Why Horror Comforts Me More Than Any Other Genre

And why I’m not alone in needing to scream a little just to feel okay

There’s something oddly soothing about watching a woman run for her life through the woods at night.

I know how that sounds.

But stay with me.

Because when the world outside feels chaotic, indifferent, or straight-up cruel… horror makes sense. The rules are brutal, but they’re clear. The monsters may be merciless, but they’re not pretending to be anything else. In horror, if you're in danger, you know it. If something's coming, it's coming. And in a strange, blood-spattered way, that’s comforting.

Fear I Can Control

I live with anxiety.

Not the cute, “haha I overthink things” kind. The “my brain hijacks normal moments and fills them with existential dread” kind. The kind that makes my heart race at 2am over a text I forgot to reply to. The kind that makes a silent room feel like a threat.

So when I watch Hereditary, or The Descent, or The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, it’s not because I like to feel bad. It’s because those fears make more sense than mine.

In horror movies, the fear is external. Visual. Tactile. Something to scream at, or fight, or run from. In real life, fear is often silent and invisible, a whisper that says, “Something’s wrong,” but never tells you what.

Horror gives that fear a face. And then it lets me watch someone survive it.

Grief in a Language I Understand

One of the most comforting horror films I’ve ever seen is The Babadook (2014), and not because it’s scary. It is. But what made me feel seen was how deeply it understood grief.

The monster isn’t just a boogeyman. It’s the personification of unprocessed pain, the kind that sits in the corner of your bedroom and waits. You can’t kill it. You can’t bury it. But you can feed it, make space for it, and learn to live alongside it.

That’s how grief is. And horror is one of the only genres that dares to say, Yes, it’s this bad. And no, you’re not alone.

The Psychology of Comfort Horror

Turns out, I’m not the only one.

A 2021 study from the University of Chicago and Aarhus University found that people who watch a lot of horror, especially those who rewatch horror films, reported being more psychologically resilient during times of stress, including the COVID-19 pandemic.

Why? Because horror lets you rehearse emotional responses. It gives your nervous system a safe sandbox to practice in. You face death, isolation, dread, and loss, but you do it in a controlled environment, from your couch, where you can hit pause.

Dr. Mathias Clasen, a horror scholar and professor at Aarhus University, argues that horror movies are empathy simulators. They teach us how to confront fear, to grieve, to process trauma. They’re not the problem. They’re a tool.

Horror Doesn’t Flinch

Other genres shy away from pain. They soften it. Dress it up. Skip the hard parts.
But horror walks right into the burning house and sits down in the ashes.

That’s why films like Relic hit so hard, it’s not just about a haunted house, it’s about watching your mother slip away to dementia and realizing there’s nothing you can do.
Why The Witch lingers, because it’s not just about Satan, it’s about isolation, religious shame, and being a teenage girl in a world that wants to destroy you.
Why The Night House gutted me, because it’s about depression, suicide, and that terrifying question: What if you don’t know the person you loved? What if you don’t know yourself?

Horror doesn't avoid the uncomfortable questions. It lives in them.

Safety Through Catharsis

When I crawl into bed after watching a horror movie, I actually feel calmer. It’s like my nervous system has completed a circuit. I’ve been scared, and I survived it. I screamed in my head, clutched a blanket, maybe covered my eyes. And I came out the other side.

In horror, fear has an arc. A beginning. A middle. An end.
In life, it often doesn’t.

Horror gives me an outlet. A container. It holds the chaos in place for 90 minutes and lets it scream for me so I don’t have to.

Let’s Talk

If you’ve ever felt like horror got you when no one else did — I want to hear about it.

What’s the horror movie you turn to when the world gets too heavy?
What film scared you and saved you?

Drop it in the comments. Let’s build a comfort horror library together.

Because for some of us, horror isn’t just escapism.
It’s the only genre that tells the truth — and loves us anyway.