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.

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.

Reading the "Evening Paper" can desensitize anybody.