I remember the first horror movie I saw was Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street when I was about 8-9 years old. All I remember was sitting there on my bed looking at the TV while my mom went to the restroom. I stared at the screen in awe of the sets, the songs, and most importantly, the blood and gore they displayed with every kill. Now that the movie is free with ads on YouTube, I have been watching and listening to the movie in my free time. Heck, I'm listening to the movie right now as I write this! But rewatching it, I thought to myself, is there something good in watching a horror movie other than for some nightmares and Halloween scares? That's usually the reason why we put them on in the first place, but is there something we can take away from this gory genre? Grab a flashlight, baseball bat, and your favorite plushie cause I'm about to dive in.

     You may not know this, but some of those who watch horror movies may have anxiety and turn to these movies to calm them down. Coltan Scrivner, a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Chicago who studies horror and morbid curiosity, said: "You might expect that everyone with anxiety would avoid horror --after all, why would someone who feels anxious want to watch something that is created specifically to induce fear or anxiety?" He's not wrong, being anxious and then watching something scary is just going to tip your anxiety to the edge. Well, it's the opposite of that. Those with anxiety have a glitch with the fight or flight response that horror usually triggers. Because their brains react to everyday occurrences as a major threat to their life, horror allows them to release tension and distract themselves from real-life anxieties.

      Besides giving escape to those with anxiety and those without, it also allows us to put ourselves in the positions of the characters and wonder if we could or couldn't survive the scenarios they were placed in. Could we live in 19th-century London and walk in and out of Sweeney Todd's shop alive? Would we have the gall to defend the children we are responsible for from Michael Myers? Have we the courage to fight the demons that are possessing us like so many movies? I know I can defeat, and if I could befriend, Jason Voorhees from the Friday the 13th franchise, but what about you? Who could you defeat, and if you couldn't, what horror movie villain scares you the most?

    In the end, horror movies can be gruesome and give you nightmares for days, but under all the blood and gore, there is a genre we can turn to scare us or calm us down after a long day. That's what they're made for, and without them, what else could we use to escape from life's worries? Thanks for reading, and though it's early, Happy Halloween.