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

😱 Oh god, I'm at the part where they've turned around to drive back into the forest after the man jumped out of the window in the teenager's house. I am silently shouting, "Go home, no don't go back into the woods!" I was relieved the teens didn't attack them the first time after the stupid husband confronted them!
If dh, and I were on at a lake with a group of rowdy teens like those, we would have just moved on; it isn't worth it. I don't understand why they didn't, and now they're going back there. It would have put me right off the place. The lady has a lovely voice; it almost sounds like a voice over.
Why am I holding hope that the couple will leave/get away when I know they won't! Even if one of them survives, 🤞 I need some semblance of positivity to come out of the ending at least!

And why did they leave their camping stuff in an area they now know delinquents hang out in?!

Why is the lady not going for help?!! She could have gotten to the road by now and gotten a signal, she had the phone. She is standing watching, she can't fight them. This is the problem with horror films, they make me too irrate. 😂

@LiveinHarmony if the characters in horror films behaved sensibly there often wouldn't be any horror! They're not going to switch the light on, call for backup or leave that noise outside uninvestigated are they?!

I think we have a horror novice in our midst.

Of course, I agree. There is a grey area to this though isn't there. Some horrors are a lot more predictable/silly than others.

FWIW, I made it to the end of Eden Lake unscathed. It didn't affect me as much as I thought it would, as sickening as it was. Given the plot, it is what I expected.
I have seen just as disturbing films that have had a greater effect on me. It is highly subjective though.

No, quite the opposite actually. I'm a stickler for it being more unpredictable though.

It suffers from the same thing a lot of bad horror movies have…characters doing idiotic things to keep the plot moving.

People do stupid things in horror films.

"Why is she wandering around the woods in a baby doll nightie?" Said no horror aficionado ever. 😁

Michael Fassbender is such a talented actor, and I really wanted to like this film. It did have promising moments. It is very graphic, which is fine, but I didn't think the movie went anywhere. It seemed like a build up to something that never came, extreme violence for shock value with not much depth to the story. I'm not going to say it's terrible, but I think it had potential to be better.

What kind of horror do you like? I'm sure we can come up with some recommendations.

This is a bit ‘no true Scotsman’ imo. If you think a film is quite good, it can’t possibly be a horror. I don’t really see why gothic horror, folk horror etc can’t count as horror, it’s in the name.

The Banshee Chapter scared me terribly! Might watch it again😂

I love a good horror!
Recently found one on iplayer - Host
Was far better than expected and gave a good coupld of proper jump scares.

Host was fun!

There's a newish horror thriller with a creepy Hugh Grant - Heretic - that looks interesting.

@IHaveDefectedToTeamDog Yesssss, ive got it on my watchlist!

Me too. I love a psychological thriller and I can unimaginable Hugh Grant being good in the role.

People do stupid things in horror films

They do, but I also think it's easy to think you would behave a certain way in that situation when you don't really know.

I won't bore people with the ins and outs but (adult) DD and I stayed somewhere once where we were quite scared. People watching us on TV would have been shouting at us to just leave! But it wasn't that simple, it was late, we were in a foreign country, didn't know our way around, howling winds and rain! Plus you just think "I'm probably over reacting". So we stayed and barricaded ourselves in the bedroom that night 😂Of course it was all fine.

The amount of times in these movies, someone gets killed after they've escaped and they go back for a friend/partner. I watch it and think I'd just leave and save myself! But I can't know that for sure.

I always go and check out suspicious noises, as I've mostly been the only adult in the home. And I couldn't sleep if I didn't check! Again it's been fine but it's quite a natural thing to do.

Carrying a banana despite the fact that a massive kitchen knife was also on the counter top.

I hate horrors like Saw, Hostel and The Hills Have Eyes. I can't stand watching people be tortured.

I do love The Shining though, I know it's considered tame in horror terms though

Omg yes, like walking down steps - or even worse, a ladder - into an unlit basement, with nary a light bulb, torch or even flashlight on their phone... I mean, even if the bogeyman doesn't get them, they'll likely fall and break their neck and die that way... 😅

So so many:

Not finishing off the baddy and dropping the weapon by them
Leaving the door wide open when you go outside to investigate
Running upstairs instead of outside
Going into the basement with a candle
Tripping over grass
Reading the demon conjuring ancient script
Hiding under the bed
Opening the window when a vampire is on the loose
Not sticking to the path
Ignoring all warnings about the abandoned asylum
Not closing the beach

That is very true actually. I suppose it is easy to sit at home and judge when we are getting that third person perspective, and also not in that unthinkable situation. I do think some can be very far fetched though, and could be a lot better and infact be even more disturbing if a little less this way.
However, as you say do we really know how we would act? Adrenaline, as well as sheer terror, and fight or flight response would be in overdrive.
I remember hearing a noise downstairs a little while ago DH froze, I shouted at him "Well come with me than!" I then charged a head downstairs to find the source of the noise . If that was horror film, I would be a complete cliché, with people shouting, "What is that stupid woman doing, no weapon, stay upstairs, climb out of the window etc!" 😂

I can't remember which film it was, where a bunch of extremely dim youngsters (horror film standard) were wandering all over some woods to try to find a toilet so one of the lasses could pee... Of course she couldn't just frigging squat behind a tree while the others looked the other way. No, they all searched high and low until they eventually found the most disgusting, stinking shack that most self- respecting dogs would have refused to piss in, never mind a human. Needless to say, it didn't go well for her... 😅

I know in Wrong Turn the girl goes to pee in the most disgusting toilet I've ever seen. Much worse than behind a bush 🤣

I find it difficult to reconcile the idea that horror is not Art.

Art exists to provoke, to reflect, to question our place in the universe and our deepest desires and fears. Art depicts love, beauty and joy, yearning for the sublime - but must also address our deepest fears, the most base instincts, the terror of a sound in the night and the unknown monsters inside us, in others, in the family, society and the world - ultimately the fear and revulsion of death, decay and ending of consciousness.

Horror looks straight into the darkness. What could that sound be? What was in or happened to the child to create the near superhuman man? How do we see him or escape from him? Is it fighting alone or in joining together? How do we find protection from creatures larger, that cooperate in attacking humans, that look just like us or are completely alien in their biology, intent, reason? Why do we fear them so much? Why do some freeze, some run, some scream, some fight? Are we weakened by love or strengthened by it? Will men ever understand the fear of death that women have carried throughout existence, the pain, the blood, the terror that brings forth new life? Will we triumph over death with our medicine and guns and technology or are we as helpless as any huge martian in its three legged armour in the face of pestilence and disease or will an ability to cheat time through suspended animation be pointless due to what we find - or what finds us as we sleep? And if we were to cheat death, would we actually want to, or is the price of doing that too high?

If we're going towards folk or religious supernatural horror, is God or Faith or religious practices going to save us, or are we pointlessly crying out for help where a much older, a primal existence truly has power? Or is there something monstrous about the audience that wish to see these things?

A schlocky horror film looks at some of these questions, these fears, the fundamental existential terror, just as much as a a highly regarded novel or much vaunted portraiture. And for that, Horror is Art. It reflects us, gives our existence back to us and goes straight to the deepest terrors humans have known since before we had words to express them.

Definitely not that, this was years ago, mid 90s or thereabouts. It's clearly another horror film trope! 😅