Awesome.
Well...maybe not. You see I've watched hundreds of horror movies (it could border on the thousands, I've honestly lost count) over the years. Some have been awesome, some have been bad. But with all the horror movies I've watched there has been one thing that has remained constant.
None of them ever scared me.
I wonder, is this a good or a bad thing? I enjoy watching horror, it's great to unwind in front of the TV or laptop watching a scary movie, but what's the point if they don't scare me? Isn't that the point?
I'm not wearing the fact that these movies don't scare me as a badge of honour, I'm genuinely disappointed. I want to be scared, I want that adrenaline rush from watching a horror movie seeing the beasts run riot.I wonder if it's because of my past. I was abused and forced to watch horror movies at the age of 6 (despite this I developed a passion for horror as a teen) perhaps it desensitised me. Maybe it's because sometimes the real world is far scarier than any fantasy.
So, is there any way to get scared by a horror movie? A group on Facebook pondered people not being scared by horror and one person said it was because the ones not scared are just watching torture porn. I've watched all different horrors from all over the world. I've felt sick at one incident in one movie (The Toolbox Murders) but that's it. I remember asking someone once what stopped them watching horror but they could handle true stories about serial killers and torture. She said that she could handle something that's factual but horror truly scares her because that shows how dark and depraved someone's imagination was and that is scarier than any reality. I beg to differ personally but everyone fears different things differently.
Maybe I'm a bit odd. Maybe I'll never be scared by a horror, unfortunately....but I'll keep on enjoying them anyway.
I would say that being desensitized due to what you have been through is a perfectly reasonable conclusion. Though you could just be a fella that doesn't get scared of horrors. Perhaps you have just seen so many,the impact is lost on you, so to speak. There may yet be a horror out there that gets you.
ReplyDeleteYou are right though, the real world is scary enough at times.
Speaking personally as a horror fan and film maker, during my uni years I was fascinated by the same thought about myself. Now, the movie my parents used to HAVE to play to stop my crying at the tender age of 1 was in fact the 1978 Carpenter classic Halloween. I too thought this may be the main contributing factor as to why I was never afraid of horror films. Definately this is some solid ground work, I even went so far as to writing an essay on Horror as a genre and the different effects it has on people. Some interesting patterns emerged from like minded individuals I spoke to who 'like the fake thrill a horror film gives without the genuine horror of something terrible actually happening' it came across as an almost voyeuristic curiosity whereby these things are fun to watch but not to experience, and the safety of your armchair keeps you from ever being truly scared by it. Like yourself I have always been envious of those who are scared with the strong ability to empathise with a fictitious character or scenario. I really don't want to go on too much but personally speaking Horror is my favourite genre, followed by comedy (a genre which has not been truly great for decades...that's another rant) but horror stories are just that, stories. By their very nature they HAVE to have something interesting happen or it cannot be a horror, even a bad horror has something in it that by the genres design is supposed to rock the protagonists equilibrium. Other genres can get away with not following this "rule" of story telling. I think breaking it down into terms of story, this is sadly why horror films aren't genuinely scary...but in a way, that's good...because I want to watch them.
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