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?

Not read every single reply so sorry if I'm repeating anyone, but this is one of my favourite subjects...I LOVE horror movies.

That said, it is a massive genre and there are some I don't like. I'm not a massive fan of Hostel (though I do have them both...watched them once), and things like that, I find them a bit bleak personally. I love a good thriller, I love Sci-Fi horror, zombie films, vampire films (but NOT Twilight...I'm more a Blade kinda gal). I'm a total geek and a gorehound and ready to admit it (I also love comic book movies, graphic novels and wrestling).

I've got a strong stomach, although I admit bits of Braindead made me feel a bit rough (I was eating pizza during a particularly pleasant scene involving brains and someone's leg).

Mostly though, the sort of stuff I love is funny and trashy. I feel that generally gore and horror needs comic relief to make it more palatable.

Reading back on that reply I probably am a bit fucked up...not in a violent way though at all...I'm a complete pacifist hippy type vegetarian

I do hate Rom-Coms though...they ARE fucked up

Laughing at rom coms being fucked up! absolutely!

no great literature was written by denying the existence of man's condition and horror

it reminds me of my mother when i told her i wanted to be a nurse. she said she was 'too empathetic'. i nearly died laughing

there is nothing wrong with you scarlett

Oh I know there's nothing wrong with me...apart from being a massive geek (hides)

I find Rom-Coms very odd...very odd indeed...I'm definitely NOT a chick flick person.

I just don't get them...

Oh and if you are soooo empathetic. go and do something about the true horrors in the world.

Oh masdive geek here too

any fantasy or dark literature rocks my boat

Quite enjoy the odd vampire/ werewolf zombie type horror but can't watch a horror movie which includes 'normal' people murdering raping and torturing each other!

Ha! Had a little bit of a wake-up call a few months ago. I teach in a diverse school and was teaching a lesson themed around Halloween to a group of kids who were recently arrived in the country. I thought it would be brilliant. I had youtube clips and loads of jazzy stuff to keep them interested. What kids doesn't like monsters?

Basically the lesson bombed. So I cancelled what I had planned to do an decided to get the children talking about ghost stories from their own countries. Again, a mad lack of enthusiasm. I put a little boy from Somalia on the spot and asked him to tell a story. He said there weren't any. So I turned to a boy from Afghanistan (can you see where this is going yet? Doh). The same.

The summary came from the first child: 'Why do we need to make up stories to scare ourselves? We have the reality.'

I felt very chastened.

YABU! I don't like horror movies myself (although I used to love them bin my teens), but each to their own, and you do sound very judgmental.

Gawd!I totally agree about romantic comedies....dreadful,dull things. And fwiw i don't think a liking for slasher movies means you are lacking in empathy in rl, but I just struggle to understand how people can watch them. I want to run away and hide

Lol at commiting artists who make dark side into art

er that would be tolstoy,dostoyevsky,cormac mcarthy,george martin,etc

When I was younger I liked the Nightmare on Elm Street films. They were a bit different because of the dream angle. Also enjoyed films with a supernatural edge.

Don't enjoy horror films at all now they are all slasher movies, have a voyeuristic feel and it just feels wrong. They leave a bad taste in the mouth.

Still love a good ghost story. I think "The Others" was a beautiful film and very eerie.

boglach I started on Point Horror books when I was little and it went from there...scary stuff roolz. My entire DVD and book collection is mainly Thomas Harris, Stephen King and HUGE amounts of zombie films (I even have a LTD edition import of Evil Dead 2 in a squishy Necronomicon DVD case that screams when you squeeze it)...Oh yes...I'm THAT awesome high fives self

YABU. You're taking it all a bit too literally and your feelings about those of us who enjoy watching / making them is completely hysterical.

I like spooky films but can't stand much violence, and certainly nothing towards children. I thought there were rules about stuff being shown to be happening to children on British televisionfilm, even after the watershed/18 certificate. E.g you can intimate a child being murdered or harmed off screen but not actually see someone say, produce a knife and stab them - presumably because a child actor has to act it out and it would be too traumatic for them.

*are completely hysterical (hangover brain)

Romantic films and book are fucked up - probably more responsible for the ills of society than horror films as they give people unrealistically high expectations of love and sex!

OP that's a rather sweeping statement. "Horror" encompasses many sub-genres.

I love psychological horror films, I like being scared and full of suspense. The original Halloween film was excellent.

I enjoy horror films such as Nightmare on Elm Street and Scream - daft in parts but make you jump all the same.

I really don't like slasher/gore films - the first SAW film was quite clever, and the premise was interesting. The subsequent films were awful though, just trying to out-sicken each other.

I haven't watched Hostel as torture porn is beyond my boundaries of acceptabiliy.

I think it's rare now to find a really good creepy suspenseful film - I thought The Ring, Paranormal Activity, Cloverfield etc were crap. Sixth Sense was good but hardy a horror film. The Others was tedious.

I get more scared reading Stephen King than watching most films these days.

One of my favourite recent horrors is 1408. It's got a lot of suspense and goes back to the classic scary story.

1408 is amazing...I watched it on my own in the dark and I forced DH to watch it the next day as it affected me so much. I LOVE John Cusack in that film.

I am a massive Stephen King fan though. IT is my favourite book of all time.

scarlet IT is a brilliant book. My favourite of Kings is The Stand. It's horror and sci-fi all in one and it totally tickles my inner geek!

John Cusac rocks that movie. Samuel L Jackson was amazing as usual but I wish that he'd had a bit of a bigger part just because he's brilliant!

I read that short story (1408) - haven't seen the film but may look out for it now if it's as good as the story!

Event Horizon. Now THAT is everything a good Horror should be. Still scares the crap out of me and I've seen it about 200 times.

I've never actually got to the end of The Stand as I've never had my own copy. I watched the mini-series though.

His stuff generally doesn't translate well to film, the IT film is pretty poor, but I can't help but love it as I love the book so much, TommyKnockers is AWFUL but I love that book...I could go on. The Shining is pretty good.

Oooh I haven't actually seen Event Horizon, I keep meaning to. My DH is even more of a horror geek than me and he's been on at me to watch it.

You've reminded me that a friend of mine announced after watching 1408 that she was now scared of "rooms" !!