A new study by German scientists suggests there’s a genetic explanation as to why horror films amuse some folks, yet fill others with nameless dread. Researchers tested 96 women on their response to crime-scene images and unexpected loud noises, and found that ones with a certain variation of something called the "COMT gene" startled more dramatically than others.
Despite the depth of my scientific knowledge*, I’m not sure how solid the study is. I am, however, vindicated knowing it was not me who, in the middle of a crowded movie theater back in 2002, curled my knees up to my chest, pressed my fists up to my forehead, squinted my eyes, and made a pathetic "eeep" sound when Scary McLonghair crawled out of that television set in The Ring.
So tell me, PopWatchers: Do any of you have the same easily rattled genes as me? And would you be interested in a "cure" for what ails you? (My short answer can be found by clicking here.)
* Took courses called "sociobiology" and "geology" to fill college science requirement.
Comments (1-30) of 39 Add your comment
FINALLY, i have an authentic scientific excuse to use when explaining to my husband (for the zillionth time) that i don’t like scary movies. When he asks why (which he ALWAYS asks), now i can say i am genetically opposed!!
I am another that is genetically predisposed to not want to be in the same room as a horror movie. I’ll hide behind the couch for the next 90 minutes, thankyou. Or better yet, run upstairs and watch that Who documentary on VH1 Classic for the umpteenth time.
Scary McLonghair!!!! That’s awesome.
I didn’t sleep for a week after seeing “Critters” when I was 6 (if you have seen this campy movie, you’ll know my shame). A friend of mine forced me to see the remake of “Texas Chainsaw Massacre” and I spent the entire movie with my eyes (and ears) covered. I cried at “The Ring” when they showed the first dead girl in the closet. I would rather poke my eyes out that ever watch any of the Saw movies. I get it from my mom – but having studied genetics, it could have just as much to do with environmental factors (being raised by a scardy cat could create a scardy cat) as inheriting genes.
I can’t see movies with wet kids (drowned, in a bathtub, in a well,pool, river, etc..)
Wet kids freak me out!
In my case it actually depends on the type of horror movie. If it’s a Saw or Texas Chainsaw Massacre (i.e. more gross and bloody than really creepy) then yes, I get scared but not sleep with the lights on scared. Movies like the Shining, the Others and the Ring, though, scare the daylights out of me! The Shining will still give me nightmares if I see more than 30 seconds of it…it’s stuck in my subconscious, I guess!
I get MORE rattled if the movie is something that hits close to home..when I was 16 and a babysitter who lived in Illinois, I watched Halloween – a psycho who hunts 16yr old babysitters…I was terrified for, well, ever…
I can’t see movies like “Funny Games” or ones where normal people are terrorized at home (the killer is using the phone upstairs, Carole Kane!)…I immediately think someone has snuck into my house and is waiting for me to turn the lights out…no way…
I can’t handle blood and guts movies – Saw, Hostel, etc…nope…
For some reason, I always jump if I turn a corner in the office and someone is unexpectedly there. Or if I open a door that is completely opaque and someone is immediately on the other side. My coworkers think it’s hilarious. Yet, I love scary movies and am rarely affected by them on any kind of psychological level. So none of it makes much sense to me.
Horror movies just bore the pants off me. It’s just a movie! What’s to be scared of? Unless it’s so bad it’s funny, I spend the whole time yawning. I wish people would give up trying to convert me. It’s not happening.
That movie completley creeped me out, but why people didn’t FLEE once the ghost started comming thru the TV was beyond me.
Only when Jack Nicholson is limping around with an axe in his hand…
I’m even more easily rattled than you, Slezak. After spending years watching all the scary Jason/Michael Myers/Freddy/Exorcist movies, and sleeping with the lights on, and having really bad dreams, and devising escape routes out of my apartment as I was lying awake at night, because some movie scared the you-know-what out of me, I finally asked “why am I doing this to myself?” And I just stopped. I don’t watch anything scary like that anymore, and I sleep much better!
It’s ridiculous to me that my four and a half year old daughter isn’t afraid of the creepy scarecrows on Dr. Who, but I am. Especially since she keeps rubbing it in that they don’t scare her at all!
CSI gives me nightmares, and that is the only “scary” thing I can watch!!
I would rather poke my eyes out than watch Saw too. I do NOT do well with torture and suspense. And blood. And psycho killers. And if there is an animal in a house, like a dog or cat, I freak too. Good to know its all in my genes!!
I hate horror movies. I can’t watch any of them. But, that is not the shameful thing. That lies with my brother. He was scared of the Michael Jackson video “Thriller” when we were kids.
Despite zombies being one of my biggest irrational fears, I can completely tolerate those movies. Same with the ultra violent gory films like Saw. However, I cannot take any movies with dead children, or any type of J-horror (and US remakes of) films. Ghosts with slow, stilted movements freak me out to no end.
It depends on the movie–I liked* “The Sixth Sense,” but no way will I watch blood-and-guts movies, or movies where someone is being relentlessly chased by someone/thing (although I thought “The Lost Boys” was awesome.) If I’m forced to watch horror movies, I prefer them to be chopped up by network censors; “Candyman” was hilarious that way! Ditto “Dawn of the Dead.”
*Okay, I admit that whenever it seemed as though the movie would get scary, I peered over my glasses and through my fingers.
If a horror movie has a horrible or nonexistent plot, I get too distracted by it to actually get scared. That goes for all the Saw movies, as well as just about every slasher film out there. Also, if it isn’t made to seem plausible, and I don’t believe in whatever they’re selling (I don’t believe in ghosts or monsters), I can appreciate a good plot but not be scared. However, give me something like 28 Days Later, and I will both love and fear it.
It always depend on the movie. The Freddie/Jason types don’t scare me because they telegraph what is about to happen. On the other hand ‘The Orphanage’ really shook me, because you kept going back and forth from might-be ghost to might-be human killer. My only other problem is any vermin, so guess which part of ‘Cloverfield’ I had the most problem with?
I don’t enjoy scary movies, but I don’t think I’m easily frightened or startled, either. When I do get roped into watching horror or a thriller, I put myself in a state of mind where I’m always aware that it’s a movie. I guess that doesn’t really answer whether I have the scaredy-cat gene, but I’m definitely less scared of things than my partner.
Nancy, I am glad to know I am not the only person on the planet who plans escape routes from my apartment (and knows which household objects can be used as weapons, too). Everyone does that, right?
I was also making the “EEEP” sound during The Ring. I asked my little brother to, “Please tell me when it’s over” and in classic sense, he waited until the music died down to tell me it was over and when I came up from fetal position, I saw Scary McLonghair coming at me. I like being scared but can only handle it during daylight hours. Otherwise, I have to immediately watch another movie to get the scary one out of my head. And I can’t stand any film that has the torture of people in it (Funny Games, I’m looking at you). They don’t scare me, they just piss me off.
I can watch any scary movie and they don’t faze me a bit. My dad would make my brother and I stay up with him and watch the “late movies” (before the days of cable). I think I watched Psycho when I was 8. Saw the Exotrcist at 14 and thought it was hilarious! But give me a movie with “normal” looking people that are actually crazy…that scares the %^$# out of me. Rutger Hauger in The Hitcher was a perfect case in point. Can not watch that movie to this day!
There’s nothing like being scared to get the blood pumping. Plus I think it’s character building.
Check out Kinderauma’s archives of movies that scared people when they were little and you’ll notice they are all quite happy with the experience!
http://www.kindertrauma.com/
Yes, that explains a lot. I am a pretty smart person who can indeed tell the difference between what is real and what is a movie, but I have always had a very viscerally negative reaction to scary movies. It’s like my brain downshifts into fight or flight without any logic or reason and I have the uncontrollable desire to flee. I think it has to do with brain function, whether it’s genetic or not.
That picture scares me so much I’m going to have to stay away from popwatch for the next 24 hours!
It depends on the movie. I remember renting THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT and was bored out of my mind. On the other end, THE RING scared the bejesus out of me, so much so I couldn’t look at my turned-off TV for several days thinking that creepy kid was gonna burst through. Looking at that photo above is creeping me out again.
(((mommy)))
P.S. Love the name Scary McLonghair. Perfect name for Samara.
For me it’s the “walk through walls – kick them in the b***s” factor. If they can walk through walls and I can’t kick them, a-hem, there, then I’m scared.
I don’t see what the big deal in some of the “horror” films are, so that means no gene for me, but my kids freak out over the smallest things-they can’t even watch Scary Movie hmmmmm maybe it skipped me