Psychiatrist Explores Why Horror Films Terrify Some and Thrill Others

Carmine M Pariante, a professor of biological psychiatry at King's College London, examines the psychological mechanisms behind horror film reception, drawing on his own childhood trauma from watching Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein at age six. He introduces the concept of 'cinematic neurosis,' a reaction intense enough to meet PTSD criteria, citing a 2007 case of a woman traumatized by The Exorcist. Pariante explains that the uncanny (unheimlich) — familiar things made strange — is key to horror's appeal, as seen in current hits Backrooms and Obsession by Gen Z filmmakers. He notes that children under seven cannot distinguish fantasy from reality, and those with high empathy or prior emotional difficulties are more susceptible to lasting fear. Research shows that showing children the making of a monster (e.g., the Hulk) reduces fear. Pariante's personal strategy involves briefly visualizing the film crew to break the spell. The article references Stephen King's Danse Macabre, linking horror to societal anxieties like the Red Scare. A 2012 study of patient SM, whose amygdala was destroyed, shows she could not be frightened by horror films. Surveys from the late 1990s found one in four US undergraduates had enduring fears from childhood movies.