There seems to be something in the nature of many people that means they enjoy being scared. They enjoy the pure fear and exhilaration of a dramatic roller-coaster ride, or the feeling of cowering behind a blanket watching a scary film from between their fingers. Even many people who in general aren’t thrill-seekers by any stretch of the imagination find that deliberately scaring themselves silly is an enjoyable and even desirable way to spend your time.
I have to hold my hand up to being in this category. Despite being a rather unadventurous individual, I love a good horror, and I spent last night cowering in a darkened cinema as the utter terror that is Paranormal Activity 2 unfolded on the screen before me. It got me to thinking… why on earth do so many people regularly choose to put themselves through this sort of drama?
There are, of course, plenty of different theories. One of these suggests that perhaps the act of feeling afraid actually isn’t the same kind of fear as we would encounter when, say, attacked by a ravenous mountain lion. Or, more likely, a violent man in a dark alley. Instead, the physical effect of fear in an environment that is actually safe is just one of excitement. We get pumped full of adrenaline, heart beating blood around out bodies. We get light-headed, and the experience is somewhat akin to being a little bit high.
Another theory, however, takes a somewhat different tack. This suggests that being scared is a way to have a new experience, in a world where these can be hard to come by. We live life so steadily, it can be hard to find a new way to go about your life, a new thing to keep you interested. When lives get into a safe and “boring” rhythm, it can seem unexciting, and fear provides a release.
However, just from the way I look at my own humble little life, I wonder if I enjoy roller coasters and haunted house and the like because we so rarely experience fear in our everyday lives. Generally most of the threats are gone – the predators, the frequent challenge of the elements – in normal day to day life, particularly in the UK, we are a million times safer than we would have been back when human beings were a fresh new species on the globe.
Maybe, just maybe, I watch these films and experience these emotions because they are a biological part of me – a part that doesn’t get activated as much as it was initially intended to be. Maybe, just maybe, being afraid reminds me that I am alive, and lucky to be so.
Image via Alfred Hitchock's Psycho