Study shows that more calories are burned while watching horror films
October 29, 2012
Looking to lose weight this Halloween season? You might want to try watching your favourite scary movie.
UK newspaper The Telegraph reports that a new study conducted by the University of Westminster found that 90 minutes of horror movie watching can burn up almost as many calories as a half-hour walk.
In the study, ten different people watched a variety of classic spine-tinglers and had their heart rates, oxygen intake and carbon dioxide output measured. Researchers found the amount of calories being used by the participants went up by nearly a third during the frightening films.
Study participants who watched the 1980 Stanley Kubrick classic The Shining burned an average of 184 calories. Other films that were used in the study included Jaws (161 calories), The Exorcist (158 calories), Alien (152 calories) and Saw (133 calories).
"Each of the ten films tested set pulses racing, sparking an increase in the heart rate of the case studies," says Dr. Richard Mackenzie, senior lecturer and specialist in cell metabolism and physiology at the University of Westminster.
'As the pulse quickens and blood pumps around the body faster, the body experiences a surge in adrenaline."
A number of pounds were likely shed in theatres this past weekend, as Box Office Mojo reports that 4 of the flicks in the Top 10 were horrors, ranging from the cartoonish good fun of Hotel Transylvania to survival game-based Silent Hill: Revelation and the eerie terrors of Sinister.
And we have had two more earthquakes up the coast, one was 6.2, the most recent 6.6. People down here are getting their own evac packs together just in case. I'm beginning to wonder if the end is nigh after all. The people who claim to know thesew kinds of things are predicting that the "Big One" is due any day now, and will most likely make a huge mess-
I keep telling everybody- Mother Nature gets enough, she just shrugs it off- know what I mean?
A super storm churning in to New York. Already shit is hitting the fan there.
Snow before Halloween in many parts of the country there - I'm sure the Rat is happily pressing her nose to the window, even with the cider and rum. and BC had it's first earthquake in 50 years. And no, we didn't feel a thing. The furthest in it was felt was Metro Vancouver. So we are fine.
Maybe the Mayans were on to something.......
I guess having our annual "Who gets snowed on first" is sorta a moot point now...lol
COMMENTS
*shakes her snow doll*
Nothing yet. :(
*puts her nose back to the cold window*
When it stopped a county over from us, I'm sure she got plenty mad and I wouldn't want to be that voodoo doll with all the shaking going on. You stay safe up there please.
Of writing a movie review.
Anybody who knows me knows I would rather watch or read horror-movies, tv, books, whatever form it breathes into, I'm all over it.
Never really been a chick flick kinda girl- what can I say.
Scott has discovered this download site, and so I get to watch stuff I am interested in, but don't really want to buy in case it turns out to be a howler- and not in a good way.
See "Sabertooth"
See "Chill"
See "Dark House"
And I could go on. I have collections (you know the type "Get 8 movies for the one low price of $8.99!!!") that I found at various places like the Wal Mart throw away bin, ones you justify to yourself that it can't be that bad, it isn't like you're paying all that much per movie, right?
Um hum.....
So Scott found this site through his brother in law Tim, and we have used it to d/l the kinds of movies that sound good on paper, and some of them actiually turn out to be pretty good.
I actually watched "The Human Cetipede" part 1 and 2, just for the pure vicarious thrill of it. It did indeed gross me out, and not in a good way-now I know, and I won't waste money on it.
But the other night, Scott was ensconced on the couch, playing "Fallout New Vegas" for the umpteenth time (but I'm a different character this time!) which left me with limited opportinities for entertaining myself. Play endless games on MSN, or watch something we had d/led.
Now, I do not go into this lightly. I do my research (thank god for Imdb.com) I read reviews, I check things out, and then I go forth and find new and exotic ways to scare myself silly.
Yes, I have watched the entire "Paranormal Activity" franchise from it's inception. I saw the first one with Diane (a friend from Westwood) and Scott.
NONE of us could sleep for the rest of the week, and we each had our own ghoulies after that.
Scott couldn't sleep with any part of himself hanging outside the covers.
Diane couldn't walk through trhe house in the dark.
And I coulnd't get past the top of the stairs on my way to bed without turning on every light along the way.
That's a good horror movie.
"Sinister" recently did it for Diane and I again.
But while perusing the long list of hackneyed movies I had in my computer, I opted for one called "Deadgirl"
Here is the blip from Imdb.com:
Top 5000
Deadgirl (2008)
101 min - Horror | Thriller
5.7
Your rating:
-/10
Ratings: 5.7/10 from 8,623 users Metascore: 36/100
Reviews: 87 user |106 critic |5 from Metacritic.com
Two high school boys discover an imprisoned woman in an abandoned mental asylum who cannot die.
Directors:
Marcel Sarmiento, Gadi Harel
Writer:
Trent Haaga
Stars:
Shiloh Fernandez, Noah Segan and Candice Accola | See full cast and crew
It's not listed in the database that I can tell, and I'm not sure if it qualifies as a vampire movie.
What I can tell you is that it gave me the worst case of the eeeewwwwssss I have had in awhile. And the funny thing is, it wasn't the special effects, or the storyline, or anything like that.
It was the sheer vulgarity of the characters, and what they did, how they acted, etc.
If you get a chance to find this one, I highly recommend it. But I will tell you this right now, if you are sqeamish, walk away, cause it isn't nice and neat, or sparkly, or Louis handsome.
It's just gross.
British Columbia can take a legitimate teacher's strike, where they desparately need more money, smaller class sizes, and better environments to teach children, and they get forced back to work. By law created specifically to end the strike.
Yet hockey players and owners etc........
yeah- kiss this year's season goodbye- god forbid owners should be forced to live up to contracts that they signed with players in good faith, and players should have to make less per year than what the average citizen up here will make in a lifetime...
Inequity, thy name is hockey.....
Of a working goth girl. Boss needed a quart of black paint for stuff at work, and since walmart was on my way home, I offered to pick it and several other things up for her. So off I went, and at 6 pm I hit the doors at walmart, and headed straight for the paint department.
See, at this point, I have had to make paint runs so many times, I know the way by heart, and THEY know me on sight. Not always a good thing, but whatever...chickens....
So I get back there, and true to form, there is no one around. so the next blue vested lady that headed in my general direction, I asked her to call for someone to
help me, which she was nice enough to do. She no
sooner wandered away when this chubby guy rounds the corner of the next aisle, takes one look at me, and disappears.
WTF?
So I gave him a few minutes, figuring he had to finish what he was doing, and would be right back.
After ten minutes, I went hunting for him, only to find him in the same aisle he had come barreling out of to begin with.
"Scuse me" I said in my bestest southern drawl...
"Do you work in paint?"
Uh, yeah.
"Can I get some hayelp, please?"
Um sure.
thus insued one of the funniest phone conversations I have ever heard. He calls some lady who calls him back.
"There's a lady here who need help"
!@#%^%$!
"I can't help her, she wants paint."
!&$^#@*
"No one ever showed me HOW to mix paint"
@(^@%##$%&*(
"He's in electronics"
@(*%#^()
"He's the only one there, he can't come do it"
*#^(@$+
"I don't know nothing about working in electronics either." (I could practically hear Prissy filtering through on that one)
@#$^*& WTF$^%*&*&?
"What do I do if someone wants something?"
WTFDHKIYJJF
"I just call you and you'll come help?
SIGH
"Okay, fine."
"I'll have someone over here shortly......"
So now here comes Gump #2.
"What can I get for you?"
I need a quart of interior semi gloss in black.
"What shade would that be?"
Black. It don't get any shadier than that.
"Do you want Dark Secret, Midnight star, ....."
I want BLACK. Just black. No funky names, no shades or tints, just BLACK.
"I'm not sure if I can find the formula for that."
*Are you fucking kiddin' me? SERIOUSLY???*
Take your best shot. If Dark Secret is your code name for black, so be it.
He twiddles with the computer, flips around the screen, and asks me if this is the color I want.
Is that the blackest black you got?
"Yes, Ma'am"
You go boy- hit'er and run with it.
A few minutes later, and I had my quart of Dark Secret, everybody was back in their own department, and all was right with the world......
*sigh* Please tell me WHY I went to art school.....
COMMENTS
OMG I have heard this type conversation before but with white!
I stop reading at the word Walmart.
Ok, not really but... it is evil place and I have not been to it since sis made me go to get her pool things back in May.
Evil.
You went because you love it! Just not.... the place we don't speak of again.
OMG - too damn funny! I can always count on you, Red to brighten my day with your humor!
This is what happens when you get addicted to www.cooks.com...lol
HILLBILLY SOUP
1 (1 lb., 14 oz.) can pork n' beans
1 (16 oz.) can whole kernel corn with liquid
1 lb. pkg. hot dogs, sliced 1/4 inch thick
3 med. onions
1 lb. can tomatoes
1 c. tomato catsup
2 tbsp. prepared mustard
2 c. water
Salt and pepper to taste
Combine all ingredients in large saucepan. Bring to a boil. Simmer for 1 hour and serve.
And as an ending to the previous...
Carisa Didoshak 6:58pm Oct 11
That's awesome! Good to hear I wish u the best!!!!!
COMMENTS
They all are- that is why I am so glad to be gone from there- not one of them was a real person, they were all so fake, except for the few that I really cared about and really cared about me- THEY asked me directly, or asked Diane to ask me if I was ok.
These people are talking to me more now that I am gone than when I fucking worked there....
See the following, via facebook:
11:29pm
Carisa Didoshak
Hey Luanne!
I never got a chance to say goodbye so I thought I'd send u a msg. I wish you the best with everything in your future and it was a pleasure working with you the last few years!!!!!
...
Sunday
9:19am
Luanne Askew Kendall
Thank you very much Carissa- I hope to be very happy in my new job. Thanks for all your best wishes!
...
Today
8:27am
Carisa Didoshak
Ohh where r u working?!?
Good luck with everything
...
Today
6:32pm
Luanne Askew Kendall
I'm putting my art degree to work, and I got a job working for a paint your own pottery and make your own glassware place. Since we haven't opened yet, I have been helping out painting the walls, putting things together, etc. It's considerably more relaxing, and I'm having fun.
...
Too snippy?
Fuck 'em
COMMENTS
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