If you don't mind sitting through a couple of hours of feeling terrified there are some pretty good benefits for your sex life, brain and immune system.
Watching a horror film can cause some fairly strong reactions…how many times have you realised every muscle in your body is poised to run away?
Or your heart feel like it's beating out of your chest right before something is about to happen.
That's part of your body's fight or flight response – the mechanism that tells us whether we need to stay and fight or run away when we are threatened.
It's that response than can have some benefits for your health…
1. Boosts your sex drive
It may seem like an odd side effect to watching horror films, but you might find you want to get down and dirty more.
Watching victims being stalked by a maniac might not immediately put you in the mood for love, but researchers have found that the experience releases the same chemicals in the body – dopamine and serotonin – as when sexually aroused.
Joanne Cantor, a psychology Professor at the University of Wisconsin, said: "Being scared is physiologically arousing, and in the right company it may eventually carry over to sexual arousal."
There's also evidence that watching something scary can trigger the body's sympathetic nervous system (SNS) by turning on the flight or fight response.
In some cases that can lead to arousal.
2. Makes you smarter
When you’re scared, your brain’s hypothalamus is triggered, putting your body in a state of red alert for what might come next.
The hypothalamus plays a crucial role in releasing hormones and regulating your body temperature.
One of the hormone’s released is called norepinephrine.
One of its jobs is to keep you focused on the task at hand, rather than letting panic take over.
Dr Jake Deutsch, a physician in New York, told the Inc.com earlier this year that norepinephrine "allows clearer thinking under stress, which is precisely why it's used in many antidepressants".
3. It's like exercise
OK, so if you're gorging on popcorn, crisps and chocolate there's pretty much no beneift, but if you're not it's like doing some exercise.
Watching a horror film can burn almost 200 calories – the equivalent of going for a 30 minute jog on a treadmill.
That's according to researchers from the University of Westminster, who published their findings in 2012.
Physiologist Dr Richard Mackenzie said jump scares provoked a physical exertion and quickened the heart rate, burning more calories in the process.
"As the pulse quickens and blood pumps around the body faster, the body experiences a surge in adrenaline," he said.
"It is this release of fast acting adrenaline, produced during short bursts of intense stress (or in this case, brought on by fear), which is known to lower the appetite, increase the basal metabolic rate and ultimately burn a higher level of calories."
Stanley Kubrick's The Shining was found to promote the most calories burned, 184, followed by Jaws, which burned 161.
4. Boosts your immune system
As discussed, watching a horror film triggers the fight-or-flight response, releasing the hormone adrenaline.
That adrenaline rush can heighten your senses, provide pain relief and even temporarily increase strength.
In 2016 researchers at Coventry University also discovered it can boost a body's immune system.
In a paper published in the journal Stress, they described how they took blood samples from volunteers before, during and after sitting quietly in a room or watching a horror film.
They reported that levels of white blood cells, usually boosted in response to infection, were increased and suggested it was an evolutionary response "geared to promote the survival of the individual".
But it's not all good news…
There are some downsides to being scared out of your wits…and your face probably won't thank you.
Youthful skin relies on good blood flow.
But a study by experts at Hiroshima University, Japan, last year found that watching horror films can cause a decrease in "prefrontal oxygenation and facial skin blood flow".
That, in turn, could potentially lead to an acne or wrinkles.
Watching horror movies could also give you a poor memory, too.
Researchers from Edith Cowan University in Perth, Australia, found that adults with higher cortisol levels – released in response to fear – experienced a greater rate of memory decline than those with lower levels.
Lead researcher Simon Laws said: "We found those with high cortisol levels and high amyloid, declined in terms of their memory performance at a much faster rate than those that had high amyloid, but low cortisol, so the cortisol level in their blood was contributing a to a faster rate of memory loss."
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