Creepier?
 

What do you find to make a better horror story, or just scary/ creepier? Realistic or unrealistic plots? I tend to think that the best horror films stick with you a bit, and maybe instill a little paranoia post viewing. I ask because usually I have issues with totally unrealistic characters. To me it is more logical to be fearful of bad things that can actually happen. Granted... fear isn't totally logical. Just wondering if I am a creeper and a freak.

I would say more realistic films include TCM, Psycho, Saw1-17, Human Centipede, 28 Days/Weeks later. A guy could really cut you up with chainsaws/ have mommy issues/ be all cancery and sadistic/ a psycho fan would kidnap people and well... all that/ some sort of freak virus could make zombies.

Unrealistic (to clarify the distinction I am trying to make... so far as I know)
Dolls can't be possessed and rage kill, burn victims cant kill me in my dreams, darth maul isn't going to pop up out of the further any time soon either. But you bet your ass I still check my car for Chucky with a plastic bag waiting to smother me as I drive home. Obviously I have a good fighting chance that this will never happen.. because science says so... But still gets me every time.

I don't want to really split hairs with ghosts or aliens... I don't really have an opinion on the reality of either... but I also don't judge things I know nothing about.

Just wondering if anyone else is kind of backwards like that.

To me, if a tale is well told, that's what makes it better. Original TCM is one of my favorite horror movies, but so is Rosemary's Baby. One includes supernatural elements, the other doesn't.

Actually, I think my opinion would be exactly to opposit of yours. We all know there are homicidal maniacs in the world. We're kind of inundated with that. People kill innocents at the movie theatre or the mall. We kind of have to desensitize ourselves to this our we would be unable to leave our houses.

But ghosts or demons... most of us don't really believe in such things. On the other hand, we don't really KNOW... Watching a really good ghost or possession movie and that can be scary as hell, because all the time I'm thinking, what if this could really happen? If ghosts or demons were real, they'd be a lot harder to fight than a chainsaw weilding maniac.

Every movie asks you to suspend disbelief to a degree whether it be 'ultra realistic' movies or demons and vampires fighting for world domination. I'm not really sure I agree with the whole 'realistic' movie concept in the first place. Usually we apply the term 'realistic' (and I'm sure I've done it myself in the past so I'm not pointing fingers) to scenes that are more visceral, but typically how realistic are they? Saw I is realistic? I don't see it like that at all... Its not really a bad movie, but, to me at least, its in no way realistic no matter how hard it tries. Its about as farcical as something like Arsenic and Old Lace!

I'm not really sure what point I'm trying to make, but ultimately I guess I'm trying to say that the premise of the movie isn't the thing that is going to make it resonate with me. It's all about well delivered stories and solid acting, if you get that right you get a 'scary' film regardless of whether the premise is something utterly unbelievable or not. For example.... NOTLD is much more 'realistic' than alot of movies that try to trade off realism because its grounded by characters like Ben who make it so easy to suspend disbelief. The fact that he's fighting off a zombie horde just makes the whole thing more fun. :cool:

What scares me mostly would be the supernatural movies. I watched Insidious the other day again and try to figure out why that movies scared me. They make it a perfect suspense and the scares scenes have a perfect point of climax. The quietness and the lonely in some of the scenes really brings you in. The "what if" movies get me. Like what if I play with a wigy board and I do get possessed (I know that's not how you spell wigy or oujie or something). The What if one day I was walking through a grave yard and I did piss off a ghost or something.
A man in a mask isn't scary to me. That's like says fight club would be scary too. Watching slashers and stuff makes me go....wtf? when you hit him to the ground don't run, keep hitting him!

The movies that really scare me and leave an impression is like 2012, war of the worlds, the day after tomorrow, etc. Those movies make me go damn, what would happen if all of a sudden a volcano opened up on my road. that kind of stuff.

Realistic or unrealistic shouldn't matter whatsoever! Newt and Ripley say it best: "My mommy told me that monsters weren't real, not real ones, but they are." "Yes, they are, aren't they?" "Why do parents tell us that?" "Most of the time it's true."

You get scared by the monsters that you haven't met yet, be they real or not. If it's a scary story, your audience won't be able to say yay or nay. You want them to think that your monster could be real, it's just waiting for the right time to strike! =) Oh, and by monster, I mean anything. I cite wilderness to be monstrous, so the setting can be your monster as much as any ghosty or gobbly. Think Silent Hill. You walk down the street, but it's not a street. It's a dark corridor leading you to destruction! Have fun, hon! =D