Horror Movies
In honor of Friday the 13th, here is a festive discussion of my experience with horror movies.
The first horror movie I ever watched was The Blair Witch Project, which some friends and I watched a few years ago on the night before Halloween. I made it through the first quarter or so with no difficulty, but as soon as the movie got dark and spooky things started happening, I respectfully declined by hiding under a blanket, plugging my ears, and only emerged when it was day again (which wasn't very often). Due to my actions, I missed the majority of the plot and only heard the muffled screams from the movie and the occasional "eughuughshj"'s from my friends.
But just because I didn't want to actually watch the movie doesn't mean I didn't want to know what happened. So as soon as the movie was over and we all went home, I googled The Blair Witch Project and read the entire plot on Wikipedia (it's like third-hand experience, but this has proved to be an extremely effective, highly recommended method that I have used time and time again over the years).
The next one was Birds by Alfred Hitchcock. Going into it, I was like, "How can this possibly be scary, it's just birds", but for some reason, as I was watching it, I became so incredibly disturbed that I just left like halfway through the movie. I remember almost nothing about this movie, so I can't tell you what made me so concerned, but it must have been something really alarming. I didn't even look this one up on Wikipedia.
My third horror movie was another Hitchcock film, except this time it was Psycho. This one wasn't too traumatic-- I made it all the way through with very few grievances-- but it may have been because I was accompanied by several, quite rowdy people, so there were many issues that demanded attention away from the scariness of the movie (one of them involving a lone shoe tied to the edge of the balcony where we were all seated).
This summer, we watched the first (and only) horror movie I liked, which was Get Out, a movie directed by Jordan Peele, who we (a group of friends and I) knew from his comedy show Key and Peele. Unsurprisingly (considering how good Key and Peele is), Get Out was absolutely amazing-- it was so eerie and suspenseful and terrifying, and it achieved all of these things without using the crutch of excessive gore and jumpscares, which I feel like most other horror movies resort to. It also had this insane twist at the end that none of us saw coming.
Invigorated by the success of Get Out, we also decided to watch Southbound, a collection of short horror stories. Based on the trailer, it looked like it wasn't going to be especially violent, and it seemed more creepy than scary (which were the things we liked so much about Get Out), but WOW were we wrong. The whole movie, every single short story, was just straight up nasty. I won't go into the details, but every bit of violence in it was unnecessary and added nothing positive to the movie.
So basically, out of the five horror movies I've watched, I've only liked one of them. I'm aware that this is a very, very small sample of the genre, but it from what I've seen and heard, too many rely on clichés and overcompensate gore for plot. I guess I'll just stick to reading about them on Wikipedia.
I feel for you. I've been wanting to watch IT for the past couple of weeks or so, but I can't bring myself too. The line between being a lover of good movies and someone who is so easily terrified is a hard one to walk sometimes. And while watching it with friends makes the horror aspect easier, I personally hate watching really good movies with friends because I wanna be fully immersed on my own. That aside, I don't think you should dismiss them completely. Though most, I'll grant you, are recycled BS, there are some truly artful horror movies that subvert and play with the genre in some really nice ways: The Shining, Babadook, to name a few. Also, the bad ones aren't completely worthless either, they're fun to watch with friends and laugh at. And since they're such trash, the scares won't be as bad because you'll be too busy mocking them.
ReplyDeleteThis is something that I have thought about before myself. As far as horror movies go, I have divided them into two categories: movies that aim to scare you, and movies that aim to disturb you. The scare-oriented movies are often very easy to take, and in my opinion much harder to make. You have to build up suspense, and keep the plot moving along without ever making the viewer get too comfortable. These are the better of the two, as well, in my opinion. The other type are much easier to make, in my opinion. You don't aim to make the viewer scared per se, you just make them go like "ew that is so disgusting why did I even want to watch this? Ugh now I feel icky inside." There is a subtle difference between feeling scared and disturbed, and it is one that most viewers to not notice, which is capitalized on by filmmakers all the time. You just make a movie with people getting their intestines ripped out and fed to them or something, and you've got the second type of movie. They now feel disturbed, but can't tell the difference between what they're feeling and actual fear. It's a lazy tactic that is used a lot in horror movies. However, if you can get your hands on a genuinely good horror movie, you are in for a great experience, in my humble opinion.
ReplyDeleteI dropped my 14-year-old son and his buddy off to see "IT" last night (Friday the 13th!), after first vouching for them to get into the R-rated film (the ticket guy at the Savoy didn't seem to care much). I was a little worried he wouldn't be able to sleep last night, but when he came home he mainly talked about how funny the movie was, how much he liked the dialogue among the group of kids. It's definitely easier to watch a horror movie in a crowd of friends--when I was a kid, we used to watch them in large groups, and we'd be talking throughout the whole thing, cracking jokes and making fun of the dialogue and predicting who was going to be killed next, in what is now clearly visible as an effort to shield ourselves from any real anxiety or fear. No one wanted to admit to being scared, and it was an instructive experience in cultural masculinity--you had to put up a clear front of being unimpressed, while inside you might be getting deeply freaked out and uneasy with all the violence and terror.
ReplyDeleteA couple weeks ago, I watched "IT' with a two of my friends. At first I was hesitant to go watch the film since I thought I'd have nightmares that would prevent me from having a good night sleep. I classified all horror films as rather gory, disturbing, and terrifying. However, after I decided to watch a couple trailers and short clips, I was hooked by the plot and the group of kids. I had to see it! After watching "IT", in my opinion,this movie was able to build the plot & suspense perfectly. The camaraderie among the kids and deepness of each individual character was what made the film pop. Surprisingly, "IT" was also kind of funny at times. However, due to the rarity of horror films with qualities like these, I probably won't be seeing another one anytime soon.
ReplyDeleteP.S. : If you want to watch an R-rated film (and are under the age of 17), DON'T go to the AMC Champaign 13 theater because they won't let you buy tickets unless your parents vouch for you. Instead, go to Savoy 16. The ticket guys there couldn't care less about your age. My friends and I only learned this lesson that day and not knowing this sooner led to a rather unfortunate event...
Horror movies have always been my worst enemy. I either find them too scary to watch alone, or too cheesy to sit through. I'm glad that you found at least 1 of your experiences enjoyable, because I have yet to watch a horror movie that I didn't dislike. I really dislike the type of horror movie that doesn't rely on actual fear, but instead uses jump scares to try to convince the viewer that they have been frightened by the movie, rather than by natural human response.
ReplyDeleteI generally try to avoid things that scare me or make my heart rate faster: horror movies, roller coasters, running. I’ve only seen one horror movie, Ouija, and it wasn’t scary at all. That was a relief but also kind of disappointing at the same time. I don’t know if I’d ever be satisfied with the experience, because if it wasn’t scary I’d feel like I missed the point and if it was scary I'd definitely be terrified. But recently, for some reason, I’ve really been wanting to go see a horror movie. I saw a trailer for a murder mystery, Murder on the Orient Express, and it looked interesting. I don’t know if it counts as a horror movie, but it might be the right amount of scariness for me.
ReplyDeleteThe Blair Witch Project is a pretty scary movie. For me it scared me not when I watched it, as I wasn't very terrified as opposed to jump scare films like The Conjuring, but it was only after the ending sunk in and I began to contemplate the plot in my bed when everyone else in the house was asleep that I started to freak myself out. I definitely credit that movie for making me want to never go hiking or overnight camping EVER. I have wanted to watch Birds so upon reading this post maybe I will. I would recommend It Follows, The Shining and Sinister if you're looking for a unique horror movies that are also pretty suspenseful and scary. If I had to pick one though I'd definitely choose The Shining since it's just amazing in every aspect.
ReplyDeleteI really liked how descriptive your post was and how you talked about looking up the plot on Wikipedia after you had watched the movie, because you had missed most of the plot. I agree that horror movies usually resort to jump scares and gore, but the really good ones are more creepy and have an eerie feel. Great post!
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