Watching scary movies is healthy.

Who doesn’t like scary movies during Halloween time? 

horror movie

I love scary movies, I get really scared but I still enjoy watching them. And since we’re in October, Halloween time, I want to watch a lot of scary movies. I started thinking if scary movies were, in fact, good for you. Since most people say that scary movies are bad for your health I wanted to see if that was true. Actually, its not certain, there’s a hypothesis that says that scary movies are in fact, are kind of an exercise. Yes, I know what you’re thinking, but its true watching horror movies can make you burn calories.

Researchers say that people that watched scary movies could burn up to 200 calories. A study of the University of Westminster, in which they picked 10 different people to watch scary movies, to measure the amount of calories they burned. You burn calories the most when the part of the movies are those that makes you want to jump. Helen Cowley said, “We all know the feeling of wanting to hide behind the sofa or grab a pillow when watching scary or hair raising scenes, but this research suggests that maybe those seeking to burn some calories should keep their eyes on the screen.” So now you know instead of hiding behind the pillow, get really scared and that way you are burning calories while watching tv and what’s better than that?

running from montes

According to the Healthy Eating Guide, the act of just sitting could burn 75 calories, so yeah if you don’t like scary movies, then yeah just sit down for an hour or so, but you will be missing all the fun and not the extra calories. Let’s analyze this in another way: 184 calories > 75 calories… isn’t it better to watch a scary movie all the way? more fun, more calories burned.

The study was not a large study, it was only ten people. It gives you no other information about the people, and because of age, health, sex, the results may vary. I’m sure that if they wanted to “prove” their hypothesis they could select a larger group of people and put an amount to watch scary movies and the other just to sit and do nothing to see if in fact its possible or better. Also the probability that its just by change is huge, remember that by sitting you are burning calories, so what you burn from actually getting scared through the movie is going to be an amount you should add to that.

If you want the movies that burn the most calories they actually give you a list of movies with the amount of calories people in the study burned, here you have it:

***These links lead to trailers of horror movies, if you don’t like scary things, you shouldn’t watch them***

  1. “The Shining: 184 calories
  2. Jaws: 161 calories
  3. The Exorcist: 158 calories
  4. Alien: 152 calories
  5. Saw: 133 calories
  6. A Nightmare on Elm Street: 118 calories
  7. Paranormal Activity: 111 calories
  8. The Blair Witch Project: 105 calories
  9. The Texas Chain Saw Massacre: 107 calories
  10. [Rec]: 101 calories”

I an horror movie fan, even though they scared the hell out of me, I do it because I enjoy it and this turns out to be a really good extra exercise, that way I can do less at the gym right?

References:

http://wegotthiscovered.com/movies/study-shows-horror-movies-good-health/

http://www.collective-evolution.com/2014/05/28/the-science-is-in-scary-movies-are-good-for-you/

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/9638876/Watching-horror-films-burns-nearly-200-calories-a-time.html

9 thoughts on “Watching scary movies is healthy.

  1. Weng Ee Then

    I hate scary movies so much, so it’s nice to know that when I do put myself through that torture something good comes out of it. I wonder though why in the article it mentioned only when you keep your eyes on the screen you burn calories. Does that mean when I hide behind the couch I don’t burn any calories? I can only think of the explanation that your heart rate is up when you’re watching? But then I feel like I feel the same amount of fear watching as I do listening? So I guess I’m just asking how does it cause you to burn calories.

  2. Julia Molchany

    Your hypothesis states that watching scary movies burns calories, but I believe there is probably more evidence to refute this than to prove it. When I first saw the averages of calories being burned throughout certain movies, I noticed that the numbers were actually quite trivial. It is a known that the body constantly is burning calories, regardless if you are being extremely active or doing quite nothing. This article shows that it is possible to burn over 100 calories from sitting in general: http://www.healthstatus.com/health_blog/body-fat-percentage-calculation/burning-calories-sleeping/. Other sources like this one illustrate that sleeping burns about 100 calories an hour as well. (http://www.livestrong.com/article/461950-how-many-calories-can-you-burn-daily-just-from-sitting-walking-around-a-house/)
    What I have concluded from my research is that there are many other third confounding variables that cannot be discredited from the results. My biggest assumption is that the calories supposedly burned watching horror movies, is your body working at the average rate of burning calories while sitting.

  3. Julia Solly Levine

    This article has discovered a potential breakthrough in weight loss, even if it seems too good to be true that you can burn calories from watching TV. However, you would have to put yourself through the agonizing task of watching a scary, gruesome horror film. Opposite to my hatred for scary movies ,many people actually enjoy watching movies that put them in psychological pain. In addition to burning up to 200 calories, scary movies can actually keep us from worrying about the future because we are so focused on the moment. Also, scary movies release feel-good chemicals in the brian because we know we’re safe. In addition, scary movies make us feel confident because we have survived that whole movie.

  4. Julia Solly Levine

    This article has discovered a potential breakthrough in weight loss, even if it seems too good to be true that you can burn calories from watching TV. However, you would have to put yourself through the agonizing task of watching a scary, gruesome horror film. Opposite to my hatred for <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/10/15/science-of-fear-why-we-love-to-scare-ourselves_n_5976266.html?utm_hp_ref=science"<scary movies ,many people actually enjoy watching movies that put them in psychological pain. In addition to burning up to 200 calories, scary movies can actually keep us from worrying about the future because we are so focused on the moment. Also, scary movies release feel-good chemicals in the brian because we know we’re safe. In addition, scary movies make us feel confident because we have survived that whole movie.

  5. Alexandra Elisabeth Monahan

    This topic is very different, I have yet to come across anything like this ever in my life. The study conducted by the researchers shows the different amount of calories burned during a scary movie. However, what are they comparing these calorie amounts too? They should have also recorded the amounts of calories somebody burns while just watching maybe a comedy, or romance movie. Perhaps laughing during the comedy would burn more calories than somebody being scared during a scary movie. After all, laughing does burn many calories (check out the link I posted below on a study done that measured the amount of calories burned while laughing). Watching scary movies is healthy because of the calories burned, but does this just pertain to scary movies or all movies as a whole? Overall though your blog was very interesting to read!!

    http://www.weightlossresources.co.uk/calories/burning_calories/laughing-burns-calories.htm

  6. Christopher Vecchio

    I can’t stand watching scary movies at all. I find no joy in watching these types of movies. This post definitely took a new approach at looking at scary movies, but it will not make me change my opinion of watching scary movies. I can certainly see why you would burn calories while watching scary movies. You have adrenaline going and some people sweat while watching scary movies. here is an interesting article on this topic http://www.collective-evolution.com/2014/05/28/the-science-is-in-scary-movies-are-good-for-you/.

  7. Alexandra Elizabeth Brooks

    These is a great topic! I am always the one who gets the most scared watching scary movies with my friends, so knowing that jumping the most actually has some benefit is kinda fun to think about. I wonder if they considered in this observation though the amount of sweating taking place while watching scary movies? Because I definitely sweat a lot, more than I would like to admit! That would be an interesting thing to think about.

  8. Paige Loyer

    I absolutely hate scary movies, I find nothing about them enjoyable. I found it interesting that you took a different attempt at them, saying that watching them burned calories because I never would have thought about that. Although you are burning calories, I wouldn’t necessarily say that watching scary movies is healthy for you. The study done was only tested on ten people, and although it could be an accurate study there is a large possibility the calories burned are due to chance. Other variables such as weight and stuff could play into the calories burned while watching the movie, not just the movie itself. I found an article that lists other strange ways you can burn calories, one of them said by drinking coffee. Now does this make drinking coffee “healthy” for us?

  9. Lauren Marie Freid

    I am addicted to horror movies. I never really get scared by any of them so I really enjoy watching them, especially at this time of the year. I see why watching scary films can burn calories, but I think that this is an observational study rather than experimental. Nothing was manipulated or changed, researchers just observed individuals watching horror movies. I completely agree with you that this study is most likely due to chance because it was a small study that did not involve a large sample of people. Also, people react differently to horror movies in general so people will burn calories depending on how they react to the movie. I do agree with you that scary movies being bad for your health is a hypothesis because that is a hard thing to prove considering people have their unique ways of reacting to horror movies and different movie genres. I loved your blog though! 🙂 I found the link below very fascinating because it talks about the psychological standpoint behind why people like scary movies and why it can actually be good for your health.

    http://www.webmd.com/mental-health/features/why-we-love-scary-movies

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