Horror films are not the standard in cinema, and are sometimes considered to be something of a niche genre. In spite of this, they cash sufficiently large sums of money at the box office, and have dedicated fans that form strongly bound communities. In recent months, a number of horror movies have taken theaters by storm, showcasing the supernatural and the frightening. Experts have been puzzled at what makes these films popular for many years, and finally decided to investigate the matter thoroughly.

In fact, the question that had scientists scratching their heads was why people keep coming back to the theaters when these movies are running, if they were scarred out of their minds the first time around. Ask a horror buff, and they will tell you that, as soon as they get up from the edge of their seats, they are ready to go at it again. If we find the sequences in these movies so repulsive, why do we keep watching them? The question is especially valid for men between the ages of 15 and 45, who represent the target viewing public for these movies, LiveScience reports.

“People go to horror films because they want to be frightened or they wouldn't do it twice. 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,” University of Utrecht professor of social and organizational psychology Jeffrey Goldstein says. He is also the editor of a new book on this subject, which is published by Oxford University Press and is entitled “Why We Watch: The Attractions of Violent Entertainment.”

“Even though they choose to watch these things, the images are still disturbing for many people. 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,” he adds. He was speaking about the new movie “Paranormal Activity,” which is a box-office smash hit. The film is often compared to the classic “Blair Witch Project,” which was also filmed with a single-camera from a single point of view. The movie has drawn critic acclaim, even if it has very little blood in it, and was filmed with a budget of $15,000.