What Makes Things Scary?

The main feature of a horror film is fear. The "scare" factor. 
With this in mind, I decided to do some research on what actually makes things seem "scary", "creepy" and "unnatural". Therefore, we will be better able to make the decisions about our film opening that will make it suitably "creepy" for our audience.

First, what is fear?

The right amygydala is the portion of the brain associated with the learning of fear. Research by Christof Koch shows that it responds more to images of animals than people, landmarks or objects, even though those things could be deemed as more dangerous in the present day.
Research by Nobuo Masataka also showed that children as young as three years old found it easier to identify snakes on a computer screen than flowers, showing how much fear and the inescapable instinct of survival are linked.

However, Thomas Straube, from the Friedrich Schiller University of Jena, showed through brain scans that horror films don't actually activate fear in the amygdala at all, but rather fired up other parts of the brain instead. This would mean that, in actual fact, horror films don't actually scare us in the expected way that brain chemistry suggests.

A psychologist by the name of Dr. Glenn D. Walters identified the three main factors which make horror films so alluring to us.

1. Tension - This is created through mystery, shock, terror or gore.

2. Relevance - This is how far the film and its themes relate to the audience. The more it relates to the group or individual viewer, the more likely that group/individual will be drawn to watch the film.

3. Unrealism - However graphic a horror film may be, there is always something inside our minds that reminds us that what we are watching is not actually real. This is shown through a study by Haidt, McCauley and Rozin, who looked at disgust. Students in 1994 were shown a series of gruesome documentaries, and very few could make it to the end. However, these same participants would pay money to see worse on a movie screen. This is perhaps due to the fact that when we walk into a movie theatre, we know that what we see is fabricated. It is also why children should not watch scary films when young, as they have more difficulty separating fiction and reality, especially when seen on a movie screen.
  With all this in mind, films that cause high levels of tension, are relevant to multiple groups of people, but still retain an air of unrealism, will hold more horror appeal for the viewer.

Why do people watch horror?

There are various reasons why people are motivated to watch horror. One study looked at adolescents who watched "Slasher" films. It was found that there were 4 prominent categories as to why these adolescents chose to watch this type of film. These are identified as:

1. Gore Watching - Characterised by people with low empathy, high sensation seeking and males in this category usually have a stronger identification to the killer.

2. Thrill Watching - Characterised by high empathy, high sensation seeking and is motivated by the suspense of the film. Viewers in this category will show more identification with the victims.

3. Independent Watching - Characterised by high empathy for the victim. Viewers in this category use the fear within the film to positively overcome their own fears.

4. Problem Watching - Characterised by high empathy for the victim. Viewers in this category are shown to be negatively affected by the film, showing feelings such as a sense of helplessness.
  Horror films require us to face the unknown in order to understand it and make it less scary. They allow us to see our fears played out on a screen, and be able to evaluate and reduce them without being in immediate danger.



After completing this research, and much more, we can narrow scary films down to three predominant categories:

1. Gore
2. Unrealistic
3. Psychological

Although gore can be shocking, it loses tension very quickly, and it becomes repetitive after a while. For this reason, we decided to focus on the other two possibilities.
Unrealism can work very well, and we felt that, coupled with the psychological aspect of hallucinations, this would be the most effective, and budget-friendly idea for our film opening.

We also looked at this video, by a YouTube channel called Vsauce. This is a channel which uploads many different videos looking at the science behind the mind. In this one, it attempts to explain scientifically why we may find things creepy, uncanny, or scary.

WHY ARE THINGS CREEPY?