Anyone else who can’t sleep after horror films?

[Blondiebueno]

I don’t watch them by choice, but if I see a sci-fi/ thriller that is more like a horror then I can’t sleep for about a week properly. I’m scared of the dark too, I’m ok if my partner is there but if I ever have to sleep alone then I have a lamp on.
The film will be etched in my brain and I’ll find it hard to get rid of.
Anyone else have this? Feel a little pathetic at 30.

It depends on the type of horror. Gore is fine by me - Hostel, Saw, A Serbian Film, Cannibal Holocaust, that kind of thing. It's so obviously fake it's not a problem.

I occasionally find a paranormal type film that gets to me slightly. The Fourth Kind made me anxious about owls at the window, even though the "real" footage is just as fictional as the "dramatised" bits. The Innkeepers did shook me up for a few hours. Even Most Haunted caused me to dislike the dark on occasion.

In summary I seem to be scared most easily by cheaply made tat.

I love horror films but I'm not able for them anymore.
When I wake up to go the loo during the night.I get random thoughts about ghosts and people appearing behind you in mirrors.

I don’t watch any horror films any more, or anything with graphic cruelty. Things come back to haunt me in the sleepless small hours, even after many years, so I’ve shunned them for a long time now.
So I don’t think you’re at all pathetic OP, just my sort of normal.

I used to wonder about people who didn’t mind such things, but dh doesn’t mind them, or at least they don’t bother him, and he’s def. not a closet sadist, so presumably there’s a personal threshold of ‘bothered-ness’.

I checked under my bed for weeks after that Luther episode!

Also once I saw the ad for a movie called The Village in a magazine and I slept with the light on for three days.

Never even saw the film.

@Confusedandshaken

Not just films! I recently had a 10 day period of sleeping very badly. It was only when it came to an end and my normal sleep patterns resumed that I realised that the poor sleep had been caused by the thriller about a high school shooting I had been reading before turning out the light.

Oh yes agreed. I had nightmares about the terror attack at the Bataclan for weeks.

I’ve always been like this. I have to just avoid them now. I watched jeepers creepers when I was about 15 and had to sleep in bed with my mum that night because I was so scared!

Yep. Been like this since I was a child and some Disney films gave me nightmares!
Haven't watched a horror film since about 2006 trying to impress an ex boyfriend

End of the world / doomsday scenario films are also on my "to avoid" list.

Love a good crime thriller though

Mil claims she sleeps better after watching them which explains a lot

I'm the same. As a teenager I watched many scary films with friends and was terrified for days. When I was about 13 I went on a youth club trip and the supervisor thought it would be a good idea to let us watch Amityville 2 the Possession, yes 20 13 to 15 year olds watching it. It was the most terrifying film I've ever seen. I couldn't sleep for weeks, in the bed my mum had to take me to the drs and he gave me a short course in sleeping tablets!
Films still affected me but I watched them until a few years ago when I watched Paranormal Activity, again nights of sleeplessness. In desperation I spoke to the priest at our parish who blessed my house and said I mustn't watch these types of films as they get under people's skin. How true that is, I've not watched one since. Even trailers scare me so don't watch them either. On Sky when it shows the photo for The Exorcist I whizz straight past it.
Like pp's I'm scared of the dark too, I always keep the landing light on!

Yep! I'm a grown woman who still legs it up the stairs once I've turned the downstairs lights off incase the boogeyman grabs my legs through the spindles, too!!

Oh my goodness, yes Ghostwatch!! When the camera panned round the bedroom and you got a quick glimpse of someone stood by the curtain. I still think of it sometimes.

Yes, I get this - but that's part of the appeal of scary films I think.
Adrenalin is running and it can sent a chill through you walking upstairs when there could be a mad axeman waiting etc...

It wears off.

It's not a pleasure I go out of my way to seek, so I don't watch horror very often, but I do appreciate some of it (The Exorcist, The Omen, Saw etc). If I do watch any, I prefer that ilk, rather than abject blood and guts, graphic stuff.

I used to love horror films as a teen but as some point that changed!

I stupidly watched Us on a flight @FrankButchersDickieBow surrounded by people and feeling safe. Slept with the light on for weeks! Ended up googling it and someone has written an article on why that film gets under people’s skin – writers/producers know how to tap into the fear part of our brain!

Also stupidly thought I’d watched The Haunting of Hill House when bored during lockdown. Got through one episode and still regret it now when I need a night-time wee. If anyone’s seen it, that scene of the women flying down the hallway after the family haunts me!

Gah. Part of me likes the thrill of it but man do I regret it come bedtime.

I love Horror films, DH hates them so I often watch alone and in the dark at night. DS is now 20 and likes them.

Spoiler alert for The Ring

DS and I watched The Ring a few months ago. He then rang me the next day on the land line and said seven days down the phone.

I then retaliated by crawling along the floor with my hair dragged forward at him the next day, I’m asian so this was a great look for me.

Horror films never really scare me but awful films like The Road which feels like it could happen turn my stomach. Or films based on tragic real events.

There is one called 'The Lake' (I think). It's set in the Lake District - a nice couple take a camping holiday there, and they are taunted by local yobs...

It's low budget, and pretty plausible. I found it to be quite disturbing as a result of how plausible it was.

And yes, we have some primal fears - the dark, unexplained noises, vulnerability when alone etc. Good movies exploit this very well.

I draw a very clear distinction between movies like The Omen, or The Exorcist and those that are really just horrific gore and obscene graphic detail. For me, it's about the suspense, not the actual graphic detail (which I find totally unappealing).

At the scariest point, just imagine the director shouting "CUT! - thats lunch!" then all the actors go out to the food truck.

I don't watch them anymore. Last one I watched was Paranormal Activity. Even my husband was freaked out by that one.
I practically lay on top of him that night I was so scared

@Hyperion100

At the scariest point, just imagine the director shouting "CUT! - thats lunch!" then all the actors go out to the food truck.

As long as he doesn't shout that whilst the actor's holding a chainsaw to the other actor!

Yep that's me, I can't watch any horror without being freaked out for a long time. I do have morbid curiosity and look up the synopsis on Wikipedia even though I know that will freak me out too.

I'm also really affected by films about children in distress. I remember watching Spielberg's "AI" some 20 years ago - a little android boy abandoned by his human mother spending a literal eternity wishing he was a real boy just so she would love him, then got his wish granted for a single day. I cried myself to sleep for about a month and still well up if I think of it.

Sometimes, I can get the same spooked out feeling after watching a documentary about a serial killer etc. Same primal fears I think. I do like such documentaries, and I think it's a good sign they scare us.

@Maggiesfarm

I was exactly the same. I now don't watch horror films or read horror fiction, the same applies to anything too gory.

My fear of the dark disappeared when I had my first baby. I don't know why but was relieved; it has never returned. I still have plenty of other fears.

I was always afraid of being afraid and being frightened. I put this down to us holidaying Southern Ireland in my aunt & uncle's very isolated farmhouse. Peat fires, water from the well, no electricity, no indoor toilet.

Worst bit was at night, my cousins would tell ghost stories before bed-time (all were a few year's older than me). Then I had to go out in the pitch dark to the barn to have a wee. 😱😱😱

Anyway, this left me really scared of the dark. I couldn't watch a scary movie or anything that made me jump. My husband even had to come with me to the loo in the evenings as our staircase had a turn at the top so I couldn't see what was lurking at the top to 'get me'!

Right up to the birth of our son when I was 28 yrs old. Then it all changed dramatically and I had no more fear, I could go upstairs in the dark, watch anything, read scary books.

I loved The Grudge (2004)

@TheGumption

The Luther under the bed scene was horrific and definitely disturbed my sleep afterwards

OMG yes, that was one of the most disturbing things I've watched.

The Exorcism of Emily Rose is one of the scariest films I've seen.
It's just so thought provoking.

I've been watching Walking Dead. I put the bins out last night and found myself very scared when I opened my gate to find a neighbour having a crafty cigarette.

Very rarely, but the occasional film puts me on edge

I once woke dh to escort me to the loo…he left me there which really wasn’t helpful 😀