Horror movies give people one of the rawest emotions: fear. The idea that their pre-concieved notion of security is shattered can send people into a spiraling sensation of shock. I’m not talking about the dime-a-dozen, jump scare films, but real horror.

Films use suspense and terror, like how an artist uses a paintbrush, not something you add in post-production. That’s why horror is so essential to both the film industry and our own fascination with the human mind.

There’s something so mesmerizing about fear. It’s instinctive. It’s primal. It’s real. A director or actor has to be so good at what they do to leave the audience frightened enough they can’t go to sleep.

Take “Suspiria”, one of Italian-horror’s finest films; the beautiful cinematography and color grading are so seductive and inviting, all the while haunting you with some of film’s most unsettling and off-putting imagery. Say what you want about Italians, but they know how to make a horror movie.

That kind of attraction speaks volumes about the human mind and our desire for horror. We almost crave that feeling in our gut when we’re too scared to walk through the dark or sleep without the lights on. It is part of the human condition to oddly enjoy terror and it explains why we love horror movies.

Horror movies -good ones, at least- leave you with suspicion, skepticism, and survival. John Carpenter’s “The Thing” is a masterclass in suspicion and survival; trapped in the arctic, a team of scientists must survive an encounter with a shapeshifting alien, picking them off one by one.

The film delves into the darker parts of the human mind, touching on madness, trust, fear, and the unknown. There is nothing more innately human, and that is something horror does better than any other genre.

Looking past the monsters, the makeup, and the gore, horror movies have honesty. There is heart to them; not like how some cry when watching a rom-com, but the nerves you get when the horror film is over and the lights dim, leaving you in the darkened theater. Those kind of films touch us more than any other genre, and that often gets overlooked.

Horror movies are not only good, they are essential. They are unmatched in the film industry, endearing audiences with their larger-than-life monsters and their raw, grounded emotions.