At the movies, horror-flick "Happy Death Day" hit number one in box-office sales, beating “Blade Runner 2049” and Jackie Chan's action thriller "The Foreigner".
Horror movie enthusiast Robert Ehlinger said horror films are more like roller-coaster rides.
“There’s more jumps, there’s more scares. An action movie gets you a little excited. But, a horror movie keeps you on edge, or at least it’s supposed to, from start to finish,” said Ehlinger.
Ehlinger said for the most part, horror movies are really strictly for entertainment purposes only. If done right, they can be made on the cheap, yet make a fortune.
While it's rare that horror stories get political, it's happened. He adds there's a horror movie for every holiday-even Thanksgiving.
My Bloody Valentine-February
Halloween-October
Home Sweet Home-November
Silent Night, Deadly Night- December
Fatal Games- for the Olympics
Ehlinger said horror movies are just the new version of an old entertainment idea.
“Thousands of years ago, the Roman Empire, for example, hosted large coliseum events where beasts, such as lions, would fight humans and they would watch them get torn apart and the crowd would cheer. That’s pretty gross,” said Ehlinger.
Ehlinger said the early horror movie was actually live. Le Théâtre du Grand-Guignol, known as the Grand Guignol in France, hosted staged spectacles of torture. It closed in 1960.