Half-term deluge of scary movies

Schools are on holiday this week in the UK. As film distributors know their target audiences only too well, commercial TV is packed with adverts for scary movies. But what is it about scary movies that makes people enjoy the experience? After all, the emotion they are designed to induce in the audience - fear - is not pleasant in itself.

Some psychologists would say that it is probably not the scary parts of the movie that people are enjoying. It is after the scare, when the adrenaline is still flowing and the tension in the film is released, that the movie-goer experiences pleasure.

In that case how come we're not all horror fans? Perhaps because fear is a primal and easily activated emotion, it tends to keep the attention of adolescents. For those who prefer more subtlety in their cinematic experience, horror is just too direct.
> From The Guardian