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

I agree OP. I find them quite disturbing and haven’t watched one in 15+ years. I would read a horror book and enjoy that though

My brother and I were terrified by TV Black Beauty - {the kids version on Saturdays} where a horse was ridden by a man in a cloak and a skeleton mask through a graveyard.

It scared the crap out of us.

There’s a wide array of horror movie. Scream isn’t Psycho which isn’t Saw which isn’t The night of the living dead. Lumping the whole genre as bad because one freaked you out is daft.

I love horror movies. I prefer more psychological horror, but will watch other kinds too. The more gore fest ones are not for me, but the pull is that people like to be scared but safe. It’s that simple.

The thing that sticks me most as being terrifying from childhood was The Dungeons and Dragons cartoon movie where a character gets turned into an old lady. It scared the shit out of me. Aliens and terminator? Great. I read Stephen king at 10, it was fine. But that cartoon…

I love a good ‘jump scare’ type horror film, but I hate anything that involves torture type stuff.

I really hated ‘Seven’ for example, and would never watch it again.

I’m with you Op, I don’t see the appeal at all. I’m far too sensitive and get intrusive thoughts after them. I vomited as a child after I watched Jaws.i love emotional, sad films though.

I love them though not pure slasher and torture.

My favourite if pushed is The Descent.

One to consider is Teeth also 30 Days of Night, Dog Soldiers, The Thing, Shutter and The Ring.

When it comes to the question am I a risk taker, well not now in late fifties as my back has an issue but when young I rode motorbikes, climbed trees and did scrambling which is not mountaineering but hiking up steep rock faces hands required, tombstoning, jumping off sea walls in to the sea so yes guess I was quite risky.

You do you, Op. And leave the horror for the rest of us. 😁 I personally love 'em. I do wish there were more of the psychological type films out there than straight up torture/gore.

I’m hopeless with horror as it stays in my mind, particularly gore etc

But I like the idea of it I just can’t watch intense stuff, I wish it wasn’t so. So in reality I stick to Get Out or The Mist as the edge of where I can go.

I pretty much 98% of the time watch horror films or play horror games.

I don't like rollercoasters.

People like what they like. If someone asks me to watch some sort of reality shite then they're asking me to take the piss out of it, I mean how could I not want to watch what they enjoy right? . I wouldn't ask them to watch a horror film if I know they don't like them.

Ooh, you must have been a Point Horror fan @MightAsWellBeGretel . I still have a large collection of them, The Fever was always my favourite, also Funhouse.
Oh and there was a short series (maybe 8 books) called The Power which I absolutely loved, not PH but very enjoyable. Or the SVH 'Love and Death in London' miniseries. Yes I had tragic taste in 90s YA novels. And yes, I still occasionally read them, completely without shame 😂

Dog Soldiers is brilliant! I love a creature feature - I'm a massive fan of anything featuring sharks or crocodiles.

I love supernatural/ghost story/zombie/alien/creature horrors but like many others have said, not so keen on the gratuitous torture stuff - years ago a friend persuaded me to go to see Wolf Creek at the cinema and I spent most of it like this 🫣

I used to like them.
Me and my mates used to be able to get into our local cinema in West London and see the X and XX (that old) films when we were way underage.

We got in and saw The Thing when i was about 11. That had me almost upside down in my seat with terror. Saw Videodrone around the same time i think. Then came Hell Raiser. The first Evil Dead.

Saw Alien (my favourite film ever) when i was 10.

These days i think so many films are skewed towards being gorefests only though. I can't watch it.

A couple of weeks ago DH and i put on the newest Terrifier film with that clown. DH was coping but I had to turn it off after the first 15 mins! The ones in the past were horrible but watchable but this damn film was just relentless nasty.

You’re not wrong, OP. I hate them. There are so many real horrors in the world that I don’t remotely see the point in watching nasty made-up ones. Decided in my teen years they were not for me.

I also find them juvenile and exploitative: there are so many wonderful pieces of great art out there to watch, read or listen to, that I don’t want to waste my time by watching crappy movies designed to make money by appealing to our lowest instincts.

I think we turned off Wolf Creek as well thinking about it. DH broke first with that one.

Years ago i turned off Hell Raiser II
The bit when they put the mad guy on the mattress and gave him a razor blade ...

I just said nope and turned it off.

Fun fact with that one - 2 seconds after saying i wouldn't have that on in the house our sliding patio doors shattered into millions of pieces! 😮Wooooo lol

It’s the jump scares and the suspense that make a good horror. I use to love all horror but the ghostly ones always keep me awake and I need my sleep too much these days. The slasher type ones like scream aren’t scary because they are so silly but are good for jumps

The Wolf creeks are brilliant films/series. John Jarratt is excellent, I love watching him work. Just wouldn't be wolf creek without him.

Theres another one coming. Can't wait me

Yeah that's the one! Very scary

You don’t have to like horror films, but to dismiss an entire genre as unequivocally juvenile, exploitative, crappy and ‘designed to make money by appealing to our lowest instincts’ is just ignorant and ill-informed. It’s no less valid or artistic than any other genre. Any film scholar will tell you that horror has produced some incredibly powerful, meaningful, artistic, multilayered and influential films that are acknowledged as cinematic masterpieces.

In every genre there’s some incredible film-making and some crappy, exploitative film-making. That applies to horror as much as it does to romance, adventure, science-fiction or anything else. There are many, many cheap shitty romantic weepies out there, but there’s also incredible pieces of art like Brief Encounter and Casablanca. Same applies to horror.

It’s absolutely fine if a genre isn’t appealing to you, but “I don’t like this thing” and “This thing is bad” are not the same.

Horror is my favourite genre of entertainment whether films, shows or books!

There are so many subgenres there - you can have

Creature Features
Zombies
Ghosts
Slashers
Supernatural/religious
Fate
Medical/body horror
Sci-fi horror
Haunted houses
Possession
Lost souls
Magical realism
Historical
War/conflict based
Apocalyptic
Magical
Space based

Then they can be bloody, suspenseful, comedic, shocking, gross-out, deeply misogynistic, feminist, heroic - there are so many types and subtypes and styles that there's a good chance there's something that isn't so terrifying to watch.

Spooky, suspenseful horror, or with monsters, is fine. Anything with torture or too much graphic violence and gore I just can’t watch.

I’d much rather watch a classic Hammer horror than a weepy sentimental film, I’ve always had a huge dislike of anything remotely soppy.

I do like a horror and the build up of ooo what's going to happen. Though annoys me when they just walk around in the dark!!

Films like Saw..I did like the first one for the concept and so low budget yet effective but after the first few it just became a bit dumb and over the top. Final Destination easy watch and how these 'accidents' come together. Would say prefer ghost ones over murder just because the atmosphere they create.

YANBU OP - I can’t bear them, particularly the torture porn variety. I read a description of a scene in Wolf Creek that has haunted me ever since - can’t imagine actually wanting to watch something so sadistic. I’ve become even more anti since having my DD for some reason - I think once you’re a parent you can’t help imagining how you’d react if the victim was your child.

I teach film studies and I still stand by my comments - most of the “good” films people say are horror are actually thrillers, or they’re otherwise schlocky genre movies but have longevity and fame which people mistake for greatness.

Horror as a genre has rarely produced anything great: there might be better or worse examples of it as a genre, but it’s just like when people say Stephen King is a great writer. He isn’t: he’s just good at writing genre fiction and very successful at it. Doesn’t make the books/films great art, just good at being popular generic moneymakers. He’s no James Joyce or George Eliot. Similarly horror films are more overhyped than anything else. The Shining? Carrie? The Exorcist? Silence of the Lambs? All massively schlocky and overrated.