My girlfriend absolutely loves horror movies. What should I do? What psychological mechanism makes people like watching ghost films?

Zhihu question: My girlfriend absolutely loves horror movies. What should I do? What psychological mechanism makes people like watching ghost films?

Thanks for the invitation. This is my first invited answer.

First of all, I think “horror movie” is actually a very vague category. All kinds of very different works get filed under it. Even if we divide them in the simplest, roughest way, there are probably at least two completely different types. One is what I’d call “heart-torture” horror: it scares you by creating an atmosphere. The classic example is Japanese horror, represented by Ring. There may be only a few visually frightening shots in the entire film, but the whole thing keeps your nerves wound tight. The other is American splatter, marked by mangled limbs and oozing fluids, which challenges the audience’s stomach purely on a visual level and produces a completely different kind of stimulation. Call it “gut-torture” horror; Hollywood used to churn out this kind of thing. From my limited observations, the horror movies women enjoy are rarely the latter kind, so I’ll just analyze why women like “heart-torture” horror.

One theory of emotion holds that emotion actually has two parts: first comes a physiological reaction, and then the brain adds its interpretation of that reaction[i]. The physiological reaction is very simple. It exists on a continuum from “tense” to “relaxed.”

When we face danger, our survival instinct rapidly prepares the body either to fight back or to get away, which requires the body to produce a huge amount of energy very quickly. We become intensely tense and our bodily systems are activated: adrenaline and sugar are released into the bloodstream to provide enough energy; our heart beats faster and our breathing becomes rapid so our muscles can get more oxygen; stomach juices are secreted faster to generate more energy through digestion. Once the danger has passed, the body relaxes because it no longer needs to respond: the heart slows, breathing slows, and the digestive system returns to normal. So our bodies become tense, relaxed, or somewhere in between depending on changes in the environment. This system of alternating tension and relaxation helps us adapt to our surroundings.

Because the human survival instinct is so powerful, our bodies can easily be pushed into a state of tension by every rustle and disturbance in the environment. Bodily tension therefore doesn’t always mean a genuine threat to our lives. If we had to passively plan to fight or flee whenever our bodies became tense, we’d barely be able to do anything else. Fortunately, it is precisely our brains that save us from overreacting every time our bodies become tense. The brain isn’t sitting idle while the body is activated: when it senses a change in bodily state, we look around, trying to figure out exactly what has happened.

For example, when a tiger suddenly appears in front of you and when you’re riding a roller coaster, your bodily reactions are almost identical. Your survival instinct immediately makes your palms sweat, your heart race, adrenaline flow, and your stomach contract, sending you into a highly tense state. Then, a split second later, the brain begins interpreting its own bodily reaction: “Why am I so tense? Oh, because the tiger might eat me. So I’m afraid!” Or: “Why am I tense? Oh, because I’m on a roller coaster. This is so exciting!”

The same physiological reaction is thus interpreted by the brain in two completely different ways: “fear” and “excitement.” In this way, our limited physiological reactions become linked to all kinds of interpretations, allowing us to experience a rich variety of emotions. Put simply, emotion is the product of a physiological reaction linked to the brain’s interpretation. That is also why people are afraid of horror movies and yet love watching them—mainly the “heart-torture” kind. When you watch a horror movie, the physiological reaction is nothing more than intense tension. But as long as you aren’t one hundred percent absorbed in the film—as long as some corner of your cerebral cortex still understands that what is happening on the screen poses no real danger to you—that physiological tension gets interpreted as “the pleasurable thrill of excitement.” So yes, you’re scared, but this kind of fear is actually pleasurable.

There’s another keyword in the question: “girlfriend.” So let me add a more interesting phenomenon. When men and women watch horror movies together, the movie becomes a good opportunity for each of them to show what they’re made of. Psychologists conducted an experiment observing how men and women reacted while watching horror movies together[ii]. They found that when a woman acted unafraid, the man thought the movie was boring; when she acted afraid, he thought the movie was good and was more willing to date her. Conversely, when a man acted afraid, the woman thought the movie was boring; when he acted fearless, she thought the movie was good and was more willing to date him. In other words, when a woman acts afraid during a horror movie, she may be displaying feminine charm, while a man displays masculine charm by being fearless.

You’re watching the screen; the person next to you is watching you.

So when your girlfriend invites you to watch a horror movie together, she may well be interested in something other than the movie itself. This is a great chance for both of you to show off your sexual appeal, so seize the opportunity and put on a good performance ^_^

References

[i] Schachter, S. (1971). Emotion, obesity, and crime. New York, USA,
Academic Press, Inc..

[ii] Zillmann, D., Weaver, J. B., Mundorf, N., & Aust, C. F. (1986). Effects of an opposite-gender companion’s affect to horror on distress, delight, and attraction. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 51(3), 586.

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• Zhihu answer version:
  My girlfriend absolutely loves horror movies. What should I do? What psychological mechanism makes people like watching ghost films?

Published

This article was adapted from “Why Girls Love Horror Movies,” which I published in Fashion Cosmo magazine.

The original text of my interview with Fashion Cosmo magazine:

Q: As a veteran film critic, could you explain why women like horror movies? Why do they enjoy them even though they’re obviously timid?

A: “Horror movie” is actually a very vague category. All kinds of very different works get filed under it. Even if we divide them in the simplest, roughest way, there are probably at least two completely different types. One is “heart-torture” horror, which scares you by creating an atmosphere. The classic example is Japanese horror, represented by Ring. There may be only a few visually frightening shots in the entire film, but the whole thing keeps your nerves wound tight. The other is American splatter, marked by mangled limbs and oozing fluids, which challenges the audience’s stomach purely on a visual level and produces a completely different kind of stimulation. Call it “gut-torture” horror; Hollywood used to churn out this kind of thing. From my limited observations, the horror movies women enjoy are rarely the latter kind, so I’ll just analyze why women like “heart-torture” horror.

A person’s emotions actually have two parts: first comes a physiological reaction, and then the brain adds its interpretation. The physiological reaction is simple: you’re either tense or relaxed, but the brain’s interpretation of it is much richer. For example, when a tiger suddenly appears in front of you and when you’re on a roller coaster, the physiological reactions are almost identical. Your survival instinct immediately makes your palms sweat, your heart race, and adrenaline flow, sending you into a highly tense state. Then, a split second later, the brain interprets its own bodily reaction: “Why am I tense? Because the tiger might eat me. I’m afraid!” “Why am I tense? Because I’m on a roller coaster. This is so exciting!” The same physiological reaction can receive completely different interpretations from the brain, and so we experience completely different emotions. When watching that kind of heart-torture horror, the physiological reaction is nothing more than intense tension. But as long as you aren’t one hundred percent absorbed in the film—as long as some corner of your cerebral cortex still understands that what is happening on the screen poses no real danger to you—that physiological tension gets interpreted as “the pleasurable thrill of excitement.” So yes, you’re scared, but this kind of fear is actually pleasurable.

A: I also think it’s more interesting that watching horror movies can sometimes become a good opportunity for men and women to show what they’re made of. Psychologists conducted an experiment observing how men and women reacted while watching horror movies together. They found that when a woman acted fearless, the man thought the movie was boring; when she acted afraid, he thought the movie was good and was more willing to date her. Conversely, when a man acted afraid, the woman thought the movie was boring; when he acted fearless, she thought the movie was good and was more willing to date him. You’re watching the screen; the person next to you is watching you.

Q: Could you recommend ten classic domestic and international horror movies, as well as some of the newest and most recently released horror movies?

A: Here are ten “heart-torture” horror movies I personally like:

1. Eden Lake: The despair of being at the mercy of others.
2. The Descent: Darkness and confinement are both frightening; this movie multiplies their effects.
3. The Shining: A terrifying masterpiece by the legendary master Kubrick.
4. The Sixth Sense: One of the most unexpected endings in film history.
5. Cube: Both the cause and the ending are left blank, which instead highlights a fear with no cause and no consequence.
6. Ring: A textbook example of creating a frightening atmosphere.
7. Double Vision: The best Chinese-language horror movie to date (the director’s cut is the one to watch).
8. The Swedish version of Let the Right One In: Tenderness amid bone-chilling cold.
9. Evil Dead: The subjective shot of the tree demon in Tsui Hark’s A Chinese Ghost Story was apparently learned from this film.
10. 28 Days Later: The human heart is far more frightening than zombies.

Here are a few recent horror movies that left a particularly deep impression on me:

1. The Conjuring: James Wan, the director of Saw, revived the tradition of American horror films centered on exorcism.
2. Rigor Mortis: A tribute by newcomer director Juno Mak to Hong Kong’s hopping-vampire movies. Not terribly frightening, but infinitely bleak.
3. American Horror Story: Asylum: The horror series that made the deepest impression on me recently. As long as you can stick through the relatively uneventful first few episodes, what follows is one bizarre twist after another.

Q: Please describe five classic horror-movie set pieces.

A: Fear comes from the unknown, so all classic horror set pieces are really different ways of making the audience worry about what they’re going to see in the next scene:

1. Darkness: The protagonist walks through the dark. When a match flares up, an unfamiliar face is pressed right against them.
2. A hallway with a corner: When you walk around the next corner, there’s always a ghost waiting for you at the end of the hall.
3. The Moving Mirror: Every time the mirrored cabinet in the bathroom swings open and shut, there is one more stranger behind you; a music box’s mirror reflects a shadowy figure standing behind you.
4. Blind spots: The camera follows the protagonist’s subjective point of view, so the blind spots in the character’s vision are your blind spots too. Behind a half-open door, along the unseen edge of the bed, underneath it—who can guarantee that a hand won’t suddenly reach out from one of those invisible blind spots?
5. A dramatic close-up of the protagonist: The only thing in the frame is the protagonist’s terrified face. Whatever the character can see, you cannot; whatever the character cannot see, you cannot see either. You are trapped in an unknown even more extreme than the character’s.