I have seen two horror movies this week and, I’m planning to see a third within the next few days.
I still get scared every time someone mentions Paranormal Activity or the Blair Witch, but there is something alluring about the chills we get when we watch something scary. It’s the same reason we flock to haunted houses or giant cornfield mazes filled with chainsaw-wielding masked murderers.
The adrenaline spikes through us and in those few, elongated moments of terror we feel alive — really, truly alive.
We go back to the movies time and time again because we not only receive hormonal stimulation via adrenaline, but we also receive mental stimulation in several areas of the brain, according to a piece from LiveScience.
These areas include the amygdale, which taps into our more primal instincts, and the cerebral cortex, which is our more recently (evolutionarily speaking) acquired center of conscious thought. Essentially, horror movies make us process information on several levels, making us more affected by them.
Perhaps it is less about our physical responses to scary movies, but what it does to us on a larger scale. Fear teaches us what obstacles are, which things are and aren’t safe and perhaps most importantly, when it is appropriate to leave our comfort zones.
Marianne Williamson once wrote, “It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us.”
Maria Shriver writes in her blog, "We all carry a certain amount of insecurity and self-doubt, and those fearful thoughts tend to rear their ugly heads when we’re about to embark on anything new.”
We like to experience fear and to be exposed to death and gory scenes in a movie because on some level, they make us enjoy security and life. I walk out of a theater and not only make my contingency plans for (if and when) the zombie apocalypse, but I appreciate the air I’m breathing so much more.
I look around and laugh with my friends because it is a beautiful sound.
Sometimes we need to see the darkness in order to appreciate the light.
As Benjamin Disraeli said, “Fear makes us feel our humanity.”
So in the season of chills and thrills, fear and gore, cherish the moments of humanity that surround us constantly.
Scream a little, laugh a lot and see more than the gory around us — see the glory, too.
Reach the columnist at Alexandria.tippings@asu.edu or follow her at @Lexij41.
Want to join the conversation? Send an email to opiniondesk.statepress@gmail.com. Keep letters under 300 words and be sure to include your university affiliation. Anonymity will not be granted.
