Halloween has always been my favorite time of year since I was a young. I’m a horror fanatic at heart. Spine chilling, blood curdling stories, movies, to haunted houses and the illusions of pull away faces and gashed open throats. I love it all. Being frightened or creeped out has to be hands down my personal favorite. Although I’ve always wonder why,hy do we like being spooked out of our minds?

Being fearful of the right things has what’s kept the human race growing.  Being afraid of a shark in the water or a poisonous insect, something that could cause harm to our well being. It’s completely reasonable and makes sense to be scared of those things.

However, what about fear when there is no substantial reason to be afraid of the issue you’re scared of? For instance; a porcelain doll, a shadow, a manikin or a teddy bear with a set of human teeth. They’re only harmless things. Although there’s no obvious threat unlike a murderer, deadly illnesses, or a vicious animal ready to devour you. These things display fear, just not the same as the harmless do because they are “creepy.”

Many of the theories people (researchers) have researched say its vagueness and ambiguity is what causes us to get the feeling of the creeps, for example people behind masks.                                                    

The reason we might think a mask is creepy or even a happy mask is because we can’t see the person’s face behind it. It allows the person to hide behind the mask and cover their emotions or what they might or may not do to us. Our face is what reveals how we’re a feeling on a more personal level since we’re human we understand certain faces are more of a threat than others with the way the person portrays their vibes and facial expressions to us. With the feeling we get we are unsure whether to consider them a threat or not if we can not see the person’s face.

Another perfect example is the “Uncanny Valley.” The vagueness dealing with a human being is creepy. There’s a fine line that makes us find a thing or object that might have almost all human characteristics but slightly off by a little that makes us uneasy because we can not explain it or comprehend it entirely.

In a way we find things creepy because there’s a part in our brains that understands and the other half doesn’t which makes us not sure whether to be scared or not and we don’t why. Instead of feeling absolutely scared and going into flight or fight mode for no reason our brain responds in the aspect of feeling “creeped out.”

When we’re watching a scary movie, or going to a haunted house, we know we are safe so the sense of being in danger is gone. We get the concept of this is all just acting and pretend but when there’s something we find scary and or would have danger to our well being in a real life situation it creeps us out.

Some people enjoy that feeling of being scared or creeped out because the chemical reactions going on in your body releasing the dopamine and adrenaline which is what thrill seekers crave to feel.