Are people who like horror movies psychos?

Since watching "Dark Legends", our author has not got into her car without looking in the back seat. Could someone be waiting for them with an ax. Is it a character question to like horror movies? Science, of course, has an answer.

I had a new boyfriend. Pretty cool guy. The only visible catch: Confessing horror film fan. To be precise, he loved everything that I would have left behind in the video store (yeah, there was still something like that). Psychological thrillers, splatter, all that crap – it couldn't be bloody, disgusting, and scary enough for him. Until now, I had always assumed that such preferences had something to do with shady character traits. But he wasn't dodgy, he said. He is a lot, but not THAT. Oh well. What would a shady character have said in his place?

It's not the character

But scientists agree with him. Whether a person likes films that play with fear has more to do with life experience and media maturity. According to experts, the fundamental difference between him and me is that he can differentiate between reality and fiction and perceives the film as an aesthetic work of art while I am sitting in the middle of the action and therefore fear for my life. Mh. Can you let that sit on you? Was it just said that I really lacked media maturity? In any case, my new friend thought it was worth trying to coach me in a horrible way. As a precaution, I chattered my teeth, then I agreed ..

Swedish horror films are actually good

We started harmlessly. With the enthusiasm of a missionary, he inserted the DVD. "Swedish," he said, as if that should tell me something. I had crawled into the farthest corner of the sofa and my fingers immediately grabbed his arm as he sat down next to me. The fact that I can't remember the film may be because I spent most of the time behind his back. But, shockingly enough, I liked what I saw. I understood what the scientists might have meant by "aesthetic work of art". Yes, even drops of blood in the snow have some perfidious aesthetic effect in the weak light of a flickering street lamp. And he had chosen well to start with. The Swedes are not too cruel. Bullerby horror hits it pretty well.

Then the classics

For a moment after the Swedish film I thought I had made it. But I didn't. We watched "Final Destination", "I Know What You Did Last Summer" and "Halloween". I acted very bravely, but had to go to the toilet (to relax), to the kitchen (to hum children's songs to calm down) and to the refrigerator (to pour alcohol into me) noticeably often. Since I always looked relaxed at three per thousand at the end of the credits, the gentleman thought I was ready for the final exam: cinema.

Science can do me

We watched "Drag me to hell". This is pretty much the silliest horror movie you can imagine. With some crazy old woman who comes to life again half rotten. Buhuuu. I realize that the thing was more laughable than scary, but without hard liquor, going to the toilet and familiar surroundings, I was lost. I buried my fingernails so deep in the upper arms of my companion that I can still be glad today that I did not receive a charge for assault. After the film we walked home through the dark park. The crazy old woman always close on our heels. I got up several times during the night and covered every inch of skin with the blanket, just as I had done when I was five when I was scared. "Some people just stay immature," sighed my friend. "I'm giving up," I reluctantly agreed with him.

He got it on "Twilight"

We stopped watching horror films. We were probably very scared right now: I was for my life, he at least for his upper arms. At some point we were back in the cinema: vampire romance sounded at least halfway compatible to us. But this time my heart rate wasn't 180, it was his. "If he continues to treat her like that, I'll ram a stake into his damn vampire heart," my companion hissed, eyes wide. "It doesn't really exist," I said reassuringly, but he wasn't even listening to me. He was right in the middle of the movie, seething with rage. And me? I just thought: How immature!