Do you love horror films? Check out our Halloween top picks!

                               

This time of year, screens big and small entertain our basest instincts with horrifying gore, monsters, insanity and the supernatural. Although considered a mostly niche genre, horror films enjoy an avid following and rake in plenty of bucks at the box office.

Yet, as horror buffs come down from their Halloween rush, many are ready to do it again. Being scared out of their wits, it seems, is fun.

The question is: Why? If our best selves find the horrific so repulsive, why do we pay good money to watch it again and again?

It's not merely an attraction to blood and gore, experts say. People who liked the "Saw" series, for instance, wouldn’t necessarily derive such pleasure from watching a steer being slaughtered in a meat-processing plant. Researchers say one reason we watch is because the thrill calls up primal behavior, mainly in males, to assess threat levels. (The typical horror-flick viewer is a male adolescent between the ages of 15 and 45.)

"People go to horror films because they want to be frightened or they wouldn't do it twice," says Jeffrey Goldstein, a professor of social and organizational psychology at the University of Utrecht in the Netherlands. Goldstein edited a book on the subject titled, "Why We Watch: The Attractions of Violent Entertainment" (Oxford University Press).

"You choose your entertainment because you want it to affect you. That's certainly true of people who go to entertainment products like horror films that have big effects. They want those effects," Goldstein said.

He and other social scientists suggest we watch for different reasons, which include enjoying the adrenaline rush, being distracted from mundane life, vicariously thumbing our noses at social norms, and enjoying a voyeuristic glimpse of the horrific from a safe distance.

"Even though they choose to watch these things, the images are still disturbing for many people," said Goldstein. "But people have the ability to pay attention as much or as little as they care to in order to control what effect it has on them, emotionally and otherwise."

We at East End Prints are confessed film buffs and we've got an amazing thriller inspired art print collection to prove it. Who can forget Jack Nicholson in The Shining, or the ultimate halloween films, Donnie Darko. 

Either if you are a a horror film fan yourself or you are just into classic suspense, our FILM print collection will catch your eye. Check it out, and don't forget to watch your favourite horror film this weekend. Happy Halloween!