What do you like about horror movies?

[bloody_ribcut]

What i like about horror movies is that their horror movies, and that it's a way to to escape reality to become more creative.(inmyopinion)
I like the gore, the suspence, the actors, the directors, the lighting, trailors, writers, producers, the creature effects, the cool posters they always come up with, the title's, in and out credits, and the music.
i like the dark feel that i can only get out of the horror genre.(inmyopinion)

[Mictlantechutli]

Originally Posted by ahimsa36

To Mictlantechutli:

This question has come up in discussing this with my girlfriend....."As far as horror movies as a bootcamp for the psyche, what do you think about desensitization? Can horror movies ever become too much for the psyche to bear and then begin to have a harmful effect?"

It's a tricky subject and I'm sure my answer is an over-simplification of the subject but...No.

Sure I'm desensitized to (and actually quite titillated by) screen violence but that's where it ends. I saw a real dead body not too long ago - terrible car crash, lots of blood and a few easily identifiable body parts detached from their hosts - and I was truly upset.

I feel those who use this argument about the desensitization have either lived a coddled life, free of talk about death, intentionally turning a blind eye to the real horrors of the world; or they have a pre-existing mental imbalance which is the true root of the problem.

Art cannot hurt you, but it certainly can affect you.


And about the Saw movies - they're morality plays. Sure the morality is twisted, but they are simple stories with complex devices. Very good stuff in my book. The Killer in Saw wants people to step outside of themselves and address just how much they really want to live. I find the movies tremendously life affirming.

Hostel was just torture-porn. Not everyone's cup of tea, but I dig it for how it wallows in its sleaze and the very clear statement it makes about the "ugly American" and how the rest of the world thinks of us as a pestilence.

[stenchofdeath]

Horror movies are the ultimate escape. Nothing pushes you to the brink of insanity like watching these types of movies. When you watch a movie with alot of heavy content (Saw 3) a non stop attack on the senses. You finish the movie and your mind is in a "i can't believe that i just watched that" and you're saying fuck to yourself over and over again. That's when you know you've seen a great movie. So, to answer the question i watch them to test my mind and stretch my imagination, to challenge myself mentally. When you've had a really hard day sit down and watch horror and, chances are you will forget about your cruddy day pretty quickly.

[bleeding_angelgirl]

Originally Posted by bloody_ribcut

What i like about horror movies is that their horror movies, and that it's a way to to escape reality to become more creative.(inmyopinion)
I like the gore, the suspence, the actors, the directors, the lighting, trailors, writers, producers, the creature effects, the cool posters they always come up with, the title's, in and out credits, and the music.
i like the dark feel that i can only get out of the horror genre.(inmyopinion)

i agree with you that dose it for me

[Kane_Hodder]

There's nothing like watching a cool slasher or hardcore horror film to escape the realities. It helps me out as being a great stress reliever, and I enjoy my viewing of any sort of horror film, be it slasher, gore or a haunting. The films of the 70s and the 80s hold a special place in my heart because most of them were original ideas and others were purified better efforts of the earlier decades. The fantasy of being a part of the surreal atmosphere only adds to the quality of the film, and any such film which succeeds in doing that with me ends up in my love-to-watch list.

I like horrormovies who are realy scary, with a good story. Like House on Haunted Hill, Pet Sematary, Virus, ...

I also like som oldies :) like the haunting from 1963 and the dracula movies with Cristopher Lee.

[Vodstok]

Originally Posted by Mictlantechutli

It's a tricky subject and I'm sure my answer is an over-simplification of the subject but...No.

Sure I'm desensitized to (and actually quite titillated by) screen violence but that's where it ends. I saw a real dead body not too long ago - terrible car crash, lots of blood and a few easily identifiable body parts detached from their hosts - and I was truly upset.

I feel those who use this argument about the desensitization have either lived a coddled life, free of talk about death, intentionally turning a blind eye to the real horrors of the world; or they have a pre-existing mental imbalance which is the true root of the problem.

Art cannot hurt you, but it certainly can affect you.

Very good points. Even as a kid I had a clearly defined idea of real and imaginary. I was very into sci-fi and action movies, love3d violent games, played d&d....


Adn as entertaining as I found all of that, I hated the vietnam documentaries where they showed people being executed in the street. There is no fun in death, but death in entertainment is often a catharsis; it almost never happens to the undeserving in horror, so ther eusually is a sense of justice in it.

[ferretchucker]

I like the way...they go.

[hacelikewhoa]

I like the intensity and how anything can happen. Kind of like a dream. Fantasy horror or even realistic horror I think it has the same effect on me. My imagination runs wild and that's probably why I have nightmares.