Some people with anxiety may find relief watching horror movies during these unprecedented times
T he weather is getting colder, the days are getting shorter, midterms and finals have arrived, and to top it off we’re in the middle of a pandemic.
More than half of Canadians claim their mental health has been negatively affected by the pandemic, according to a poll published by IPSOS. Another poll published by the Mental Health Commission of Canada shows that many Canadians have seen their stress levels double since COVID-19 hit.
Local psychotherapist and addiction counsellor Lisa Koole has noticed this influx of stress and anxiety, especially when it comes to post-secondary students, who make up over half of her client base.
“People are experiencing a loss of control over their lives in a lot of ways,” Koole said in an interview with The Ontarion.
“It’s a totally different experience [for students] right now. They’re not on campus, they’re not able to be supported by their peers, and there’s limited social contact. I’m also noticing a loss of structure in their day, which can cause stress.”
While it is strongly encouraged that you ask for help if you are experiencing a decline in your mental health, one way to potentially ease your anxieties, albeit temporarily, is to immerse yourself in the nightmarish realm of horror films.
University of Guelph alumna Jenn Kao likes horror films because they remind her “not to take life too seriously and to just enjoy the two hours of jump scares.”
“Often, the premise underlying the horror movie is something so ridiculous that I can’t help but laugh,” Kao said. “I find laughing at horror builds my confidence for problems I face in real life.”
She referred to The Conjuring, where a family moves into a home previously owned by a woman named Bathesba who has become a haunting poltergeist.
“Relative to that situation, my life seems pretty simple,” she said.
Kao said she experiences generalized anxiety, and is able to differentiate this anxiety from that of a horror movie. In fact, she says it makes her feel more in control of the anxieties she experiences on a daily basis.
“I think knowing that I will be anxious during and after the movie, but that this anxiety is unrelated to my diagnosed condition, is strangely comforting. I like to challenge myself to watch these shows and gain a slightly different perspective of my own problems.”
According to a 2019 Frontiers in Psychology study, the horror genre elicits fear consistently and deliberately — its effects are felt immediately. The study noted that watching horror movies makes people feel more stressed and anxious, while romance movies make them feel sleepier and less tense.
So how is it that some people find comfort in the anxiety-inducing genre?
According to the study, the word “horror” is derived from the Greek “phryke”, which translates to “shudder.” It describes the physical acts of shivering, shuddering, and piloerection (goose-bumps). The modern definition, however, is largely contested and unclear.
For the purpose of this article, the term horror will encompass any and all sub-genres whose purpose is to evoke a “phryke” in the viewer.
Put simply, horror movies offer a safe way to experience fear.
In the 2014 documentary Why Horror, social psychologist Joseph Hayes says that “experiencing fear within certain contexts, certain safe environments” can help us deal with those emotions and gain mastery over them.
In fact, we often end up celebrating the survivalist grit of the characters in these films. For example, in the Netflix video The Reason Horror Movies Can Make You Happy, the narrator refers to the movie Hush. The film features a deaf protagonist who has to fight for her life when a masked attacker appears. However, rather than becoming a victim, she becomes “a force to be reckoned with.”
Filmmaker Chad Archibald of Canadian film production house Black Fawn Films believes people are drawn to horror because it offers an adrenaline rush in a safe space, while providing contrast to daily life.
“Watching the often extreme scenes that unfold throughout a horror movie contrast to normal life in a way that can offer a new perspective,” Archibald said. “You watch a horror film and when you’re done, maybe it feels like some other things in your life aren’t as insane now that you’ve seen something so intense.”
The fear and adrenaline that you feel is not just a coincidence. Filmmakers are well aware of the effect horror has on the brain, and manipulate that fear and adrenaline rush well.
“It’s almost mathematical,” Archibald said. “It’s playing on people’s emotions and fears. These movies are designed in a way to let the viewer’s mind go off on its own. It’s like an exercise for the mind.”
According to a 2020 Live Science article, when you watch a horror film, the fear you feel activates the amygdala, which is known as the “fear center” of the brain and is located in the temporal lobes. When the amygdala becomes active, it temporarily diverts all of the body’s energy to facing that fear, initiating a fight-or-flight feeling.
Neuropsychiatrist Katherine Brownlowe told Live Science that after the “fight-or-flight” signals stop, the “rest-and-digest” system starts.
“The heart rate is coming down, the breathing is slowing, goose bumps are relaxing. There’s a sense of internal cognitive relief in the body,” she said, adding that “a good old-fashioned scare can make some of the everyday fears we face seem less terrifying.”
In a 2018 Wexner Medical article, Brownlowe notes that there is in fact a psychological benefit to experiencing something scary in a safe environment.
“It challenges our beliefs about risk – and, in some ways, can ‘re-set the thermostat’ for people so that things that had seemed intimidating may be easier to deal with in the future,” said Brownlowe.
“After watching two hours of a Halloween scare-fest, it’s not as worrisome to ask your boss for a raise, or face a budget shortfall or prepare to give a public speech.”
According to Koole, the act of watching a horror film actually resembles exposure therapy used in cognitive processing therapy, which can be used for reducing symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
“While you’re watching a horror movie, typically you’re the one picking it, you can stop at any moment, and you’re usually watching it with friends or in an environment where you feel safe,” Koole said.
“The point with exposure therapy is that the person is in control of their exposure. They have to push themselves a little bit, so there will be uncomfortable feelings, but it’s controlling the environment.”
Although, Koole also notes that it depends on the person and their emotional state: “People experience stress in their bodies differently, so while some people don’t mind that high adrenaline feeling, for others it can make them feel really out of control, and [cause] a lot of discomfort.”
University of Guelph PhD candidate Josh Grant-Young is researching the philosophy of horror — specifically the “fear that people have of mental health conditions and how it relates to things like monstrosity.”
Living with psychosis, PTSD, and Major Depressive Disorder, Grant-Young said he set out to confront the horrors he had found within his own life, and the lives of others experiencing mental health conditions.
“There is good psychological evidence that there is something to watching horror films — that there’s a certain catharsis that’s found in watching them,” Grant-Young said. “It helps us to explore a certain dimension of ourselves through engaging with fear—to actually know better who we are and what terrifies us, and create strategies for coping with that fear.”
Horror films sometimes depict those with mental health conditions as villainous monstrosities, Grant-Young said. But as the times change, so does horror.
Movies like the Australian psychological horror film The Babadook “flip the script on mental health,” Grant-Young said, calling it a “great example of the ways we can conquer our fears and live past them.”
In the film, a single mom in the suburbs becomes haunted by visions of the Babadook after reading a disturbing book that appeared in her house.
“Eventually she learns that there’s no way you’re beating the Babadook by trying to deny it or fight it violently,” Grant-Young said. “So the only way to defeat it is to learn how to integrate it into your life, which is a sort of therapeutic concept in certain ways.”
“You can’t run away from trauma, or beat it out of yourself, but you can learn what role it plays inside of you, and learn to build strategies to cope with it.”
After all, your math exam isn’t as frightening as being chased down the streets by a killer with a chainsaw. Hopefully, anyway.
“You don’t have to live in fear. You can stay for a little while, but you don’t have to stay forever,” he said.
Josh Grant-Young will be featured on the podcast, It’s About Perspective, talking about clinical lycanthropy. Check out @IAPPodcast on Twitter for more information.
If you’re experiencing stress or anxiety:
For managing your mental health during the pandemic, Koole suggests setting firm boundaries around the information you consume on a daily basis, getting outside for fresh air, and maintaining your social connections as best you can.
Canada Suicide Prevention Service: 1-833-456-4566 (phone) / 45645 (text)
Kids Help Phone: 1-800-668-6868 (phone) / 686868 (text)
Canadian Association for Suicide Prevention: Find a 24-hour crisis centre.
Hope for Wellness Help Line at 1-855-242-3310 or chat online.
Wellness Together Canada.
A version of this article appeared in print in The Ontarion issue 189.3 on Oct. 29, 2020.
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