What is the attraction of weepy movies anyway??

[Nightynight]

cant post on the other thread, because I hate weepy movies. Its horrid when something sad happens in real life, so why on earth do you want to watch sad things on films? Am completely baffled. Would a sobbing one like to clarify this please?

oh come on someone, please explain, are you all too busy snuffling into your hankies?

oh come on someone, please explain, are you all too busy snuffling into your hankies?

Was going to say that I find weepy movies cathartic, but then realised I'm not sure what cathartic means.

I think that it might be a little bit like rubber necking at a road accident. I have such an uncomplicated life, crying my eyes out at a movie is just a way of experiencing a strong emotion that isn't going to have any long term affect (effect?...too late to check dictionary) on me.

I explain scary things to ds1 that way - people watch scary movies because they want to experience what it's like to feel scared but then know that the scary thing isn't real. Not true - I can't watch scary movies because I'm scared afterwards as well. I am a very young 38 yr old!

ah, thank you js! that sheds a bit of light. I spent 10 years suffering from depression when I was younger, and have had my fill of strong, sad emotions. I guess thats why

Typed the following and then wondered whether I should but will post anyway...

I could still be crying at my mum's graveside if my sisters hadn't physically pulled me away. That was 19 years ago. Watching weepy movies, it's nice to cry and it not actually hurt.

I'm not a big fan of weepy movies myself...tend to feel that live can be crap enough without wanting to deliberately watch it...yes some people do find them cathartic...
I used to love a good horror ( proper scary horror not scream crap) but since ds was born they actually scare me where as before I was never scared by them, only intrigued/interested etc etc

Isn't crying supposed to be a release?

A good old weepy movie can be an excuse to release a bit of pent up stress/sadness.

Sometimes I need a really good cry - it is cathartic, lets all sad hormones out through the tears, I once read - but I'm feeling uptight and can't do it. If I don't want to dwell on the reasons for my own sadness, I'm happy to use a weepy movie to do it.
I don't watch them more than once every couple of years and there are types of weepy that I won't watch - ones where people are in irrevocably awful/traumatic/poignant circumstances etc - but I quite like ones that are oddly uplifting despite the sadness.