For the third and final post about this article – (Why) Do You Like Scary Movies? A Review of the Empirical Research on Psychological Responses to Horror Films (2019) by G. Neil Martin published in Frontiers in Psychology, I am going to discuss the findings regarding age and horror enjoyment.
Generally speaking, across multiple studies, less than half of young children (below the age of 11) reported enjoying scary movies. However, this changes significantly for youth aged 11-18 where more than half reported enjoying scary movies. Younger children tended to be more frightened by abstract and symbolic threats such as monsters and ghosts, whereas older youth were more frightened by concrete and realistic threats such as people or animals.
Adolescents and teenagers were found to watch scary movies for thrill-seeking, curious, and rebellious reasons. Many teenagers reported a desire to engage with scary movies for the thrill they provide. Many expressed curiosity about death, violence, aggression, and gore. Many also admitted that they watched scary movies because their parents had prohibited them, or they had become taboo and thus titilating.
It’s easy to understand these motivations in the context of the push for independence that typically accompanies teenagerhood. The lack of preference for scary movies in younger children could also be considered a result of their greater dependency upon their parents for safety, soothing, and coping.
The sex difference still exists in young children where more males report enjoying scary movies than do females. However, both males and females follow the same trajectory with regards to enjoyment increasing into teenage years.
There was very little research done on the enjoyment of horror movies as it pertains to age past teenage years, but the little that had been done suggested that enjoyment of horror movies tends to decline as age increases. Personally, I don’t think my enjoyment of horror movies declined with age, but one affect that I did notice, and have heard others note, is that it became harder for me to watch horror movies in which a child is harmed since having my own children.
My own experience is similar to what was presented in the research literature. When I was a young child, I hated horror movies. I had no desire to watch them and every desire to avoid them. Gradually, that repulsion was eroded away by the allure of the mystically macabre, the seductively sinister, the endearingly dark. I enjoyed the Halloween specials of my favourite shows. I watched the 90s Canadian staple Are You Afraid of the Dark. I explored the works of Stephen King. By the time I was 12, I had made a routine of watching one or two horror movies during the night over the weekend. By the time I was 14, I was a fully-fledged horror hound.
Thanks for reading.
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