Why Do We Love to Be Horrified?

With the recent release of both ‘Obsession’ and ‘Backrooms’ soaring box offices, alongside horror in literature beginning to dominate the book market – what is it about this dark allure we crave so deeply?

This wouldn’t be a horror article by me if I didn’t mention ‘The Lamb’ by Lucy Rose at least once. Wandering a little late into the horror genre, I discovered this novel at the beginning of 2025 and have been obsessed ever since. With one of the most iconic opening lines of all time: ‘On my fourth birthday, I plucked six severed fingers from the shower drain’, this cannibalistic horror follows Margot and her ‘Mama’ as they trap and consume lost strangers in the woods. 

But it’s not any of these themes that made me fall in love with the text, it’s the feminism, complications of a mother-daughter relationship and a young girl questioning her own beliefs as she grows up. The horror genre isn’t just filled with violence and jumpscares, it’s the deep underbelly of the darker side of life we don’t often talk about.

Another example of this is ‘Obsession’. In case you have been in hiding for the last few weeks, this movie is being perfectly described as ‘incel horror’ as Bear makes a wish on a ‘One Wish Willow’ that his friend, Nikki, will love him ‘more than anyone else in the world’.

The wish soon turns south as you uncover the layers of possession, stripping Nikki of her autonomy and locking her real self away into this nightmarish purgatory. Having a character to easily sympathise with such as Nikki, mentioning again this darker side of life with co- dependency and erratic devotion, is what makes this horror an instant classic for most audiences.

So, why are these two horrors something we are obsessed with consuming? They sum up the market in such a simple but beautiful way, we’re looking for ways to talk about and relate to the darker topics of life. In a world succumbing to war, totalitarianism and overall fear, the easiest way to relate to something is to smother the message in something we recognise.

Horror isn’t a genre defined by barriers, it’s one that hosts deep and raw emotions with infinite layers to uncover.

Written by, Grace Heriegel