New research suggests that you can burn anywhere up to 200 calories watching a horror movie.
As Halloween approaches many people are settling down in the evenings to watch some of the horror classics, but far from the activity of a couch potato it now seems that the adrenaline-pumping action on-screen could cause you to burn off a substantial amount of calories without ever leaving your couch. Terrifying movie moments can increase your heart rate, oxygen intake and carbon dioxide output sufficiently to have a measurable effect on the number of calories burned.
A team at the University of Westminster studied a number of different films to determine which burned the most calories. The Shining scored the top spot followed by Jaws and then The Exorcist in third. Other films to make the list included Paranormal Activity, A Nightmare on Elm Street, The Blair Witch Project and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.
Viewers who put themselves through 90 minutes of adrenaline-pumping terror can use up as much as 113 calories, close to the amount burned during a half-hour walk and the equivalent to a chocolate bar.