The Monster Always Comes Back: Why studies say horror fans are more resilient

I was 5 years old when I first saw a horror film. It all began on Halloween night, when my brother, his friend and I were watching MTV and the video for Michael Jackson’s Thriller came on. I was a huge fan of MJ at the time (it was the mid-80’s), and I loved that the video kind of scared me. My brother’s friend was talking about the scary movies they were going to watch, and I knew nothing about them, but I decided that I was going to watch them, too. My mom told me that they would give me nightmares, but I insisted, and was filled with a kind of nervous excitement.

Yes, I loved Thriller, but I wanted something deeper—something truly terrifying. Of course, you’re probably thinking that maybe I had a super traumatizing childhood to be so excited at that age to taste real fear. But (up until that age, anyway), my childhood had been trauma-free. That night, my 5-year old brain witnessed Nightmare on Elm Street, The Shining, and Halloween (the first one). And yes, I did have nightmares—but I was fucking hooked. Soon, I went from reading Little House on the Prairie and Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret to sitting in my room, eyes wide, enjoying novels by Stephen King and Clive Barker or whatever juicy literary worlds of terror I could get my hands on.

Fast forward. It’s 2024 and things are fucking scary. Most of us move through the day like it’s just another normal, boring slice of existence. But really, compared to the world even as little as 30 years ago, we are living in a psychotic real life reenactment of Black Mirror, Contagion, Idiocracy, 1984, and The Stepford Wives. And apparently, horror fans are handling it a bit better. A couple of studies looked at the difference in resilience and reactions to huge, terrifying current events (like the outbreak of COVID-19), and if you are already in the habit of scaring yourself on a regular basis, that may actually lead to a better psychological outcome. Now this isn’t by any means to say that horror fans are somehow “better” than non-horror fans, but it begs the question—if non-horror fans are having a hard time adapting to (or even accepting) our world’s current state, should they start reading/watching horror? Will watching George Romero films and reading the Cordyceps trilogy by Ian Duncan allow us to make better, safer decisions during the next pandemic?

Horror films aren’t really the key here—facing our fears is. Psychological resilience is built through facing our fears and overcoming or enduring adversity. Most horror fans get scared every time they watch a good horror flick, but they like it. It is possible that their brains react as though they have just been through a horrible ordeal, but survived. Sometimes the fear doesn’t just go away (certainly after watching the first Insidious, I was on edge for a few days!), but the point is, we make it through. That’s really no different than walking through a scary alley on the way home from work everyday , even though it terrifies us. We (hopefully) start being on our guard more in that alley. We look behind us to make sure no one is following, we keep a finger on our mace/knife/gun. When we come out the other end, we exhale, relieved. We made it—again. I guess the big difference between that scenario and a horror movie is that a horror movie doesn’t have the possibility of getting you actually, physically harmed. So check behind you. Hand on your weapon. Take a deep breath. Whew, you made it. Another day, another chance to build resilience, right?

Now, let's address the problem-child of nearly every horror film. Everyone’s seeing what’s happening now, there’s no denying it—there are demons in the goddamn cabin and we need to find a way out! But one person always denies it—the skeptic. Those motherfuckers are so damn afraid that they can’t accept the reality if what’s happening. So they loudly exclaim something like “You guys, c’mon… Ghosts aren’t  real! I’m gonna go get a beer and leave you all to this ridiculous discussion. I’ll be right back.”

No you won’t, sir. No. You. Won’t.

Denial is the quickest way to die in horror, and it’s definitely not an asset in real-life survival situations. Let’s go back to that dark, scary alley again for a moment. This skeptic character, they get stuck in the alley, what do they do? They stroll and scroll, the latest Tik Tok posts casting an eerie blue light on their face. They don’t notice the armed maniac sneaking up behind them. And we all know how that ends, folks! But seriously, being in denial only helps us to further detach from reality, and there’s a danger in that. Resilience isn’t possible, facing your fears isn’t possible—without accepting the way things are, right now. Of course, you can always keep being the skeptic, over and over, hoping to avoid having to come face to face with what you're scared of—but keep this in mind: the number two rule in horror movies is that no matter how many times you think you’ve escaped, the monster always comes back.