Everyone likes to watch The Blob. Alien space creature lands and starts hideously dissolving townsfolks, as you imagine your own terrifying death by gelatinous ooze. Fun!
But why is this fun? Who wants to see some old farmer lose his arm, or watch a projectionist be eaten by semi-sentient snot? Shouldn’t we all want to watch a romance instead? Or, you know, maybe eat ice cream? Or even just stare at a wall? Why torment ourselves with jellies from outer space, or vampires, or zombies? Or scary animate dolls with their unstaring eyes? Why do people even own dolls? What’s wrong with us?
Science cannot tell us what the deal is with the dolls; some things are unknowable. But! Researchers do have some theories about why we like horror movies in general, up to and including blobby ones.
The straightforward reason people like horror movies is that it scares them (duh.) Watching Jason hack those teens down one by one makes you think you may be next. Your heart starts thumping and various chemicals start doing their thing. “The brain kind of forgets in that moment that what’s it’s seeing is not real danger, and then charges up the physiological response that would be appropriate if it were,” according to Krista Jordan, an Austin-based clinical psychologist interviewed at Health.com.
Scary things on-screen can trigger real bodily responses, like the release of adrenaline, endorphins, and dopamine, all of which are meant to hype you up and make you feel ready for anything. But then you’re just watching a movie and you don’t need to fight. Phew!
So basically horror movies are a way to fool your brain into giving you a fix. “Hah, there’s no evil clown at all,” you tell your cerebral cortex. “Tricked you, you stupid brain. More dopamine for me!”
Horror can confuse your brain. But it can also be a way to get your brain to be a more realistic, less flighty and less obdurate chunk of grey matter. Writer Rebecca Patton explained at Bustle that scary movies help her to manage her anxiety disorder. “Horror forces me to realize how much worse things can be, and my own obsessions become trivial by comparison,” she said. “’Hmm, I wonder if this person’s mad at me,’" I’ll think. ‘NO TIME — JASON VOORHEES IS ON THE LOOSE!’ my TV will respond. In this way, I am able to crawl out of my head for 90 minutes or more.”
Patton isn’t alone. Researchers believe that horror can help people with anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorders. In fact, a recent study found that horror movie fans were coping better with the stress of the covid pandemic.
So people watch horror both to rev themselves up and to calm themselves down. Which isn’t really all that different from why people enjoy other kinds of movies. Action films, romance films, and most narratives involve tension and release of tension. You can vicariously wind yourself up and then feel relief as you realize that everything is going to turn out okay (either because the story has a happy ending or because you’re not actually in the story and so don’t have to die when everyone else does.)
The Blob itself has a lot of action movie elements. Steve McQueen battling the monster isn’t so much different than, say, Iron Man or Arnold Schwarzenegger battling a bunch of bad guys. And of course, The Blob is good for a bunch of campy giggles. How many people watching it are actually scared, and how many just enjoy the absurd spectacle of a movie audience menaced by jam? Horror is an oozy amorphous substance; even scientists don’t know entirely how to contain it. It slides out of the lab; it is in the street! Run! Run! Or, you know, lean back and watch.