Desensitized?

[Brentton]

Does anybody believe films still have the ability to shock or scare us? What was the last movie to truly scare you?

[stygianwitch]

I chose 'unsure', i would have said no horror movies don't scare me anymore (most don't, i may see one that turns my stomach occassionally but that's not the same thing at all), however, just when i'd given up ever being scared again The Descent was released.... that one really did make me jump and got the heart pounding again

[slayer666]

Horror can still scare me, although not as often as it used to. To find scary films, I seem to have to go to Asian horror. A few of them have been very effective in delivering on the scares, however, it has been a long time since I've seen an American film that did the trick.

[XtRaVa]

Depends really. Anything can make you jump (even if you dont physically move in your seat as such) just by using a fast image or big sound. It's like if you waited behind a corner, and then yelled "arghh!" at your unsuspecting friend, the look on their face is of utter horror for a split second, so in that way horror can still "scare" you.

However, people that watch a lot of horror will find it difficult to be scared throughout the movie or have to hide behind the sofa.

[Kemal]

Yes. I'm a big scaredy cat.

[Despare]

A horror movie can still shock (if not scare) I think, even if it's just by doing something new or unexpected. It's not often but it does happen.

[X¤MurderDoll¤X]

Yes. I'm a big scaredy cat.

answer my questions in this thread please. :)
http://www.horror.com/forum/showthread.php?t=26945&page=4

[wufongtan.]

I picked no. but i should have picked unsure about the desensitizing. because that depends on how you look ata movie. if you keep in the back of your mind that these people are just actors playing pretends in a make believe story> then you wont be desensitized. but if you're a moron like murderdoll who finds it hard to tell the difference between fantasy and reality then it could. And as far as scaring goes That chick from sixth sense who is in the kitchen with the cuts wrist gives me creeps. And women vampires from the old vampire movies ( 60 and 70's era) just freak me out mannnn... I have aweird phobia thing going on with them.

[Roderick Usher]

I can get scared much more easily in the theater than at home. There's something about the loss of control, being in a dark room with strangers, not being able to pause or stop the film that gives a movie a life that a home viewing (regardless of the quality of the home theater) can never replicate.

At home, everything's too safe and familiar to really get a rise out of me.

[X¤MurderDoll¤X]

I can get scared much more easily in the theater than at home. There's something about the loss of control, being in a dark room with strangers, not being able to pause or stop the film that gives a movie a life that a home viewing (regardless of the quality of the home theater) can never replicate.

At home, everything's too safe and familiar to really get a rise out of me.

I thought the grudge was pretty scary in the theater, but I was bored out of my mind watching the DVD.

[alkytrio666]

A horror movie can still shock (if not scare) I think, even if it's just by doing something new or unexpected. It's not often but it does happen.
Yep, that's the ticket.

We do get desensitized, and that's why we need new ideas. Ones that we haven't been exposed to as much, that will shock us. When we aren't used to an idea, it can be scary.

A perfect example is the (dare I bring it up) slasher genre. When I first saw Halloween, I was about 14. It scared the shit out of me. It was one of my first exposures. After I got used to the slasher genre, it became unscary, even silly (Friday the 13th, Nightmare on Elm Street, etc.)

So the slasher genre was checked off the list. Now that I knew the routine (woman runs upstairs screaming, killer follows relentlessly with knife, etc.) it could no longer bring that element of surprise.

When The Descent was released, it was something pretty fresh. Some will argue this point, and say the plot and idea was pretty simple and had even, in some way or another, been used before. This may be true...but it had never been done in a cave. The tight, claustrophobic atmospheric tension was shockingly frightening, and it left me gasping for air.


The point is, new ideas bring new fears, fears we haven't been exposed to before, and this will sometimes work out in the scare department.

[Tisha]

I said "not sure'" but I meant "I hope so but it hasn't happened lately." I,'d love to find something that did,

[alkytrio666]

I said "not sure'" but I meant "I hope so but it hasn't happened lately." I,'d love to find something that did,
Have you tried The Descent?

It can be pretty terrifying, but you have to watch it under the right conditions: Dark room, in the quiet, volume way up.

[newb]

Reading the "Evening Paper" can desensitize anybody.