Using a horror film to bring your date closer is a classic move in the teenage playbook. Now, a study of Australian birds finds that other animals use the same “scary movie effect” to attract female attention, by hitchhiking mating signals onto the calls of predators. Male splendid fairy-wrens, a sexually promiscuous small bird native to Australia, are known to sing a special song each time they hear the call of one of their predators, the butcherbirds. New research finds that this seemingly dangerous behavior actually serves as a call to potential mates — a flirtation using fear.