By Dave Dahl

SPRINGFIELD – We seek out the scary to be frightened and entertained at the same time, according to a University of Illinois English professor who also is a movie expert.

He says you can’t go wrong by choosing one of Alfred Hitchcock’s works. “He just (knew) how to tap into what people are afraid of; like, you’re wrongly accused of something or the biggest fear someone is watching that you don’t know/”

Some movies are so subtle and taut that “the scenes that are horrifying are so horrifying that they rip the screen,” giving the shower scene in “Psycho” as an example – dozens of quick cuts in a few seconds, as opposed to showing, say, a 90-minute bloodbath.

“The Marvel movies, you know, you have a major action sequence every five minutes!”

While Hansen is a Hitchcock enthusiast, his Number One scary movie is one from Stanley Kubrick: “The Shining.”