Horror: The little genre that could.

I have seen my fair share of horror movies and there is one thing I have noticed about this genre that is different to others. Horror movies (to me) seem to be prosecuted when they don't follow a certain direction of its genre. For instance, a romance movie may end in total disaster taking the romance out of the movie and be called great. However, if a horror is deemed not scary it is trashed and sentence to a lifetime of negative opinions (This normally comes from the newer members but I'm calling it as I see it here, if you have seen otherwise please correct me).

It seems that there is far too much emphasize on the scare factor in horror movies these days. When I pick up a horror movie in a video store I have rarely ever picked it up for the scare factor. In the beginning when I started getting into movies the horror genre never appealed to me. I thought "Why would anyone want to a see a movie when they are going to turn their heads every time the main part of what makes a horror movie appears on screen?”. I was Naive. I realised that horror movies can project what other movies cannot. Not only were they able to turn things of absolute fiction into people's nightmares, but also they were able to do things that are appropriate for its genre and not in society.

So why do I rent horror movies? Gore, Violence and characters that can’t be portrayed in other movies. Gore is ATM my latest fascination. I haven't rented a movie for a couple of weeks but when I (for horror of course) I look for gore. You maybe able to get some gore in an action movie but not to the intensity that a horror movie can do it. Violence, who can say no to it? In an action movie you'll get guns you get explosions you may get the occasional knife fight. Horror can do less and create more. Freddy is able to scratch his victims resulting in a gore effect. With a single wipe it's just as interesting if not more interesting than a hotel turned into a bullet festival. The characters, the creatures or monsters if you will are unique. In an action (sorry for the action bashing I love action it's just easy to relate to horror than any other genre) you can have the love story, as a romance movie will. Most of the genres are interchangeable horror may have a little love story; a love story may have a little action. However the one characteristic that can interchange with the rest are horror characters. Have you ever seen the dead rise in an action movie?

Horror movies back in the day were made with the purpose of being scary and that was great but it's different now. I think we have to think deeper into what makes a great horror movie in the 21st century. Why? Because I believe that people today aren't scared by horror movies today, whether it's the dodgy special effects or CGI people can now tell it's fake, people have evolved from the state of being scared unlike those from the 70's or 80's. The thing that filmmakers hold on to now-a-days for a scare factor is suspense. Suspense is far different today then it was back then. Suspense made the horror film scary for minutes on end today it seems to last a couple of seconds in a surprise attack. Examples of minutes on end horror is Leather face wielding a chainsaw chasing a defenceless women through a forest or zombies slowly creeping up to hopeless victims the anticipation being too much. The best anyone can hope for now-a-days is a 2 second scare after some recycled creature pops out.

So what is the purpose of this thread? I just wanted to state that we shouldn’t just focus on the scare factor anymore. Horror has change like every other genre, but horror seems to have a following and is watched closely (I may go into this with more depth later), that’s why this sort of dilemma isn’t found in other genres. This especially goes out to the newer members (No offence). I also wanted to get this off my chest.

Why people think movies like The Grudge and The Ring are scary is beyond me.

What I find scary about horror movies isn't the scare factor, it's as you say the gore and violence and characters.

That is why I have noticed I am getting more and more into the psychological horror or thrillers if you prefer. Serial killers are real and the stuff what happens in movies can happen in real life and that is what makes a movie scary for me, if it could happen in real life...

1) Gore and violence are neither scary nor inherently interesting. Well, that's just a matter of opinion.

2) It's been my experience that horror movies have the worst acting of any genre. If the horror movie isn't scary, we have nothing to distract us from this fact.

3) I'm all for concentrating on the characters; it's a pitty that in most horror movies, the heroes are vapid stereotypes and the killer is completely uninteresting.

4) A horror movie that isn't scary is still better than a comedy that isn't funny. So I guess they've got that going for them.

Many people think that a horror film's only intent is to get cheap scares. Too me, a horror film is something that involkes extremely negative emotions, something that disturbs, disgusts, or terrifies. It doesn't have to be *scary* in the traditional sense, but if it fails to invoke any emotion from the viewer, then it's a failure too me. Horror films also offer some of the deepest artistic merrit of any film genre. There's more to a horror film then just "being scary".

Originally posted by BackFire
Many people think that a horror film's only intent is to get cheap scares. Too me, a horror film is something that involkes extremely negative emotions, something that disturbs, disgusts, or terrifies. It doesn't have to be *scary* in the traditional sense, but if it fails to invoke any emotion from the viewer, then it's a failure too me. Horror films also offer some of the deepest artistic merrit of any film genre. There's more to a horror film then just "being scary".

Originally posted by BackFire
Many people think that a horror film's only intent is to get cheap scares. Too me, a horror film is something that involkes extremely negative emotions, something that disturbs, disgusts, or terrifies. It doesn't have to be *scary* in the traditional sense, but if it fails to invoke any emotion from the viewer, then it's a failure too me. Horror films also offer some of the deepest artistic merrit of any film genre. There's more to a horror film then just "being scary".

Extremely true.

I'm sorry........but if you are an adult and any flickering image on a screen scares you in any way whatsoever, you need to get mental health treatment.

I watch horror films for the same reason a lot of other people do.......simply as escapism. Some movies I watch for a good story......some I watch for their camp value......some I watch for the over the top, outlandish cartoon plot and characters..............by no means do I ever expect to watch an image that I know beforehand is fake and expect to be frightened.

Originally posted by Evil Dead
I'm sorry........but if you are an adult and any flickering image on a screen scares you in any way whatsoever, you need to get mental health treatment.

I watch horror films for the same reason a lot of other people do.......simply as escapism. Some movies I watch for a good story......some I watch for their camp value......some I watch for the over the top, outlandish cartoon plot and characters..............by no means do I ever expect to watch an image that I know beforehand is fake and expect to be frightened.

I disagree totally with that. What about the flickering images of a comedy movie? Do you need mental help because you laugh? Or what about a very emotional film where you can't help but get misty eyed, or even cry? Just because you watch these "images" and know that they are fake, it doesn't mean that you're not allowed to react with your natural emotions, as any human being would. One person might watch, for example, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and react with disgust and shock when Leatherface impales that one teenage girl on that meathook. Are they in need of treatment because she reacts? No, of course not. I, myself, just smirk and giggle like I always do when I watch that scene. Humans react differently to different things. Simple as that. However, if I were to watch The Changeling, the only movie to ever genuineley scare me, alone at night, well I'd be uneasy and a little jumpy. Whereas someone else, such as yourself maybe, might watch the movie and not get scared in the least. This is just human nature. There's nothing WRONG with us. It's just human emotion. Thats what horror movies do. What scares me, might not scare you. What scares you might make me laugh. Its as simple as that. I know that these are just "flickering images of fiction" and I know thats its not real. But that doesnt mean that we cant be absorbed into the story of a great movie and react with genuine emotion (fear/laughter/anger/sadness) and it certainly doesn't make us candidates for mental health treatment.

Originally posted by Evil Dead
I'm sorry........but if you are an adult and any flickering image on a screen scares you in any way whatsoever, you need to get mental health treatment.

I watch horror films for the same reason a lot of other people do.......simply as escapism. Some movies I watch for a good story......some I watch for their camp value......some I watch for the over the top, outlandish cartoon plot and characters..............by no means do I ever expect to watch an image that I know beforehand is fake and expect to be frightened.

Just because your old doesn't mean you can't have a good laugh at being scared, I'm sorry, but I disagree.

oh yes, I'm so old............mid-twenties, I'm on death's door.

the majority of people would simply say you are just very young. Then again.........young children are also scared that there's a boogie man hiding under their bed waiting to nibble their toes off if they fall asleep, I guess I can see why children are scared of pictures.

PS. Impediment, I love the Changeling........but you're entire spiel is for not as fright is not an emotion. If someone watches a movie and feels happy, sad, angry, envious, etc............ok, that's probably the specific emotions those scenes were created to induce..........but if a person looks at pictures and feels a concern for their own physical well-being, they do need to seek treatment......

Originally posted by Evil Dead
P.S. Impediment, I love the Changeling........but you're entire spiel is for naught as fright is not an emotion. If someone watches a movie and feels happy, sad, angry, envious, etc............ok, that's probably the specific emotions those scenes were created to induce..........but if a person looks at pictures and feels a concern for their own physical well-being, they do need to seek treatment......

Hmmm. Maybe I misconstrued your statement a little. I wasn't trying to be hostile towards you in my retort, by the way. I agree with you 100% that if an individual takes any certain horror movie TOO seriously and fears for his/her life after watching, then, yeah, maybe that individual needs counseling or something. Like if a person were to watch, say, Halloween, and on October 31st that individual were to stock up on shotgun shells, a rifle, board up the windows to his house.............all in fear that a Shatner mask wearing psychopath might terrorize the household, then hell yes, that dude needs some serious therapy. (Is that what you were getting at??) But what I gathered from your original statement was that if a person was to react with their normal human emotional responses (uneasiness, jumpiness, etc.) after watching a scary flick, then that means something is wrong with them. Theres nothing wrong with being a little shaken up after watching a good horror flick, after all isnt that why we watch them in the first place? But I agree with you that there is a limit/boundary/fine line (whatever you want to call it) to taking a fictional story displayed via flickering images on the "idiot box" TOO seriously. After all, if you cant disdern reality from t.v., then you are, indefinitley, a candidate for mental health services. 😉

Maybe it's just me but sometimes when I watch a scary movie like Friday the 13th or Halloween, after I've watched it I turn on alot of lights before I go into another room because I always think there's goig to be somebody on the other side ready to jump out and scare me. Sometimes there will be a moment where it will look like there is someone standing in the other room watching me. Gives me the chills just thinking about it. Anyways, I've never thought that any of these horror creeps could possibly be real. If anyone thinks they are they do need help...seriously. For the longest time I thought the whole Ed Gein being tied to Texas Chainsaw Massacre was bunch of BS.

^

that's what I was speaking of impediment, fear. This girl just posted that she watched pictures on her television set then proceeded to turn all the lights in her house on because she thought there was actually somebody in her house ready to jump out at her. In her mind, seeing a picture of a serial killer on her television set somehow transcended to there possibly being a serial killer in her kitchen ready to jump out at her wearing a hockey mask.

Originally posted by Evil Dead
^

that's what I was speaking of impediment, fear. This girl just posted that she watched pictures on her television set then proceeded to turn all the lights in her house on because she thought there was actually somebody in her house ready to jump out at her. In her mind, seeing a picture of a serial killer on her television set somehow transcended to there possibly being a serial killer in her kitchen ready to jump out at her wearing a hockey mask.

That is NOT what I was tallking about. I was talking about somebody,maybe somebody that was just watching the movie with you, hiding in another room to jump out and scare me. I've NEVER thought there could possibly be a serial killer in a hockey mask in my house...that's just dumb.

Horror film characters are fictional but what if an idiot decides to dress up like one and kill people. That would be scary because you might not know if your head's playing tricks on you.

For me is simple morbid curiosity and a darker fantasy storytelling. That's basically why I like the Horror genre. Blood and Gore are always a big plus and most of the time that is why I want to see. Now if you tell me that horror movies aren't about that....then WTF? what are they about? Romantic movies have people mooching and hugging, Western movies have people shooting at each other, martial arts have people kicking and screaming at each other. So you would expect a horror movie to be about someone getting kill and having a disturbing story line. If I don't get that then the film sucks. Regardless of how high is consider by the fans.

I agree i need gory and violence in my horror films. My favourite storylines are the masked maniac in the woods or stalking a summer camp. I don't know why i just like that storyline even though there all basically the same.