I do read horror occasionally (usually as a review assignment), but I’ve never been a fan. Most horror is depressingly predictable and I don’t think anyone has ever come close to topping Theodore Sturgeon’s “It,” which is the only story that really scared me. But that was because Sturgeon did something that I’ve never seen repeated: he created a monster that was completely unpredictable. “It” was not evil, but could do anything to you; what made it work has horror was that when a character is attacked you have no idea what would happen.
I haven’t seen another horror story that even tried to do that. Nearly all are some variation of Evil Creature Does Horrible Things. I saw that before, thank you and the more and more outre versions of what is a Horrible Thing just gets more and more stupid.
I’ve enjoyed horror stories for almost 30 years. Although my interests have turned more towards “serious” literature, I’ve never completely stopped reading horror books or watching horror movies. I’ve never even wanted to, either.
The fact that I now have two daughters has changed my attitude somewhat, though. I don’t feel confortable when children are involved anymore but that’s all. I haven’t spurned the genre and I still enjoy it. I’ve always been more into supernatural horror by far so perhaps that helps. It’s clearly fiction and nothing else. I’ve always found serial killers stuff kind of boring. Now that I’m a dad, I care even less for that kind of stuff.
Regarding Creepypasta and the controversy surrounding it, I don’t blame that site for what happened, like I’ve never blamed books, films and video games for violence in the real world. The sickos may find “inspiration” for their crimes in these works but I think that it would be naive to claim that without this material, they would have remained nice, law-abiding people. Sooner or later, they would have let their criminal instincts loose IMHO.
As for the site itself, it’s definitely a mixed bag. Some stories are great, a lot of them are among the lamest that I’ve ever read (and poorly written, too).
Yeah, that’s how I would have to vote, too. But, by the poll options. I assume he doesn’t really want answers from people who never liked them.
I do find the effect of them to be interesting, being both insanely unrealistic and yet still somehow creepy, but I just don’t find that creepy feeling to be fun. The only time I ever really enjoyed a creepypasta was when it was made into an April Fools joke. And the reason I enjoyed it was that it was at first realistic, and then became humorous in the insanity. If I’d have felt creeped out, it would not have been for me.
I also am surprised that people think creepy and scary are the same feeling. Ditto for creepy and macabre. Creepy is missing the adrenaline of the first and gross out factor of the second.
I don’t particularly care for the horror genre (other than Lovecraft and associates), but I think it’s really stupid for someone to stop enjoying an entire genre because somebody did something bad because (according to them) they read that genre.