The psychological tease of a roller coaster slamming toward the earth at 60, 70 or 100 miles an hour gives riders that near-death drama that film buffs say compares to the edge-of-the seat terror they get from watching a scary movie.

Why do we like to be scared? Possibly because we don't have enough risk in our lives. Or maybe, one film buff asserts, we want to feel something. Skyview graduate Jordan Bowers, who works in reality television in Los Angeles, said disturbing psychological thrillers are among his favorite films to watch because they stir his emotions.

"I'm a firm believer that films are made to make us feel something, not necessarily joy. They're not there necessarily to make us feel happy, but to evoke some emotion. Good horror movies do that so well. They tap into something very primal," said Bowers, a 2004 Skyview graduate.

The film that toyed most with Bower's emotions was "Rosemary's Baby'' because it's so cerebral and disturbing.

"It's not a traditional Halloween horror film because it doesn't have the slasher or gore elements you might expect from the Michael Myers films. It's extremely paranoid throughout the entire movie. You never know quite what the truth is and what's going on. The fear comes from not knowing.''

Venture Theatre actor and director Blaine Jensen said he likes the adrenaline rush of seeing a psychological thriller.

"I think there is something in all of us, where we like to feel we're participating in something risky,'' Jensen said.

Splattering brains

Jensen said his first taste of being scared silly was watching "Night of the Living Dead'' at a birthday party.

"I was in third grade and when we started watching the movie, with all these naked zombies with brains splattering and stuff, I started bawling. They put me in the other room to watch 'The Hulk' and 'Dukes of Hazard' and I was happy again.''

Not being a fan of gore, Jensen said he's never watched the entire film, but he does enjoy psychological thrillers, including the 1991 film, "The Silence of the Lambs.''

"That's the only one that has really gotten me with the psychological stuff,'' Jensen said. "I remember seeing that in the theater and it was wonderful seeing couples walking out and looking at each other going could you? There is so much great tension in that show.''

Jensen often plays scary characters on stage, including "(Anon) ymous'' where he plays a cannibal, sort of like Hannibal Lecter.

"I don't look to style my characters after movie characters, but when you have a really iconic performance, like Hannibal the cannibal, I don't think anybody is immune to picking up on that," Jensen said. "We are all seeing through the same cultural lens."

Underworld floaters

Another local actor, David Otey, played a chain-rattling, underworld tripping Marley in last season's "Marley's Christmas Carol" at Venture. He didn't set out to mimic characters in horror films, but said he couldn't help but be affected by scary films.

"There was a scene where Marley first arrived in this place, presumably hell, and he's surrounded by weird creatures floating around him. It was probably based on scary movies I've seen. But what influenced me the most was the scene of the underworld in the animated film, 'Hercules."'

The suspense in the 1980 film, "The Silent Scream," puts the thriller on Otey's scariest list, along with "Scream."

"The appeal of horror movies is that visceral, gut reaction of being really scared and knowing that really nothing is going to happen to you," Otey said.

Jim Peters, former assistant director at the Parmly Billings Library, has been a film buff for years organizing numerous film festivals at the library. His favorite horror film is the 1962 "Cape Fear" starring Robert Mitchum.

Epitome of evil

"It's not really a horror movie, but Mitchum is the epitome of evil. He plays a character who has assaulted a woman and is released from prison. He tracks down Gregory Peck's character, who is the district attorney in a small town in Florida. It's a very subtle, but evil film."

Longtime Rocky Mountain College theater director Gerry Roe isn't a big fan of scary movies, so he's not sure why he took his former wife to see "The Exorcist" back in the 1970s.

"I guess I was in an extremely vulnerable place when I saw that and it blew my socks off. I never quite got over it. My wife at the time hated it, too," Roe said. "We sat together huddled in the corner watching it."

Sarah Butts, education director at Venture Theatre, figures it was her Catholic upbringing that made her also fear the evil in "The Exorcist."

"Nothing is scarier," she said. "At the time, it was supposedly based on actual events that happened. The idea of a possession has always scared me. I think it's my Catholic upbringing. The other thing about 'The Exorcist' was the tone and feel of the movie. It was just really creepy."

Running from witches

Kay Foster, one of the partners in the Babcock Theatre, said sometimes it's not the film, but a character in it that is frightening.

"My scariest movie of all was 'Wizard of Oz.' I just remember being terrified by the witch when I saw it at the Wilma Theater, then fleeing to the lobby," Foster said.

Shad Scott, a Rocky theater major who directed the horror spoof "Evil Dead: The Musical" earlier this year at Venture Theatre, has been a horror film buff since he was in junior high. He often reviews horror films for the Rocky student newspaper.

"The reason that it appeals to me, if you watch a bad comedy film, it's boring and you hate it, but if you watch a bad horror movie, it can be really funny," Scott said. "It doesn't matter what horror movie you're watching, you can have a good time. They can be funny intentionally or funny unintentionally, either way they're entertaining."

His all-time favorite scary films are out of most film-goers' orbit, "Suspiria" and "The Beyond."

"I think with 'Suspiria,' there is an artistry to the violence and 'The Beyond' is one of the best-made horror films I have ever seen. It doesn't just stick to one genre - it's not just zombies, it's not just ghosts - it's all of that."

Lines are blurring now between PG-13 and R ratings, Scott said. Some of the slasher films have gotten bloodier. Bowers feels that across the board, cinema has been dumbed down so everybody gets it. At the same time, though, fans are pushing for edgier horror films, the kind Eli Roth and Quentin Tarantino make.

"They're moving back to an earlier period in horror, not pandering to 13- and 14-year-old boys and girls with their parents driving them to the movie for a date. They want to see something that's going to affect them," Bowers said.