To ask why people enjoy watching horrors?

[KindOfAnAdult]

OK, this isn't a judging /criticising question, but reading a thread just now has got me thinking.

I'm such a scaredy cat and I don't want to be. Things irl make me scared easily, especially noises (bangs, fireworks, cars backfiring etc) but I thought maybe watching some scary films could desensitise me to the 'jump' factor.

Tried one and could not cope haha. Id love to enjoy the thrill of the fear rather than feel like I'm going to die from the fright of it!

So, how does one /enjoy/ scary films? Or is it just built in and I'm destined to be forever a wimp.

I'm with you OP. Just don't get them. I get really cross if I watch something nice and then they throw in something sadistic or jumpy. I think it detracts from a good story and if you need to go for the jump/gore factor, your movie is probably a bit shit.

With historical dramas where there is gore I can kind of understand if it's included, but sometimes it just feels thrown in as people expect a barbaric execution simply because it is a medieval period drama.

I'm obsessed with horror. So many subgenres, the thrill, the intrigue, the adrenaline rush when there's a jump scare, big reveal, etc.
I love short horror films on YouTube, so many incredible producers, directors and actors out there. Most are far scarier than big movie productions.

I like old fashioned ones like the original Amityville and Halloween etc.

I can't stand the gore and gratuitous violence and torture in lots of modern films. I refuse to watch them. It's creeping into more Drama programmes such as Luther now too.

I prefer things about ghosts. The Woman In Black a few years ago was really good. It's only a 12 but I was beside myself! I loved it. I used to like The Ring when I was a teenager too.

I'm not a scaredy-cat , I've seen some horrific RL scenes through my job.
I have no interest in blood , gore or death as a way to relax.
I really don't get it

I used to be terrified of any and all horror films but this was when I was a teenager and as my friends were really into them I found myself being dragged along to see them in the cinema or watch them on girls nights in... I think for me I found one film that was so scary for me at the time that it's since desensitised me to most other horror films...

I still jump at jump scares though which annoys the hell out of me :')

My sister got through her fear of them by watching them with me, I'd make them really funny for her as we watched because a LOT of horror films are actually pretty funny if you can put a weird spin on it, but then our sense of humour is somewhat warped.

I don't enjoy the blood/guts/gore type movies so much, I like the supernatural themed ones more.

Also what @Ylfa said, when you've been through some horrible stuff in life I guess there's a therapy factor in scary movies as bizarre as that may seem? A bit like why some people choose really violent video games, music or TV shows, it just weirdly clicks with them.

It might only hold true for me, but I do like those supernatural type films which make clear that the real true horrors are those inflicted by living people - It (chapter 1) is a good example of that. That clown isn’t half as disturbing as some of the adult characters.

Or is just a chemical thing? I also really love films that make me cry so hard my eyelashes fall out - when I’m in the mood. Maybe it’s all about the endorphins.

Real life stories (Monster) or realism type murder films (Se7en, Silence of the Lambs, Fatal Attraction) I quite enjoy.

Films that involve zombies / blood and gore (I Am Legend, can't think of any others I've watched!) I can barely handle. Yes, even Shaun Of The Dead.

I love gangster and mafia films (Casino, Goodfellas, Donnie Brasco, Godfather trilogy, The Untouchables).

I DEFINITELY cannot and will not ever watch deliberate psychological thrillers (The Blair Witch Project, Hostel etc) as I might actually pass out through stress.

I was a police officer for a decade, and would prefer films for factual reasons or utter escapism. Bring on Pixar and Disney as far as I'm concerned!

Not sure. Maybe you get the thrill of fear, and fear has a reason, without the danger? The axe murderer, ghost, zombie, whatever is not going to kill you. It is something as old as people though. On a tangent, what is it about the local haunted house, abandoned mental health facility or cave or whatever that makes American college kids want to go in and then the dreaded “ let’s split up and explore?” No! Don’t split up and explore! You will all die a horrible, grisly death! Have they learnt nothing?

I love a good ghost/supernatural story, but can’t watch graphic horror depicting suffering.

I love all types of horror and watch two or three films a week. It's got to the point where I'm scraping the barrell now and watching some utter shite on Amazon Prime just to get my horror fix!

I love feeling scared, but safe in the knowledge that it's only a film...or is it? Part of me wants to experience things for real, such as waking up in the middle of a zombie apocalypse as in 28 Later, or trying to get rid of a haunted doll, or find a way to escape from crazed torturous killers...but only for the briefest of moments. It's the adrenaline. I also love scary fairground rides, escape rooms and those interactive adventures where you run away from people dressed as zombies.

NaviSprite which film was it?

I've always loved Horror. Was reading The Fog at age 10 & Jack the Ripper stuff at 11,back in the 80's, well before he enjoyed a resurgence as 'the first serial killer'. I just find romcons a bit yawn. Too nice stuff is a bit bleh & vanilla & encourages fantasies that life is all fantasy & fluff, when actually a lot of life is quite dark.

I'm a morbid, twisted and terrible person is why.

I've always preferred dark films. Ever since I was about 10 or so and I watched The Stand by myself. I can watch gore and such, feel queasy for a second and then be fine the next. The good vs evil paranormal stuff are my absolute favourite things to watch (The Rite, Exorcist 3 etc). Do like a twisty bendy possessed person lol

In the hope I'll get the thrill of fear that other people appear to.
So far, I'm immune. I can watch anything, and cheerfully go out at midnight to do late checks on the horses on my own. We're rural and dp works away, so literally wandering around on my own in the dark in the middle of nowhere.
Still, I grew up in a similarly isolated house and remember cheerfully reading and watching horror before going outside on my own at night/ early morning.

I still love horror, but as I'm imminently practical and don't believe in anything supernatural it needs to be well written.

The one thing that properly scares me is, like EmmiJay demonic possession, the occult, etc. Whilst I'd happily sit in a dark room at night on my own and watch a horror, I'd want a little light on watching those types of film.

Hocus Pocus is about my level of comfort. I'm a total wuss.

I love horror, have read it since I was 7 or 8 and it is my favourite genre. Part of my dissertation was on literature as a form of social control, that could also extend to films. There is a theorist called Jeffrey Jerome Cohen who wrote about the role of the monster in society.

Badly explained here, but people who do terrible things are often called monstrous, which is a way of setting them apart from us, making them the other who must be exorcised from society for breaking the social contract, for our own peace of mind. So as another person pointed out, killing the monster is a way of defeating the other and returning the world to how it should be.

So horror films scare us, but almost always kill or contain the monster, which is cathartic. I have had an awful childhood and parts of my adult life and horror definitely makes me feel better because in those worlds, unlike our world, bad guys are punished, good people triumph and if we follow a set of rules, we survive. You also see the same sort of things in fairy tales, showing social order as keeping the monster shut out in the dark.

Or something. It is late and I'm tired