Should we be Scared (of being scared?)

In Asylum: Origin of the Infection, a medical facility has been overrun by deranged patients whose administered drugs have turned them into raging lunatics, and it’s your job to go through intense combat training and enter battle against the patients and rescue hostages. In Psychomanteum, you’re led through a twisted and horrific journey that includes being strapped to a bed while being mounted by a masked assailant, as well as being physically and verbally abused.

If these experiences sound like the stuff of nightmares well…they just might be. So what is it about being scared that thrills us so? And is there any real danger in witnessing such events, fantastical though they may be?

In the case of Psychomanteum and similar shows with a sexual assault-like bent like the attraction The Basement at ScareHouse in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, there is controversy that such shows cross the line from being harmless fantastical scares into simulating very real trauma that has affected many people, particularly women.

Psychomanteum was deemed “degrading” and “humiliating” last year by the rape group Rape Crisis, specifically for the fact that it preys on the deepest vulnerability of women. In the case of The Basement, which includes being touched and even licked by men in nothing but their underwear and involves signing a waiver saying you won’t resist or fight back, the show’s sociologist who is studying the effects of the attraction on its visitors says the intent is to put people out of their comfort zone and experience sexual content in a new and uncomfortable way that makes them think about their boundaries. Yet while that may be true for men experiencing such attractions, for women it’s more likely to be a reminder of a real event where their boundaries were pushed rather than harmless fantasy.

It makes for somewhat potentially dangerous ground when one considers the horrendous long-term effects that can afflict people who witness or suffer through real-life traumatic events in the form of post-traumatic stress disorder. While we hear it most frequently associated with soldiers who’ve returned home from witnessing the horrors of war, it can be triggered from many other events or occurrences, including sexual assault, confinement, torture, or other traumatic events. Horror shows often replicate many of these scenarios.

The physiology of fear

Obviously, it’s fantasy, and the people who witness them are aware ahead of time that what they’ll be witnessing or experiencing is not real, and there’s not any actual reason to be afraid. Yet despite that obvious caveat, these shows still succeed in immersing their visitors in their frightful vision and scaring many of them to the point of screaming and general terror. It is also not uncommon for some scare attraction visitors to be unable to complete the attraction.

There are even differing accounts of just how real the fear is. According to Purdue University professor Glenn Sparks, the fear one experiences simply from watching a horror movie (an even more passive experience than going through a scare attraction) is effectively akin to if you were experiencing that same event yourself. Viewer’s heartbeats rapidly increase, their skin temperature drops several degrees, their blood pressure spikes, and their body tenses.

"The brain hasn't really adapted to the new technology [of movies]," Sparks says. "We can tell ourselves the images on the screen are not real, but emotionally our brain reacts as if they are ... our 'old brain' still governs our reactions."

However, brain scan research by Thomas Straube at the Friedrich Schiller University of Jena showed that scary movies weren’t actually triggering fear responses in the amygdala at all, but were instead activating several other regions of the brain, including the prefrontal cortex and insular cortex, responsible for processing images and self-awareness.

Such attractions do also come with numerous benefits according to research. As the Purdue professor Sparks explains, horror experiences have become a rite of passage of sorts for young men, and a way to test their limits, which is why they revel in the scariest content possible and at least “claim” to have enjoyed it more than less frightful content.

The reasoning may be because such simulated trauma could actually help prepare us for real-life stressful scenarios similar or otherwise, and may actually be encoded into our DNA, which is why we seek out such thrills. According to Danish researcher Mathias Clasen, stressful situations helped train hunters in our hunter-gatherer past, and we still carry that in our DNA today as a form of survival instinct. Horror shows and attractions help refine our stress reactions today in place being chased around by a Woolly Mammoth.

So while sexual content will likely continue continue to raise eyebrows and have its place in the horror show pantheon scrutinized, the shows themselves will most certainly go on, leaving legions of terrified and thrilled guests in their simulated-bloody wakes.

Exclusive feature by Susie Villiers

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