To think horror films are horrible

[Somethingthecatdraggedin7]

I have never understood why people enjoy horror films.
By that I mean the genuine films of that genre not crime/action whatever which have violence in them.
I watched part of a horror film at a freind's place when I was much younger (late teens) and was completely freaked out and left my friend’s house. The film was so shockingly nasty that it took me years to block out the images.
If you enjoy horror, why do you like them? Is it a thrill akin to a rollercoaster for you?
I honestly don’t understand why people like watching torture etc.
YABU = Horror films are great fun and I can’t get enough
YANBU = Horror films are horrible and I avoid them

Get Out is 95 in the BFIs top 225 films of all time - The Shining is 88 , Psycho 31 …

I liked the Psycho prequel series too a few years back!

That's a relief, because Poe wasn't a novelist.

Screen handle duly noted. 😂

Exactly- the first film scared the hell out of me! I like lots of things that aren’t high art (RHONY!) I loved Cocaine Bear as well - it was ridiculous fun - like what you like x

I like a jump scare movies like the Woman in Black but gratuitous gore is too much. I once started watching the Human Centipede, and have had nightmares ever since (stopped after tan early graphic scene)

Christ - that was in response to another poster who asked me about Poe, Shelley and Lovecraft. I didn’t bring them up. And actually Poe did write a novel - a metafictional maritime novel called The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym, his best work by far.

My name is because my chubby cat is currently wearing a “pleasedonotfeedme” collar to stop her cadging treats from the neighbours.

Do you really think some works of art/cukture aren’t better than others? No-one on this thread really thinks Saw et al are great works of Western civilisation, or they wouldn’t be getting so het up.

We will be told Dave or Stormzy aren’t poets next

@pleasedonotfeedme I’ll ask again - which films DO you teach are great works of art?

What age did you watch jaws that you couldn't comprehend the difference between a bath and the ocean?

It was a one-off experimentation by a writer who excelled in the short-fiction/poetry genre and was known primarily for this, as well as his essays and criticism. That one aside into a longer work was lambasted for being derivative and even Poe himself called it a silly book. His best work, it absolutely was not - unless you're claiming length is the only consideration that matters here and that the short story was a less-rounded, inferior art form compared with the weightier novel. This is a common misconception. Short fiction is a separate genre with completely different origins from the novel-form - another question Poe wrote about compellingly given he was noted as amongst its first theorists.

As a lecturer - if you are a lecturer - it isn't your job to tell your students what is a great work of art and what isn't. It's to encourage them to develop an independent critique. Unless, of course, you fancy yourself as F R Leavis.

Well, some of the filmmakers I cover include Lang, Roy, Kurosawa, Deren, Pasolini, Bergman, Leger, Bunuel, Dulac , Beckett, Dali, Eisenstein, Brakhage, Coppola, Berkeley, Chabrol - everything from European modernism and surrealism to Hindi cinema, nouvelle vague, Soviet cinema, studio Hollywood, Japanese cinema and animation, Sixties and Seventies arthouse, Blaxploitation etc. etc.

I tend to teach films that hook in to other cultural phenomena of the time, like Surrealism, political civil rights movements or pop art, so you get a nice comparison across art, music, stage and film. It’s rare these days to teach a film-only course: most of mine are comparative, looking at film in context.

Ha! You’d be surprised. All of my students have extremely firm opinions about which books/films they think are better than others. As we all do. Otherwise courses in the arts would be pointless, wouldn’t they?

Have you actually read Pym? It’s not a silly book at all. It’s a clever, twisty, funny novel: much better than the Gothic short stories. You don’t seem to know much about Poe at all, and your post above has a slightly different writing style about it than your others — AI?

In theory I quite like jump scare type films (Scream etc) - I can enjoy watching them / the excitement of being a little scared, they don’t like me though and play on my mind at night / when alone in the house so I haven’t watched one in about 15 years.

Gore / torture films (Saw, Human Centipede, Wolf Creek etc) I would happily see banned. I don’t think there’s a need for such graphic sadistic violence and I don’t think becoming desensitised to that sort of thing is a good thing. I appreciate many will disagree but I think our society has gone too far on explicit TV / games both with violence and sex - it’s constantly looking for the next shock / pushing of boundaries where does it end?

I haven't heard of this, buy a brief synopsis shows it to be bloody disgusting, more of a sick porn type fantasy.

Now you really are being ridiculous.

No Japanese horror or Korean ? Just the usual suspects?

do you focus on sound, cinematography, etc?

I ask because some films you have dismissed, such as Psycho are seen as great examples of the use of sound and music?

I would suggest a series on Shudder called Horrors Greatest as a good starting point- you could widen your world view a bit?

Also you teach ‘blackspoitation’ and never touch on horror - not even Blacula?

I notice you’ve named directors and genres but not actual films

Ah my mistake about the AI — I just nipped on to Wikipedia to check and you got that stuff about Pym from there 😆 Maybe — read it instead?

If that's a Professor of Comparative Literature, I'm Elmer Fudd.

Like you Googled ‘pretentious great film makers’ 🤷‍♀️

No, there are plenty of much better films than any of these to look at. And surprisingly, students generally want to be taught something new that they can’t just watch themselves. They can watch The Ring or Korean horror or whatever in their spare time, but they aren’t going to know where to start with French surrealism or Soviet cinema, which is where I come in.

I’m not going to name actual films because I don’t want my courses being spotted on here by any of my students, come on!

I have read it, albeit many years ago. It was a tired, derivative of the usual maritime suspects like Coleridge and Shelley and was an ungaingly, bulging bag of prose without any of the craftsmanship of the shorter work. It was also riddled with errors whilst making claim to authenticity.

I have no intention of re-reading it. It's weaker than the rest of his output, including the criticism.

But you're a (cough) 'Professor' so will be aware that arguing as to whether a piece of literature is 'good' or 'bad' is an exercise in futility as this is entirely subjective. And from what I've seen I don't greatly rate your ability to 'analyse' literature.

@oakleaffy i've watched it. (human centipede)

It's awful and i wish i didn't have it in my head. I watched no.2 as well ! God help me😩

I have nothing to say in my defence except everyone else wanted to watch it - and it was the end of me being an 'i'm watching it because everyone else wants to' person.

I’m sure you could —Google— name two films and not out yourself!

im sure your course is repeated throughout the UK but it might be useful to know which uni to guide students —away—

I hate that strike out never works in my phone- now I don’t look nearly as big or clever - but I only have one degree (and a post grad) so I’m obviously not bright or anything

Imagine going through your life analysing everything and dismissing that you deem not great art it must be exhausting and dull , I prefer trying everything and having eclectic taste but I will always love horror and sci-fi