to think that people who 'enjoy' horror films are just a little bit fucked up?

[LastMinuteLouise]

Maybe I am just an oversensitive person but I find watching my fellow man being terrified, screaming and then horribly killed, with blood and guts spewing, just a bit offensive! I am aware it is not real (plenty of real stuff in the news which is just as bad) but just having these images in my head upsets me. DH says he just forgets it when it's finished - he's currently watching 'Devil', some fucked up film about a devil in a lift . Most of the dramas and films these days are about people getting murdered, getting killed or being dead. It is so mainstream.

I mean where do these film makers get these ideas? Surely they should be committed? Are we all supposed to have this 'dark' side that they make into 'art'? Where is the entertainment in having horrifying images in your head?

I remember watching 'Changeling' a few years back thinking it was about a woman who's son disappears and who is then given a 'ringer' back by the police. I was totally unprepared for the scene in which young boys (my DSs age) were shown being axed to death. Fucked me up for months weeks and I was watching it alone. I remember shouting at the screen, please tell me that did'nt happen but apparently it did.

I don't know. Am I abnormal?

Got it. its 'i spit on your grave' an absolutely horrific film.

The AIBU about The Human Centipede traumatised me so much that I couldn't sleep after reading the wiki entry and THEN the morning after I sent my four year old off to school saying cheerily that his things were all in his fecking, Human Centipede bag.

It was a nice Hungry Caterpillar one.

I used to like the Hammer House of Horror ones when i was a kid.

I just find them too horrific now-a-days..

We turned Eden Lake off after a bit because the nasty people were really winding us up (dont ask why they dont in other films ). We looked it up and realised it didnt get any better and the main characters didnt win in the end so didnt see the point.

I liked I spit on your grave, its just revenge. Those films I dont mind so much. As long as the main character gets away thats fine. Ive considered watching the human centipede, but have decided against it.

I have seen all the saw films though and wolf creek.

YABU to generalise about a group of people based on their film choices.

NotVeryInventive the end of the last one was fecking brilliant!! I sat there !

Milk the end of the last saw film or the last final destination film?

I was like at the end of final destination, with Saw I couldnt quite remember all the full story running through them all (Im not very good with that sort of thing if its been a while) though we do plan to buy the boxset and watch them all close to each other.

The last horror boxset we watched was Nightmare On Elm Street and I kept dreaming of Freddy Krueger (not the best person to dream about)

Final destination! was fantastic :o

I've never got round to seeing SAW...I may do now though!

I am useless with horror. Watched the Exorcism of Emily Rose which had lots of nasty demonic voices in it had to keep looking away Love Blair Witch.. Can't do blood slasher silly alien dismembered gut spreading cheesy shit though

I agree with you. I don't understand what is entertaining about watching people being horrifically multilated and murdered.

I realise it's acting, but it is acting out people being horrifically mutilated and murdered. How is that entertaining? oooh, I do enjoy sitting with a bucket of popcorn watching special effects that make it truly look like teenagers are having their guts ripped out. I don't get it.

My sister did get me to go to see that final destination 5 in 3D. I paid the best part of ten pounds to sit in an uncomfortable seat for an hour and a half with my eyes closed. I must have been off my rocker.

But people were laughing. When gruesome things were happening, people in the cinema were laughing. I truly don't understand.

But then I expect they didn't understand why someone was sitting in front of them with their eyes closed

I'm not a fan of blood and guts horror films, I'm such a wuss that seeing a picture of Freddy Krueger, or hearing that creepy little refrain
" 1, 2 Freddy's coming for you" is enough to keep me up at night even after all these years!!

I liked the Blair Witch though, thought it was clever and scary.

However, some perfectly normal and sane people whom I consider my dearest friends absolutely love them, so no, I don't think there's anything "fucked up" about people who enjoy horror.

In fact you could argue that it's actually just as odd, if not more so, to enjoy the ongoing, relentless misery and domestic violence fest that is Eastenders, Corrie et al.
And what about those aged over about 15 who read and watch endless vampire romances, are they "fucked up"?

I was "forced" to watch the first Saw a while ago, by the above dear friends, and have to admit that although I watched most of the film with my eyes closed, the bit at the end did make me roar with laughter-it reminded of the Black Knight in Monty Python and the Holy Grail when he has all his limbs chopped off "its just a flesh wound"

I've always loved anything horror or remotely scary and dark from a very young age. I'm not that fucked up. that said since I've had the DC's I probably have become a bit more of a wuss.

I'm also a fan of horror. Be that ghosty paranormal type horror or "torture porn" horror.
I dont think I'm that fucked up

YADNBU - I have no stomach for hoor or for any kind of gratuitous violence, but I must put in a word of support for The Changeling and The Kite Runner that were both slated earlier in the thread. They are both fantastic films that will have you on the edge of your seat for all the right reasons. Yes, there are one or two quite harrowing scenes in each film, but the content is alluded to rather than graphically shown, and not at all gratuitous. It would be a shame to avoid two such great films for fear of that.

I think you're being unreasonable. I love horror, particularly the ghost story variety. I am also a big fan of systematic serial killer mysteries but plotless slasher flicks are usually no fun except in the fake blood antics sense. My elderly aunt who raised me used to love horror (she had very little english so she would say "horron") and I would watch horror films with her when I was much too young. She explained our love of horror really concisely to my mum who is oversensitive like everyone on this thread who is afraid of imaginary things on telly; "when you watching scary film or sad film, you understanding sometimes you can having feelings for things not real. When real life scary thing or sad thing happening, you not going mental screaming, crying like baby."

Man, my strikethrough didn't work. I wonder why!

Yabvvu
I really enjoy horror films,although it does make you wonder what goes on in tarantinos head, as long as they are full of psychological,edge of your seat type stuff and not just gratuitous gore/violence.
I watched a fantastic programme once on the psychology of horror,very interesting stuff.
Imo nothing has been made yet that beats The shining.

well dont bloody watch it then . simple

Yabvu

not to avoid watching films that you do not enjoy. but in claiming you don't have a dark side.

we all have a dark side and to deny it is psychologically unhealthy. i do not enjoy slash type films anymore but i like material that explores the darker side of humanity. i am a very empathetic person but i can also be selfish and incredibly angry.

in the words of carl jung 'i would rather be whole than good'

YANBU. I could not agree more with you OP.

I like suspense films, thrillers etc but I don't get how it is in any way pleasurable/entertaining/fun to watch horrors/gratuitous violence eg Hills have Eyes, Saw, Human Centipede etc where the emphasis is on physical torture and infliction of pain. Especially when there is not always/usually a comeuppance for the perpetrators.

There is NOTHING positive for anyone to gain from watching this stuff. Anyone who actually enjoys watching torture take place even on film should think about why they enjoy it so much.

Boglach: "we all have a dark side and to deny it is psychologically unhealthy" - yes we do but some have a darker side than others, surely?! . There are degrees of dark sides and there will definitely be a point at which the dark side becomes unhealthily present. Perhaps films that appeal to our "dark sides" only bring it out further. In discerning adults that won't shake their core values but for the idiots out there...

in the words of carl jung 'i would rather be whole than good'

Each to their own but I prefer my own words than quoting those of someone else.

To completely deny you have a dark side in pursuit of an unattainable image is actually what causes a lot of people who commit such crimes to do so.

i am not suggesting criminals watch saw, but i doubt it would bring their dark side out. they aren't even aware they have one probably. narcissists/psychopaths would actually benefit from being aware of the anger and pain that drives them. childhood trauma Etc

There's nothing positive to take from most films, is there? I don't feel like watching Notting Hill turned me into a better person.

Oh and it is the sort of smug moral high ground 'i couldn't possibly i am far too nice' that makes me cringe

Like anyone who has ever watched or enjoyed a dark film harbours evil intent

very black and white thinking which is very judgemental