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For some they’re the stuff of nightmares, but many of us can’t get enough of horror films. For Halloween, CrowdScience investigates the science of why we’re drawn to films that give us the heebie-jeebies.

CrowdScience listener Maria from Taiwan hates horror films, yet her husband loves them and is always trying to get her to watch with him. She wants to know why people like her husband are so drawn to horror films.

To try and find out, presenter Anand Jagatia travels to the Recreational Fear Lab in Denmark, which deliberately frightens people in the name of scientific research. He learns how being scared can have mental and physical benefits, while the lab’s researchers subject him to fear-inducing experiments. He also visits a haunted house which has been designed by the lab to be as terrifying as possible.

We also hear from a horror film music composer who creates tension and fear using an invention he calls ‘the apprehension engine’, look into what happens to our body when we’re watching horror films, and find out whether what we find scary varies by generation.