Today I will be discussing if horror movies are good for your mental and psychological health.
When watching a horror movie, we know that what we're watching is only on a screen and isn't real. Then why do we have such an effect from the images on the screen?
Some horror movies have such a realistic plot that it can be hard to decipher it from real-life.
The way they position us in relation to the movie put's us in the protagonists seat. This makes us feel like we are in great danger and that our reaction is involved in the plot.
In other words it can be difficult to make sense of what our subconscious mind says what's real versus unreal.
Just like in your dreams, it can feel very real because it's what your brain is currently experiencing.
The study of how movies affect people's minds is a new study called neurocinematics.
So how do horror movies affect our mental and psychological health?
They Trigger our Animal Brain
You aren't trying to control your awareness and the images that appear are directed toward your subconscious brain.
What happens next is your body becoming fully immersed. Your primitive brain reacts to this because it truly thinks you're in danger.
This is a cause for the reactions your body has like eye closing and screaming.
Horror movies that disconnect the viewer from reality, making them live in the moment is the ideal.
They Create Neuro Associations
A neuro-association is the association of objects with events and past experiences. This is when you associate something with the emotion it provokes, therefore leaving you with the association of the emotion from that object.
An example of this can be people with a fear of clowns. Horror movies often use clowns as an object of fear. In general clowns can be to some funny character's to have at children's birthday parties.
For others, because of the neuro-association that horror movies have placed on clowns, they can be very scary.
Horror movies and their images would be the role of the neuro-association because you can have post-traumatic stress from the emotion attached to watching a horror movie.
After discussing how horror movies create those emotions, I want to relate it to how those emotions can be beneficial in the long-term.
Elevation of Mood
After the negative stimuli that our brains experience while watching a horror movie is over, we immediately feel our anxiety and frustration reduce.
This exchange from channeling that negative stimuli and training your brain to reduce anxiety and frustration, creates a positive connection between neuro-associated objects and reality.
Enhances Brain Activity
Neurotransmitters are released while watching horror movies creating more alert and aware reactions.
This is positive for your mental health because it can help train your brain for moments where attentiveness and being alert are necessary.
"Horror movies don't create fear. They release it." - Wes Craven, American Film Director
Provide a Safe Outlet to explore our Fears
Everyone has fears. They serve a purpose of creating a willpower against threats.
Fears can be pre-determined or learned through different experiences.
Movies are a learned experience that can create fears that help us to explore our subconscious.
There are a few ways directors use images to create the feeling of fear...
The depiction of objects such as snakes, spiders, blood and darkness.
Hazards in a real-life environment (illness, torturing, injures)
Uncertain or looming feeling
Supernatural objects
Thrilling sound effects
Human-like characters (monsters, corpses, zombies, vampires)
A sense of suspense versus sudden shocks (eery music versus"jump scares")
So what are some other real-life ways that horror movies help or mental and psychological health?
Horror movies can help improve our self-confidence and help us feel less lonely with our feelings of fear.
Horror movies provide a socially-acceptable environment for us to share our fears with others.
OMG, this is so scary, so scary... if I was there, I would die from the thought of being trapped like that.
This ability to share your subconscious thoughts of fear with others provides a positive outlet for releasing negative feelings instead of keeping them inside.
Also, the discussion amongst others about the fictional yet disturbing situations can increase our self-validation and improve self-confidence.
Guys, do you think it's childish to be afraid of spiders?
-Nope. Seems like I'll be afraid of them my whole life after watching that.
We start to associate feelings of being frightened, nervous or concerned with the venting of shared and accepted feelings from others.
An environment is created that helps the audience feel less lonely with their fears while sharing their fears with others.
But what if people with anxiety or trauma watch a horror movie? Wouldn't that be very negative for their mental and psychological health?
For some people with anxiety/trauma, it can be a beneficial way to confirm fear-inducing triggers they have everyday.
For others with anxiety/trauma, it can be a way to verify that other people have anxiety/trauma just like they do.
For others with anxiety/trauma it can be a way to put their symptoms in a broader context that includes more detrimental situations that comfort their thoughts.
This can be referred to as a kind of therapy used for people with anxiety/trauma known as Exposure Theory.
This theory puts them in a situation where instead of avoiding their fears, they must be exposed to them in order to decipher how to deal with them.
Are there moments when horror movies go too far when displaying the "mentally-ill psycho killer" in a negative way or real-life way? Is this a necessity to help us realize that these are real-life scenarios with real people?
In this video, Criminologist David Wilson, reviews different serial killers from movies and TV.
He takes on each movie and TV show with the same lens he does when deciphering serial killers in his job.
Although it may seem like horror movies can over-use the serial killer character and make it seem less realistic, it can be an accurate portrayal of serial killers and their way of killing.
Wilson discusses how some killers he has come across say that they don't even remember some of the people they have killed because of how many people they have killed.
This is shown in the movie American Psycho, when Christian Bale playing Patrick Bateman is telling how many people he killed and how he acts remorseful but then moves more toward being boastful.
It makes the serial killer look like all the people they kill, they are proud to have killed them and that it's just another number added to their list of victims.
Bale then says, "I mean, I guess I'm a pretty sick guy."
This realization rarely happens, says Wilson with the killers that he's encountered. He says that they often compare themselves to Superman or extraordinary human beings.
It is important for horror movies to shed light on real-life scenarios versus supernatural because they can help us spot out the mannerisms to avoid certain people.
I hope you've enjoyed reading so far and be on the lookout for next week.
I will be discussing if horror movies cause misconceptions about mental health and how the "psycho-killer" character is portrayed in relation to mental health.
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