IF YOU HAVEN̢۪T BEEN TO ANY STORE IN THE PAST couple of months, you may have not noticed that Halloween is vastly approaching.

It̢۪s time again to spend your time and money on an outfit you have been planning for weeks or maybe even longer and will only wear once a year.

Wait, so I̢۪ve concluded that Halloween is prom.

Besides loads of candy eating, people begin attending corn mazes and haunted houses to get their adrenaline pumping.

For those who would rather stay in and be afraid of zombies, psychos and possessed children from the comfort (or danger) of their own home, scary movies are the perfect solution.

Why watch scary movies that seem to confirm our fears that scary clowns exist and vengeful ghosts walk really slow and then somehow so fast that they are standing behind you right now?

Professors of all degrees and geographical locations have done studies to figure this out.

Leon Rappoport, a psychology professor at Kansas State University said that it links to a Freudian or analytical process that believes as civilization tries to make the world safer it represses any outside worries, so we have an subconscious need to locate those danger pressure points.

Another factor is that as the world becomes more extreme, so does our need to still be surprised by fear.

It̢۪s like the equivalent of bungee jumping off the Eiffel Tower for the thrill, but with less effort.

Dr. Deborah Serani, who is a technical advisor on “Law and Order: Special Victims Unit,â€Â said that other reasons include watching to figure out ways to escape terror, to revisit an old trauma, or to release the viewers’ own violent wishes and aggression by seeing someone else do the work.

She claims to be a doctor of psychology, but her Internet Movie Database picture looks like she took it from MySpace.

She also wrote that she hasn’t been in the ocean since 1975 thanks to “Jaws.â€Â

According to communication professor Glenn Sparks of Purdue University, our body goes through changes when we watch horror movies. Our heartbeat increases as much as 15 beats per minute, while our temperature drops several degrees. Other symptoms of fear include tense muscles, blood pressure spikes and sweaty palms.

I stumbled upon a quiz at Quizilla that matches you with the horror movie killer you most resemble. I decided to take it, just to warn friends in case I snap one day.

Evidently I’ve been classed with 26 percent of other people who all got Jack Torrance from “Stanley Kubrick’s ‘The Shining.’â€Â

The description said I would be best suited as a writer, critic or columnist. I believe it̢۪s time to worry.

Curious, I decided to get a second opinion and take a different Quizilla quiz. This time I was lumped with 20 percent of others who got Annie Wilkes from “Misery.â€Â

Seems it is easy to get on my bad side and that I̢۪m caring but domineering.

Everyone is afraid of something, even if it isn̢۪t supernatural. I have fear of tapeworms based on nothing except for how gross and destructive they are.

I also have some kind of worry that one day I will wake up and have barnacles or mollusks growing out of my arm and won’t be able to remove them. I assume that comes from watching too much “Pirates of the Caribbean.â€Â

Of course not everyone̢۪s fears can be dealt with through film. I know someone who has an irrational fear of Popsicle sticks.

I don̢۪t see that coming to a theater near you anytime soon.

Jessica Dugan is a student at Fresno State majoring in mass communication and journalism with an emphasis in print journalism.