What Your Favorite Horror Movie Says About You
It's Halloween, and what better time than to psychoanalyze your fave horror film! (Kidding. These are mostly generalizations that might ring true for you, or might not but hopefully you have fun reading it).
●If your favorite Horror movie is Scream, Halloween, or.Friday the 13th, that might mean you enjoy Familiarity over surprise.
The plots change, but the formula doesn’t. Knowing what’s coming may make it more enjoyable. In a study published in Psychological Science, people reported liking stories more when they knew the ending. The researchers suggested it may be because the story is easier for the brain to process. That comfort of knowing can also open the door to nostalgia. Rewatching these franchise classics may bring you back to the first time you saw one: who you were with, what year it was, how it felt. That can be a psychological benefit, offering comfort and a connection to your past.
●If your fave is Obsession, The Conjuring, The Exorcist, that might mean you enjoy Possibility over proof.
These movies lean on things science can't explain: demons, possession, a supernatural wish. That same 2020 survey found that people who believe in the paranormal are drawn to supernatural horror. Those who believe less tend to prefer more realistic threats, like a slasher or a home invasion. In other words, people seek out the threats they find believable. If a ghost story scares you more than a masked killer, that may say something about what you believe is possible.
●If your favorite horror film is Terrifier, Evil Dead, Saw , you might enjoy Intensity over restraint.
Researchers behind the 2020 survey found that sensation seeking predicts how much a person enjoys horror and how often they watch it. People high in sensation seeking also tend to expect good feelings from horror, not just fear. If the gore in these movies feels fun instead of hard to sit through, you may simply enjoy a higher level of intensity.
●If you enjoy Backrooms, Smile, The Blair Witch Project, you may enjoy Curiosity over certainty.
These movies hold back the full picture. A basement leads to endless rooms. A psychiatrist seeing faces that no one else can see. Three student filmmakers go looking for a local legend and get lost in the woods. A 2024 study in the Journal of Neuroscience found that curiosity peaks when our confidence is low. The less certain a situation feels, the more our brain wants to understand it. That pull to find answers may be exactly what hooks you on this kind of horror.
●If you dig Ghostbusters, Hocus Pocus, Beetlejuice, you like Fun over fear.
Some favorites keep the scares light. They can still spook some viewers, but for many people they feel fun and safe at the same time. If your favorite “horror” movie is really a comedy in a costume, you may be drawn to the mood and ritual of Halloween more than to fear itself, and there's nothing wrong with that!
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References
Andersen, M. M., Schjoedt, U., Price, H., Rosas, F. E., Scrivner, C., & Clasen, M. (2020). Playing with fear: A field study in recreational horror. Psychological Science, 31(12), 1497–1510. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797620972116
Clasen, M., Kjeldgaard-Christiansen, J., & Johnson, J. A. (2020). Horror, personality, and threat simulation: A survey on the psychology of scary media. Evolutionary Behavioral Sciences, 14(3), 213–230. https://doi.org/10.1037/ebs0000152
Cohanpour, M., Aly, M., & Gottlieb, J. (2024). Neural representations of sensory uncertainty and confidence are associated with perceptual curiosity. Journal of Neuroscience, 44(33), e0974232024. https://doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0974-23.2024
Hodges, J. (2026, July 13). ‘Obsession' officially becomes the highest-grossing original horror movie of the century. Collider. https://collider.com/obsession-highest-grossing-original-horror-426-million-box-office/
Leavitt, J. D., & Christenfeld, N. J. S. (2011). Story spoilers don't spoil stories. Psychological Science, 22(9), 1152–1154. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797611417007
Miller, M., White, B., & Scrivner, C. (2024). Surfing uncertainty with screams: Predictive processing, error dynamics and horror films. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 379(1895), 20220425. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2022.0425
Rubin, R. (2026, March 15). Box office: ‘Scream 7' becomes franchise's highest-grossing release with $176 million, ‘Hamnet' surpasses $100 million milestone. Variety. https://variety.com/2026/film/box-office/scream-7-box-office-highest-grossing-installment-hamnet-100-million-milestone-1236688515/
Sedikides, C., & Wildschut, T. (2018). Finding meaning in nostalgia. Review of General Psychology, 22(1), 48–61. https://doi.org/10.1037/gpr0000109
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