to watch horror movies?

Why does audiences of horror films like them? I feel that it is because we like the thrill of things. Such as riding a scary roller coaster or jumping out of a plane towards Earth. Thrill can be different for different people on what sort of person you are. Every person loves being thrilled in some sort of way. They love the adrenalin of it and how it makes you feel inside, it will make the person feel exited and full of energy. Horror films can give the audience all different kinds of thrill. The audience will be watching and thinking, What if i was in that position? which makes them think and feel more thrill. Especially when audiences of an horror film have to put everything together like a puzzle throughout the film resulting into the ending of the film. It makes the audience think all the way through the horror film without them even knowing they are doing this.


People like to watch horror films in groups of friends. This is mostly common with teenagers when halloween time comes around. When teenagers watch a film together its like they like being scared because its a social event with their friends. They all live of each others fear when watching a film together. Once someone starts to get scared other people feel the same way and so on. One of my questions on my online survey says 'Who do you watch horror films with?' and the most common answer was friends. This clearly proves that people enjoy watching horror movies with others. Mostly everyone who completed my survey picked the option friends.


Another reason why people like to watch horror movies is that when the film is finally over, the audience feels like that have accomplished something. Through the whole film the audience has been scared. Some people don't want to watch a horror movie but there friends do do they do. This means that they are forced to watch it. Through the whole film they would feel that they need to prove friends wrong so once its over they can say they have watched it before. They can boast about it to others. It will give the person more confidence so next time they will actually enjoy the film.


Overall i feel that people watch horror films because they like the thrill of being scared and the amusement of watching others because scared. I personally get some sort of thrill from watching certain horror films but it all depends on what type of person you are and how you deal with the thrill of the film. People certainly like being scared with friends around them which i have proved with my online survey.