I'm glad you triggered it for me too! If you've never read an essay by Stephen King called "Why we crave horror movies", you've gotta check it out. I used to give it to my senior students and we'd have the best conversations!! Here it is if you want to have a look :) https://www.humbleisd.net/cms/lib2/TX01001414/Centricity/Domain/2669/whywecravehorrormovies.pdf