You experience a range of emotions like anticipation and tension, then receive a rush of adrenaline while (usually) experiencing no danger to life. In a way, you could think of horror games as like little rollercoasters in your home. But when we engage in fantasy horror, we don’t immediately jump out of our seat and run away from the screen: our brain evaluates its surroundings and realises that we aren’t in immediate danger (Ringo, 2013). When we are frightened by something in a scary game, this can activate our fight-or-flight response which gives us a rush of adrenaline and other outcomes which I will discuss soon. This honestly sounds a bit terrible, but let’s look at the biology of this. These effects can be more pronounced when playing rather than watching horror: in a study of those who played versus watched P.T, those who played had a greater heart rate and were more frightened (Madsen, 2016). Horror media can produce a range of physiological responses such as shaking, jumping, covering our eyes, and making us feel anxious or disgusted (Harris et al., 2000 Cantor, 2004). The goal of horror is neatly represented by the Goddess of Horror Phrike, whose very name translates as trembling due to fear.

To explain why we can like horror games, our journey begins by exploring what happens when we play them.ĭistinct from genres such as thriller or action, horror aims to shock, frighten, and perhaps even disgust the viewer with narrative devices such as infliction of pain and the supernatural (Cherry, 2009 Newman, 2011 Hanich, 2011). However, I’d also like to shine some light on why people don’t like playing horror games.Īs usual, there will be a summary at the bottom if you do not wish to read everything. In our play session, we can expect chills, tension, an accelerated heartbeat, even being frozen in fear.īut why? When the world can be such a scary place, why do we voluntarily sign up for an interactive medium designed to frighten us? In this article, I hope to explain several reasons why people like to play games that fill them with tension and fear. With the nights growing longer and the winds howling outside, it can be tempting to draw the curtains and immerse ourselves in the spooky world of horror games.

Scary games to play in real life