Horror Fans Explained

It turns out some of us may just be wired for horror.

According to an article in the Telegraph, scientists have found a sort of genetic switch that determines whether a person will laugh or squirm when watching a horror flick. Given The Exorcist and Hostel had zero effect on me, and I laughed my ass off at the pseudo-trailer for Thanksgiving during Grindhouse, it’s not hard to figure out which way my copy of the gene is flipped.

I’m curious, then, how the genetic findings might affect a similar study of how the gross-out factor can produce physical effects. This article even features an allegedly disgusting paragraph; like some movies, it didn’t bother me at all. If that weak little vignette about puke made some of the study participants ill, I can’t imagine their reactions were they to sit through a World Horror gross-out contest. Cullen Bunn’s ass-bursting, Lovecraftian sea monkeys and Brian Keene’s worm-eating and spit-swallowing shenanigans would put them off their lunches for a month.

How about bread made to look like human body parts? I don’t know about you, but I’m ready to make a sandwich.

There it is. Next time someone asks you how you can read some of Edward Lee’s more popular works, tell them it’s genetic.

Then read them your favorite passage.