You Don’t Just Watch a Scary Movie

By FPL_JohnA

Did you know that watching horror movies can actually curdle your blood? That’s right, you don’t just watch a scary movie, you experience it with your whole body. Researchers decided to test this old expression, so they had a group of people watch both horror movies and documentaries. The results showed that there was an increase in blood clotting activity when they watched horror movies versus documentaries. It appears that your body is preparing itself to be injured. The researchers concluded that the use of the term “bloodcurdling” when describing something scary is perfectly accurate and not just a figure of speech (Nemeth et al., 2015).

If you’d like to know more interesting facts about watching movies and TV shows, check out the upcoming book You Are What You Watch: How Movies and TV Affect Everything by Walt Hickey., opens a new window

If you want to look up other interesting research papers, try Gale Academic OneFile., opens a new window

REFERENCES
Nemeth, B., Scheres, L. J., Lijfering, W. M., & Rosendaal, F. R. (2015). Bloodcurdling movies and measures of coagulation: Fear Factor crossover trial. BMJ, 351.