Our Horror Movie Obsession

This year has been good for horror movies. While other films have wound up being one box-office disappointment after another, the horror genre has consistently impressed audiences.

“The Purge: Election Year,” “The Conjuring 2,” “Lights Out,” and “Don’t Breathe” have all seen healthy and profitable highlights for the 2016 box office, averaging more than $80 million among them domestically. Next up: the release of the highly anticipated studio horror movie, “Ouija: Origin of Evil,” arriving Oct. 21.

“It’s not logical. Most people like to experience pleasant emotions.”

From John Carpenter’s “Halloween” to the “Saw” franchise to the “Paranormal Activity” films, scary movies have found success due to a combination of typically low budgets and big opening weekends. But this year, the horror genre has reached a fever pitch in popularity, counting itself as the most successful and most reliable genre of 2016.

This year has even provided a horror obsession that goes beyond the silver screen. Spooky clown sightings (some holding weapons and even reportedly yelling at children) have been becoming more and more common nationwide.

This “clown hysteria” has been tied by some to marketing gimmicks for Rob Zombie’s horror movie “31,” which features a killer who dresses himself as a clown, and the upcoming “IT” remake, whose infamous baddie, Pennywise the Clown, has haunted the dreams of children for decades now. Producers for “31,” which has come and gone in theaters, have denied any such involvement with the clown sightings. It’s unlikely the sightings can be tied to “IT” producers either, since the film’s release is at least a year away.

But what is it that makes us so obsessed with films that slice and dice, spook, and scare us? And, more importantly, why are they more popular than ever?

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“No doubt, there’s something really powerful that brings people to watch these things, because it’s not logical. Most people like to experience pleasant emotions,” Joanne Cantor, Ph.D., director of the Center for Communication Research at University of Wisconsin, Madison, told WebMD in a study looking at viewers’ particular love for scary flicks.

[lz_bulleted_list title=”Top 2016 Horror Movies” source=http://www.boxofficemojo.com]”The Conjuring 2″ — $102,470,000|”Don’t Breathe” — $84,730,000|”The Purge:Election Year” — $79,000,000|”Lights Out” — $67,300,000|”The Boy” — $35,800,000|”Blair Witch” — $19,000,000[/lz_bulleted_list]

Glenn Sparks, a professor from Purdue University who studied the physiological effects of horror films on viewers, said in the same study that horror movies would quicken viewers’ heartbeats. The scarier the movie and faster the heartbeat, the more they liked the final product — particularly males.

“It goes back to the initiation rites of our tribal ancestors, where the entrance to manhood was associated with hardship. We’ve lost that in modern society, and we may have found ways to replace it in our entertainment preferences.”

Other explanations for the long appeal of fright-filled entertainment include pure curiosity — not being able to look away from a car crash — and “symbolic catharsis,” a theory pushed by bestselling horror novelist Stephen King.

“The mythic horror movie, like the sick joke, has a dirty job to do. It deliberately appeals to all that is worst in us. It is morbidity unchained, our most base instincts let free, our nastiest fantasies realized … and it all happens, fittingly enough, in the dark. For those reasons, good liberals often shy away from horror films,” wrote King in an essay titled, “Why We Crave Horror Movies.”

So if the enduring popularity can be chalked up to a more animalistic piece of the brain, why have horror films been particularly popular this year?

“Horror has been successful this year because the concepts have been strong, in my opinion,” screenwriter Bobby Lee Darby (“See No Evil 2”) told LifeZette, adding that the best horror movies have all had “great trailers and great hooks.”

But some say horror is simply a reliable genre — it just looks better in 2016 compared to Hollywood’s other output.

“Horror is the foundation of the film industry. Going back to the silent era. It’s tried and true. The genre will never die,” screenwriter Jack Reher said.

Related: Terror Coming to U.S. — or Already Here?

Producer and screenwriter John Sullivan, who wrote the horror flick “Fear of the Dark” to deal with his own fear of the dark, said horror is one of the last reliably profitable genres left because of its low cost and unique escapist appeal.

“Horror movies are cheap, and have easy concepts to understand,” says Sullivan. “Not everyone can identify with a superhero, or an action star, or even a romance. But everyone is afraid. It’s almost a cathartic response. The world is scary, but we’d rather focus on the thing underneath our bed, rather than the very real people who want to kill us.”