In the other thread, Dopers say that watching the movie Psycho made them apprehensive in the shower and novels by Stephen King made them afraid of clowns, sewer pits, and closets with the door ajar.
I’m no stranger to these kind of fears. Yet I never enjoyed that kind of fears. I don’t like to see horror movies because I know I will be scared in the dark for weeks afterwards. reading is different, somehow that doesn’t hit me as hard. Still, I like Kings fantasy books better then his horror books.
And you? Do you like being spooked by horror for days/weeks/months afterward?
I like spooky, and suspense, and like being scared, on two plot points: I need it to have some kind of resolution, (doesn’t have to be happy) and I don’t. like. gore.
Horror movies? I love them, but I find them more comical than terrifying. When I was a kid my father carefully and explicitly explained movie special effects to me (so I wouldn’t be scared), so now whenever I see a gory movie all I see are the special effects, plus I have a very high suspension-of-disbelief threshold to begin with.
Somewhere between the 2nd and 3rd answers. I generally no longer seek out those kinds of movies, because I generally do not like being scared. (And so many of those movies are just plain dumb.)
I love horror, and it has caused me to change behaviors. However, at the time I change the behavior (i.e., pulling my foot back under the covers so the monster under the bed can’t get me), I’m not frightened…it’s sort of a superstitious feeling, like when you pick up a penny for luck.
I once scared the crap out of myself by thinking about something I’d read. I was on a camping trip, woke up in the middle of the night in the dark and silence, and thought it would be fun to be a little scared…it got way out of control! I didn’t enjoy it in the moment, but the next day, I felt pretty impressed at having created such an effect on myself (with help from Shirley Jackson).
I’m the only one who both gets and enjoys the ‘(don’t!) look over your shoulder’ thing for days after watching a good horror flick, so far? (And it’s always movies. I like horror books and comics, too, but they never give me a good lasting scare, if they give me one at all.)
Same here. I absolutely cannot stand surprise horror, where shit jumps out at you. I won’t go to haunted houses or watch certain horror movies. I in fact have a phobia of balloons - I don’t like knowing that they can make a loud noise at any moment and I won’t know it’s coming.
So I can’t stand the horror genre and it does indeed scare the poop out of me, but it’s not like I can’t get over it.
I don’t watch much horror because it’s not scary. It’s startling. Two different things.
And it’s ridiculously easy to startle an audience.
Establish a threat.
Show a character in a location where the threat exists.
Make the soundtrack very quiet.
Have something jump out at the character while the soundtrack blares a loud note or chord.
(Variation on #4 – it turns out to be the cat).
In any case, it’s just cheap manipulation. Nowadays, there’s also an escalation of blood and gore, so that #2 would show some gory scenes, and the aftermath will have plenty of ichor.
It’s also too predictable. The bad guy is always EEEEEEVILLLLLLLLLLLEE! It’s rare that there’s any motivation other than being bad. That makes for uninteresting characters. I much prefer a villain who is actually trying to do good for others, or at least doesn’t revel in his own badness.
I don’t mind literary horror, since it can avoid the predictability of film by fleshing out a character more, but I don’t seek it out.
Same for me. I don’t enjoy it at all. While I’m occasionally able to enjoy movies that are spooky because I think other aspects of them are interesting, feeling scared holds no appeal for me whatsoever. Since I also hate gore and violence, I watch almost nothing that even might be a horror movie.
I find it extremely unpleasant. Sometimes I watch a scary movie because I really want to see the movie - I always regret it because I have very bad nights afterwards.
That['s why I like mindfucks better than gore or the Cat Scare. Minor soiler re: the Shining The Shining is one of my favorite books but I really think they fucked up the movie. The book…well, there was a paranormal house, but the question really was - how much of the evil came from Jack’s own mind? That question haunted me, because people snap and go crazy like that all the time in real life. You hear about it every day!
I don’t watch Horror films, as I don’t like jump scares, and otherwise find the whole setup to be annoyingly structured. While I don’t watch slasher films because they’re lame, gratuitous, and badly acted.