Shocking benefits watching a horror movie can have on your health

It's no surprise that there's a large number of people who simply can't stand watching horror movies, preferring instead to hide behind the couch whenever they come on, but you might want to reconsider this Halloween for one key health reason.

The horror genre has some of the film world's most iconic releases, and even if you've managed to stay away from watching them in their entirety, you will likely recognize many of the genre's most famous figures.

Many people choose to dedicate their movie watching habits in October to films of the spooky variety, but you might be shocked to discover that this has an unexpected health benefit that could help out in the long term.

As reported by the Guardian, a 2012 study from researchers at the University of Westminster discovered a strong link between watching horror films and burning calories, with one scary movie on average burning the calorific equivalent of a small chocolate bar.

Watching a horror film can actually cause you to burn more calories than you'd expect (Getty Stock)

While that might not seem like much in the grand scheme of things, it can certainly add up and is a fair deal more than you'd typically burn while sat on the sofa for several hours.

Looking at the specifics, those involved in the study burned up to 113 calories after watching a 90-minute horror film – which is roughly the equivalent to going for a 30 minute walk – but not every film is created equal in this regard.

Some of the scariest films in the horror genre tended to increase the number of calories burned per minute on average, and it's all down to how your heart rate interacts with your feeling of fear, particularly when jump scares pop up.

Films with a higher number of jump scares were more likely to burn calories at a higher proportion due to the way that they increased your heart rate, as the scientists behind the study have explained:

"As the pulse quickens and blood pumps around the body faster, the body experiences a surge in adrenaline. It is this release of fast-acting adrenaline, produced during short bursts of intense stress (or in this case, brought on by fear), which is known to lower the appetite, increase the basal metabolic rate and ultimately burn a higher level of calories."

Your body burns more calories due to the adrenaline produced through fear, so make sure you're watching every moment (Getty Stock)

Obviously the unfortunate consequence of watching a lot of horror films is that these jump scare moments start to become easier to predict, causing your body to respond to them less and lowering the calories that you burn as a result.

One intriguing result of the study is that the researchers have identified a list of ten films that caused people to burn the most calories, so here are the films you should watch if you want to have a fear-filled workout:

1. The Shining — 184 calories
2. Jaws — 161 calories
3. The Exorcist — 158 calories
4. Alien — 152 calories
5. Saw — 133 calories
6. A Nightmare on Elm Street — 118 calories
7. Paranormal Activity — 111 calories
8. The Texas Chain Saw Massacre — 107 calories
9. The Blair Witch Project — 105 calories
10. [Rec] — 101 calories

While Stanley Kubrick's The Shining might stand at the top when it comes to total calories burned, it is actually a tie between Jaws, Alien, A Nightmare on Elm Street, and The Blair Witch Project when it comes to calories burned per minute, with each one averaging out at 1.3 calories against their respective run times.

One thing that you will have to take into consideration though is your eating habits when watching these films – especially if you're a stress eater – as one comment points out on Instagram that this "is so unfortunate for snack eaters though."

Perhaps a positive way to spin it though is that the process of watching the film could be enough to burn away the bar of chocolate that you consumed during it, you'll just need to make sure you got extra scared if you eat any more.