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AIBU?

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Original poster

To be miffed that I can't watch horror films anymore

61 replies

Gifgirl · 02/10/2023 16:52

I used to absolutely LOVE horror films but now I am old and weary (43) and living alone, I just can't do it.

Went to see the new Saw movie with a friend yesterday and spent most of my time hidden in his armpit.

*SOB"

OP posts:
cushioncovers · 02/10/2023 19:04

Me too and I also can't go on any fairground rides, water slides or wear heels. It's called getting older 😁

Funkyslippers · 02/10/2023 19:10

YABU for calling yourself old at 43.....

Comeoncarol · 02/10/2023 19:23

I still have nightmares when my DH bought home Texas chainsaw massacre from our local DVD shop. (20 years ago).
Why would anyone enjoy that film. Spent most of the film with a pillow over my face. Awful.

PolitePoltergeist · 02/10/2023 19:32

I love anything spooky and I’m fine when I watch it

…. and then I go to bed 👀

😂😂😂

PolitePoltergeist · 02/10/2023 19:33

But OMG I have to watch in on a smaller screen, somewhere I feel cosy

no way could I watch it in a cinema!

PolitePoltergeist · 02/10/2023 19:36

And don’t you think it depends on the type of film? Because some people are fine with some thing and not others. Personally for me:

Something jumpy/more psychological- fine.

something gory - so so (depends on how bad) but not really my sort of thing anyway

something about zombies - NOPE NOPE NOOOOO

Original poster
Gifgirl · 03/10/2023 11:39

Oh, I was never into zombie movies anyway. Deffo not my thing!

OP posts:
Alltheyearround · 03/10/2023 11:50

Never been able to watch anything like this - it just takes up residence in my head. I realised this even as a teen so never watched the Elm Street films which were all the rage at the time.

I do love gothic scary stories though. Wakenhurst. Andrew Michael Hurley has a series on iplayer at the moment based around a fictional place (Barrowbeck) over time.

I read his book The Loney last Halloween.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m001dwrk

Voices in the Valley - 2: A Strange Case - BBC Sounds

Reece Shearsmith reads the next in a series of ten chilling strange tales.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m001dwrk

Planesmistakenforstars · 03/10/2023 11:50

I love them more than ever. I used to only really love graphic gore, but I love creepy scares and psychological horror as well as that now.

Alltheyearround · 03/10/2023 11:54

And M.R James

Deeply creepy. Typically rational man of science/religion type comes to grief - demons, weird ancient evil or magic. I read 'Lost Hearts' as a young teen and it made me scared to go to the loo (next to bath) in the night.

Gladly, singing BonJovi Livin on a prayer inside my head loudly helped to mitigate having to go for a wee at 2 am.

Maybe you just need to find an alternative horror fix OP?

wildwestpioneer · 03/10/2023 11:55

OP you are me! In my 20s and early 30s I loved a good horror movie. I'd happily be all alone in my house and watch them in the dark. But since having children. I absolutely hate them, they scared the shit out of me and I spend the entire time hiding behind a cushion..

Mountaineer0009 · 03/10/2023 11:57

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JanglingJack · 03/10/2023 11:57

squareyedannie · 02/10/2023 19:02

I'm the opposite. I love Horror but seem to have become immune.
The last time I was creeped out was watching Blair Witch in the cinema. I think because it was so different from anything else at the time.

I feel I've become immune too.

Blair Witch was so boring, I do believe it was hype. Tried to watch it a couple of years back with the friend I saw it with originally - still boring!

I love the old classics, Omen, Exorcist, Shining (new one is rubbish).

I only recently got in to the Saw films and think they're brilliant so I feel for you @Gifgirl . Are you suffering from anxiety at the mo or just had a baby or something. Sometimes films scare me if I start thinking what if that was my kid, my (DH - don't have one) etc

squareyedannie · 03/10/2023 12:07

@JanglingJack It left me feeling uneasy more than scared, Omen is one of my comfort films. Omen 3 is hilarious though.

JanglingJack · 03/10/2023 12:36

squareyedannie · 03/10/2023 12:07

@JanglingJack It left me feeling uneasy more than scared, Omen is one of my comfort films. Omen 3 is hilarious though.

I think after the hype, we went expecting to be terrified. Every nightfall I was - tonight's the night!! Oh well horses for courses. I haven't haven't seen Omen 3 - I'm not sure I'll bother searching for it 🤣

GalileoHumpkins · 03/10/2023 12:51

I find the older I get the less horror movies bother me.

IHeartGeneHunt · 03/10/2023 12:51

Oh I love horror- I watch horror films every night to wind down before bed! I don't find them scary.

DRS1970 · 03/10/2023 12:54

I too can't handle horror now I am older. I used to watch loads, but my nerves just can't handle the suspense and shocks anymore. It just takes the pleasure out of watching.

RonObvious · 03/10/2023 12:54

ShatParp · 02/10/2023 17:23

YANBU OP! I haven't been able to watch horror films since having kids for some weird reason and I used to LOVE it! I read an article recently about how watching something scary is good for mental health funnily enough!

Same here, although I've been able to watch them a little more as the kids have got older. Certain films are absolute no-gos now though - don't mind anything supernatural, but the random brutal killing type ones are definitely off the table. I just watch Dead Meat's Kill Count on YouTube, so that I know what happens in them, but don't have to actually sit through them. (Which is probably what I will do for Saw X).

StanleyGoodspeed · 03/10/2023 12:55

Malignant really creeped me out

KakiFruit · 03/10/2023 12:56

Gifgirl · 02/10/2023 16:54

To be fair it was very cleverly written but.. just... ew...

Show quote history

Well that makes a change from the last 57 Saw movies!

Original poster
Gifgirl · 03/10/2023 15:42

JanglingJack · 03/10/2023 11:57

I feel I've become immune too.

Blair Witch was so boring, I do believe it was hype. Tried to watch it a couple of years back with the friend I saw it with originally - still boring!

I love the old classics, Omen, Exorcist, Shining (new one is rubbish).

I only recently got in to the Saw films and think they're brilliant so I feel for you @Gifgirl . Are you suffering from anxiety at the mo or just had a baby or something. Sometimes films scare me if I start thinking what if that was my kid, my (DH - don't have one) etc

Show quote history

Yep, always suffering with anxiety.

OP posts:
Normalsizedsalad · 03/10/2023 16:00

It's not you! It's them.

We were just yesterday talking about it with DH. I said no way would I go see new Saw now. But I bloody love horrors. Not organs being thrown around horrors anymore though. I think some went just unnecessarily too far.

We just rewatched Conjuring. Might rewatch some King's stuff too. East Asia does mind fucking horrors

EmpressSoleil · 03/10/2023 16:27

I find myself being less scared the older I get. In my 20's I still used to check under my bed every night to make sure no one was hiding there 😂
I can watch anything now but am bored of a lot of horror. I recently enjoyed "Accused" on netflix. They took a well used scenario and did something different with it. I found it quite tense.

billyt · 03/10/2023 16:58

I remember as a teenager going to see the original Exorcist with a friend one afternoon. (giving my age away Grin )

we were the only ones eating hotdogs ....