What Happens To Your Body When You Watch A Scary Movie

Publish date: 2024-03-19

This bit of good news is for anyone who hates working out. According to a 2012 study from the University of Westminster (via The Telegraph), you can actually burn some calories while watching scary movies.

They measured volunteers' oxygen intake, carbon dioxide output, and heart rate to put together a picture of how much energy people were using to watch different horror movies. On average, they burned around 113 calories, which doesn't sound like much. It's not a ton, but it is the equivalent of what you'd burn during a 30-minute walk, which is better than nothing. You don't even have to put pants on.

Before you get too excited, there's a caveat. Movies had to be super-scary, and the best calorie-burners were the ones that made people jump. That's because the adrenaline rush is making your heart race, so a "meh" scary movie isn't going to cut it. In case you're curious, the study's top film was 1980's The Shining, which made viewers burn an average of 184 calories. Unsurprisingly, Jaws and The Exorcist rounded out the top three.

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