Most people like movies. Practically every family, friend group, or friend group that's become a family has had a movie night. After all, there's no better way to bond than to watch a serial killer chase a woman down a hall...
Wait, what?
Because horror movies (both the classics and the really bad ones) are so popular, many works will show groups of characters hanging out/bonding while watching scary movies. It doesn't matter if they watch the movie the whole way through or get scared and run off, so long as they're excited to watch the movie in the first place.
This trope can apply to books, movies, TV shows, video games, scary rides... if it's scary and people love it, it's still this trope.
May often be part of a Halloween Episode or a "What Do They Fear?" Episode. If the horror movie features something one character in particular is scared of, it may result in them uttering "Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?" This trope is likely the bane of the Lovable Coward... or it could turn out that they love horror movies. Compare Unabashed B-Movie Fan and Kids Shouldn't Watch Horror Films. If the cowardly characters watch too but don't get scared, see Conforming OOC Moment. Expect scary movies to be a beloved pastime of the Nightmare Fetishist. May be used to show that the characters live such crazy lives that the movies don't scare them, as they're Conditioned to Accept Horror (or they watch horror movies so often that they're Too Kinky to Torture).
This trope is Truth in Television for many people, if the ever-popular horror movie genre and horror attractions at amusement parks are any indication.
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- The 100 Girlfriends Who Really, Really, Really, Really, Really Love You: Iku and Rin both enjoy horror movies, with the former being Too Kinky to Torture and the latter being a Nightmare Fetishist.
- Ah My Buddha: Chitose Nanbu enjoys watching horror movies, much to her friends' chagrin.
- In HeartCatch Pretty Cure!, Tsubomi explains to Erika the reason she isn't scared of their imposing classmate Kenji (who looks like a tough guy but is a major fan of the Cures, making doujinshi of them) is that she honestly enjoys scary movies.
- Nijiyon Academy: In episode 3, the girls of A•ZU•NA are watching a horror movie to improve their expressions, and invite their fellow idols to watch. Shizuka and Setsuna are very invested in the filmography and the character's escape respectively.
Comic Strips
- Calvin and Hobbes: Calvin frequently attempts to watch scary movies whenever he has the chance, despite his parents warning him not to do so. In one instance, he rigs up monster traps after watching one while his parents are out; in another, he imitates a Kaiju and goes on a "rampage" through the house after emerging from the bathtub a la Godzilla (to quote Calvin's mother: "NO MORE AFTERNOON TV MOVIES FOR YOU! EVER!").
- Curtis regularly visits the local movie theater, usually on a Sunday, to watch cheesy horror films. Curtis is somewhat of a connoisseur of horror films, and he usually brings his little brother Barry along. Also, Curtis has a knack for sneaking in some of his mother's home cooking into the theater, usually fried chicken.
Films — Animated
- The Iron Giant: Hogarth is shown to enjoy scary movies outside of his age range—to the point where his mother specifically tells him that he's not allowed to watch any when she ends up having to work late, although he naturally doesn't listen. It turns out to be helpful when dealing with the titular Giant, as Hogarth's love of horror keeps him from being overwhelmed.
- ParaNorman: The beginning of the film shows that Norman likes to spend his spare time watching scary movies with the ghost of his grandmother (who doesn't quite get them). At the end of the film, the rest of his family (who've finally come to accept him) watch a scary film with them. His father doesn't get them, either.
- Toy Story of Terror: The short film begins with the toys watching a classic monster movie on a portable DVD player while Bonnie and her mom are on a road trip. Rex is scared of it and Jessie finds it boring, but the rest of the toys are into it.
Films — Live-Action
- Scream: Ghost Face invokes this trope by calling his potential targets and starting the call with "What's your favorite scary movie?"
Literature
- The Events at Poroth Farm: Jeremy loves horror books, particularly ones of the cosmic horror variety. Ironically, he misses the abundance of signs that he's living through one until it's too late. The Eldritch Abomination also reads some of his books and becomes such a fan that it starts styling itself as a classical Gothic villain.
Live-Action TV
- Adventures in Wonderland: In the Halloween Episode "A Wonderland Howl-oween" (which is also the series finale), the characters celebrate Halloween by telling scary stories around a campfire at night. When Alice is concerned that the stories might be too scary, the Wonderland characters sing a song about how it's fun to be scared. In the end, though, all the Wonderland characters are genuinely scared by the stories they tell each other, while Alice just finds them all silly.
- Are You Afraid of the Dark?: This trope is basically the show's premise, as the series focuses on several kids who gather around a campfire every week and try to scare each other with stories. Even when they do manage to scare each other, the group finds it more entertaining than frightening.
- The Barney & Friends episode "A Camping We Will Go!" has Barney and the kids decide to tell scary stories around the campfire, and they sing the song "Scary Stories" about how it's fun to be scared when you know it's not real, similar to the "Adventures in Wonderland" example above.
- The Electric Company (1971): Subverted in the song "My Friend Freddy". Freddy, who's "a monster movie freak", loves Frankenstein so much, he goes to see it all week—but then gets so scared of it, he profusely sheds Tears of Fear.
- Full House: In one episode, DJ and Kimmy plan to watch a werewolf movie, and Stephanie insists that she's old enough to handle it despite their warnings that she'll find it scary. Sure enough, while the older girls love it, Stephanie ends up terrified that the "Wolfman" will get her; when her fear keeps D.J. from sleeping, Danny, Jesse, and Joey solve the problem by playing a game where they pretend to be the Wolfman's family to keep Stephanie from being afraid of him (a rather literal case of Defanged Horrors).
- Subverted in the Mr. Bean episode "The Curse of Mr. Bean". Although Mr. Bean enthusiastically makes scary noises before a horror movie begins, he is absolutely terrified from the moment it actually begins and spends most of the movie not actually looking.
- The Really Loud House: One episode shows all of Lincoln's younger sisters, even Lily (a toddler), plus Lynn Sr of all people, watching The Vampires of Melancholia (Lucy's favourite horror TV show).
- The Suite Life of Zack & Cody: The boys both like scary movies, even though one of them (usually Cody, sometimes Zack) ends up scared of them.
Video Games
- Noelle from Deltarune is a huge fan of horror fiction, and one of her biggest character moments in the game (thus far) involves her bonding with Susie using them as a metaphor, explaining that she finds Susie scary in the exciting, horror movie way as opposed to most of her peers, who just think she's a Barbaric Bully.
Web Animation
- Hello Kitty and Friends Supercute Adventures: "Kuromi's Super Spooky Special" starts with Kuromi curled up on her sofa eager to watch a scary movie marathon, though her plans are scrapped when she sees Badtz-Maru being interviewed as an "expert witness" on local supernatural events, and she takes umbrage.
Western Animation
- Arthur
- "The Pest" begins with the gang watching a ghost movie during a sleepover at Muffy's; alas, Brain quickly annoys the others by predicting all its clichés.
- The Scare-Your-Pants-Off books (a thinly-veiled Goosebumps parody) take center-stage in one episode, with all the kids loving them - even Muffy, whose dad is leading a Moral Guardians group protesting them.
- In "D.W. and Dr. Whosit", Arthur, Ladonna, Mr. and Mrs. Read, Binky, plus a whole lot of strangers, enjoy watching a Doctor Whomage despite it giving Mr. Read nightmares.
- Beetlejuice: True to her character, Lydia regularly watches scary movies (even if they terrify her human friends). Due to everything she goes through as Beetlejuice's accomplice, there's little in the movies that can scare her.
- Bob's Burgers: In one episode, the Belcher kids invite a bunch of friends over to watch a zombie movie. Most of them are excited to watch it. Tina and Louise absolutely love the movie, but all of their guests (and their brother) end up terrified.
- DuckTales (2017): In the episode "Terror of the Terra-firmians!", the kids (accompanied by Mrs. Beakley and Launchpad) go to see a scary movie. They all either loved it or hated it due to its numerous plot holes, while Mrs. Beakley didn't care and Launchpad was terrified. To be fair, the Duck family goes through so much in a single week that a monster movie likely has no effect on them.
- The Fairly OddParents!: In an episode that acts as a Shout-Out/homage to the classic horror film The Fly (1986), the entire town is preparing to watch the TV premiere of a horror movie (which is about a man who swaps heads with a fly).
- Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends: The catalyst of the episode is Wilt, Eduardo, Coco, and Bloo watching a scary movie on TV the night that Bloo gets sick. Everyone (but Eduardo) is excited to watch the movie (with Coco finding it cheesy/funny), but it ends up scaring them to the point that they think Bloo is a cannibal ghost.
- The Ghost and Molly McGee: Shortly after Ollie's Heel–Face Turn, he meets the ghost of a dedicated scary movie fan at a closed-down Expy of Blockbuster. The two bond while she shows him several of her favorite scary movies.
- Gravity Falls: Whenever Dipper and Wendy have movie night, they watch horror movies. Unfortunately for them, Gravity Falls TV only shows the worst scary movies ever made. Notable titles include: Nearly Almost Dead But Not Quite!, Attack of the Exclamation Points!, Help! My Mummy's a Werewolf!, The Man With No Taste, The Planet People of Planet Planet, Ghost Turtle, and Help! My Mummy's A Werewolf 2: This Again. Plus, Dipper himself notes that, after everything they've been through since coming to Gravity Falls, even good horror movies can't really scare him.
Dipper: These things are a lot less scary when you've fought real zombies.
- Regular Show: Rigby and Mordecai regularly watch scary movies (even though Rigby's more afraid of them than he ever wants to admit). They invoke this trope in the episode "Grave Sights" when they raise money for the park by showing a zombie movie in a graveyard (and, in true Regular Show fashion, end up fighting zombies during the latter half of it).
- Scooby-Doo
- Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!: Though we never see them doing it, the gang apparently watches scary movies or shows fairly often, occasionally bringing up ones they'd seen.
- Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated: Scooby and Shaggy love watching Vincent Van Ghoul movies, even though they're scary. One could theorize that, due to their lives as mystery-solvers, the monsters they see on a weekly basis make the movies a lot less scary.
- Steven Universe: In one episode, Steven, Lars, Sadie, and Ronaldo decide to have a scary movie night. Steven is excited to watch the movie and eagerly cheers for it to begin. One Gilligan Cut later and he's hiding behind the couch, facing away from the screen.
- Teen Titans: In "Fear Itself", the Titans watch a horror movie together. After the film, most of the team are agape with how terrifying it was, but following a Beat burst into excitement at how much they ultimately enjoyed it. The sole exception is Raven, who is unwilling to admit she was scared by the film at all.
Starfire: Thrilling, Beast Boy! It was wonderfully horrible!
