What is the appeal to being scared? For many of us, this can be hard to directly put our fingers on. There is something about watching a horror movie with your loved one, going out to a Halloween party or visiting a haunted house that is exciting.

For more information on how you can visit the best haunted house in NJ with your significant other, contact your local Haunted House for offerings and events.

There are many of us that think we have a good idea of why it is we like to be scared, but those who really know are the ones who create the scary stories for us. They are the horror novel writers, scary movie directors and haunted house actors that bring to life the horror for us.

So, what is it about being scared that gets us? I09 asked their writers the following question:

How do you use the fears that fascinate you in your writing, and how do the things in those dark recesses and corners of your mind come to the fore? What authors evoke the fears lurking in your own head and how do they do it?

They got a much larger response than they thought. Authors and horror writers from all around the globe responded to talk about what it is about fear that grabs us and more importantly – actually brings us closer together.

Turns out it’s something to do with our primal instincts and the feeling that we’re getting through the hardship together. Here was one of the top responses:

In a roundtable on horror fiction for Mind Meld, Pretty Little Dead Girls author Mercedes M. Yardley shares an oddly sweet take on the positive side of fear.

I love to use fear as a bonding experience. I often say that fear brings us all together. There are people who don’t understand joy, love, or camaraderie, but everybody knows what it’s like to be afraid. It’s the most basic, primal emotion there is. When you have a group of people who just watched a scary movie together, for example, they walk out of that theater as a connected group who just shared something. I adore that.

In our experience, people walk out of our haunted house more connected than they were before. Here are our personal thoughts and observations on why:

They Feel They’ve Just Taken Care of Each Other in Some Way

When you walk through a haunted scarehouse, you’re walking through with your loved ones who are also scared. Those who come out feeling closer than they did before they entered usually spent their time in the haunted house protecting each other from the fears around them.

They have relied on one another throughout the process and saw each other as they only other people in the situation that they could trust – and of course made it out together (there is no real danger). This goes a long way in solidifying a friendship or relationship.

There was a Lot of Physical Contact – and Not in an Intimate Way

It goes without saying that more physical contact brings people closer together. When you’re in a relationship intimate physical contact is often a given. In a Haunted house, you find yourselves hugging, holding hands or jumping closer together without that intimate setting.

This brings people in both friendships and relationships closer together as they form a bond with one another and begin to trust each other implicitly.

We provide scared spectators with two floors of fear. For more information on when you can come visit the 13th Hour Haunted House & Escape Rooms and grow closer to your loved ones, contact us.