A New Study Shows Horror Movies Might Actually Be Curdling Your Blood
The phrase “bloodcurdling horror” isn’t used as much anymore, but it used to be one of those cool taglines you would throw on a movie to convey just how “scary” it was. But can a horror movie actually curdle your blood? Turns out that it might be possible.
The Guardian posted a study today conducted by doctors and academics at Leiden University in which they sought to find out if there was any truth to that old phrase. In the study they had subjects watch two movies: “Insidious” and a French documentary about wine making. One group watched “Insidious” first and then a week later they watched the documentary while the other group did the same thing in reverse order. During both screenings participants had blood taken from them before and after the films.
What the doctors found was that after participants had watched the horror movie they found higher levels of Factor VIII, a protein that promotes blood-clotting. Or, as some might call it, bloodcurdling. So why might your body start curdling its own blood when watching a horror movie? It might have to do with our oldest instinct: fight or flight. Here’s how study lead Banne Nemeth described it to the Guardian:
We think that from an evolutionary perspective it is actually a good thing to clot a bit faster if you experience fear. Fearful situations often come together with trauma or injury. So from this evolutionary perspective it would be good to prepare your body for blood loss.
So even if you’re scared from just watching a movie your body is still triggering those important survival responses. It’s actually a pretty novel concept.
And if you’re wondering why they chose to show people “Insidious” instead of some classic horror movie, it’s because the doctors wanted a film that provided constant scares instead of one that just built up tension. It’s been awhile since I’ve seen it, but I’m assuming “Insidious” probably has a lot of jump scares. And, according to the Guardian, the doctors picked “Insidious” because “it was unlikely to have been seen by the volunteers.”
Sick burn, Doc.
