On Horror.....

[said_scarlett]

As most everyone knows at this point, I write horror. In a semi-professional capacity, as I have had a handful of horror-themed stories published in small print magazines. Nothing big, but I read a lot of horror, I watch a lot of horror, and I play a lot of horror. And I research it.

I subscribe to a few newsletters and the like, mostly filled with reviews and articles and a few essays. And a recent essay I read got me to thinking. And as it's eleven o'clock at night and it's horrifically stormy out, my mind has begun to wander and has spit up this post.

The essay was on the evolution of entertainment horror. Interesting enough read, but one thing stuck out to me.

"...what Lovecraft and Poe and the other fathers of horror did was scary at the time, but not in modern day..."

This gave me pause. I thought back to all the older horror stories I've read, and wondered why the themes and monsters and situations wouldn't be frightening today.

Now, admittedly, maybe the way in which they were written wouldn't be quite as frightening today as it was when first written, but that doesn't mean that what they wrote isn't still scary. Most of the staples that those forefathers of horror laid down are alive and well today, and still used to scare the bejeezus out of people. Everything from the supernatural - ghosts and monsters and the like - to the situational - being buried alive, being trapped in a horrific alternate reality - all are still used in modern day horror.

And when attempts to try something nice and new crop up - Sam Raimi, I'm looking at you* - often they just don't really work.

I am of the mind, however, that it isn't necessarily the thing that is scary. It's the way in which it's presented. Atmosphere is integral to horror. Which is why I have an issue with a lot of modern horror movies - it's all gore and slashing and very little mood. Very little subtlety. It kind of reminds me of a strip Penny Arcade did, where it boiled down to Survival Horror = Monster Jumps Through A Window. And going back to what I mentioned in my above paragraph, recent attempts at creeping, subtle terror have fallen somewhat flat.

I find it in a great deal of horror novels and stories, too. Even my greatest influence and admiration, Stephen King himself, is guilty of this. Hell, I'm guilty of it, as anyone in damned can tell you. But is this because of the evolution of the genre, or the evolution of the audience?

Are we all so jaded and used to being bombarded by visual images that it's the only thing that gets through to us? Are we so used to the horrible and horrific in modern day life, that only gruesome death and dismemberment frighten us? Or has everything else really been played out, so ingrained into us that it's more stale than scary? There are dozens of theories, invoking everything from science to evolution to desensitization. And still, I wonder.

So what scares you? What's the scariest thing you've ever read, seen, played, heard? Share, and maybe shed a little light on my wonderings.

______________________________________________

*I'm referring to the movie 'The Messengers', which ended up some bizarre crossover between Silent Hill and John Steinbeck.

Comments

[katsu]

The scariest things I've ever encountered are the Fatal Frame games. They scare the crap out of me; and the thing is, those games are almost entirely atmosphere. It's the dread preceding a ghost showing up, not the ghost itself.

But I also don't like most modern American horror movies. There's too much gross out stuff, or things jumping out and that's it. I'm a wuss about horror, but it's only the very atmospheric stuff that gets me. And as for books... I can't really read horror books any more because what I imagine from them scares me so much.

[theladyfeylene.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I agree with the games being entirely atmosphere. They didn't scare me so much as they... creep me out? I guess that would be the best word. I'm all tingly with anticipation and adrenaline when I'm playing them. But after I'm done, the feeling doesn't linger. Beautiful games.

Yeah, that's how I am. I prefer the Asian horror movies, honestly. Much creepier, much more with the classic horror there.

[simmysim.livejournal.com]

I think the fictional thing that's scared me the most on every level was an old camping story I'm sure you've heard: Three girls camping and they think they hear someone outside their tent, so the brave one of them says she'll go check it out. The two girls wait for an hour and then they start hearing this noise slowly moving toward their tent, scrape, scrape, draaaaag, over and and over again. They're both terrified and huddle together and then fall asleep, and when they wake up in the morning, the discover their friend dead outside the tent, her hips a bloody stump, she was trying to drag herself to help. :\

I hate stories of disfigurement, of mutations. It horrifies me on a very basic level. The Hills Have Eyes? The commercials gave me a sick feeling. One time my friends made me watch House of 1000 Corpses, and what freaked me out the most from that movie was him. :( taking the body of that one guy and gh.fhjksgfs making that mermaid thing. Augh gad. Also, for a while I had this reoccurring nightmare about this like, King person, who had two young cousins who he didn't want to inherit the throne so he had his servants do something about them, so they. Sliced them up and and they put on this performance for the king where their hearts and lungs and heads had been attached to the inside of a cow, so they were stuck inside it forever and that probably just sounds weird, but I woke up crying from it once. D:

Anyway, writing horror is a noble and difficult pursuit in my eyes so I tried to be thorough. :D

*ninja-loves your icon*

[regann]

ELEANOR AND THE BABY PENGUIN. <3

[theladyfeylene.livejournal.com]

I've actually heard a different version of that urban legend! It's three college girls staying on campus over vacation, and there's a serial killer on the loose. Two girls are roommates, and the other one has the room next door. The one girl goes back to her room, and says she'll knock on the door if anything happens. An hour later, the two roommates hear this scratching noise on the wall and freak out and are terrified and huddle together until they fall asleep.

In the morning it turns out their friend had her throat slit, and didn't have enough strength to knock, so she was scratching on the wall with her fingernails.

That's interesting that disfigurement and mutilation get to you. I haven't actually seen either of those movies - if it's more gore than horror, I tend to pass - but I've heard they're pretty disgusting. It's nice to know not everyone is desensitized to violent imagery! And the dream doesn't sound weird - or rather, it's not weird that it scares you. I know the dreams that have terrified me sound ridiculous when I'm trying to tell them to people.

Thank you!

[lovelies.livejournal.com]

That's a very interesting topic. I took a class on the evolution of cinematic horror a few years ago, but I suppose you could extrapolate the same ideas to literature. The way I look at it is that there are two kinds of fears that are being exploited in horror entertainment; primal fears and socially constructed fears. The latter change as society changes, but the former are constant, something rooted in human nature. I always thought that Poe and Lovecraft had dabbled with the latter, because the stories were frightening to me, at least when I was younger. I think it's like you said, the language of it may be dated if people really aren't frightened by them anymore, although I think many are.

Anyway, what frightens me as rational, secular person is plausibility. A story needs to have just the right amount of "What if..." to really creep me out. I actually think there is still a lot of subtle creeping horror stories out there, but I find them in the realm of science fiction more than in the actual horror genre now. I couldn't tell you what the most frightening thing I've seen or read is, as fears have a tendency to fade, and years later I'm left wondering what I initially thought so frightening about them to begin with. But what's recently given me a fright was actually a Doctor Who episode, Blink (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blink_%28Doctor_Who%29). It was very atmospheric, and had an open ending. Open endings are what really get to me.

[katsu]

Oh man. I just re-watched Blink again last night, and it still creeped the hell out of me.

[theladyfeylene.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I have way more experience with horror literature than I do with horror cinema. And that's a really good point about the two types of horror - or fears, rather. I find the primal fear to be more frightening than societal fears, personally. I've never been entirely sure why.

I find Poe and Lovecraft to still be very frightening. Lovecraft especially - the monsters and terrors are never described in detail, but that's what so damn frightening!

Maybe I'll have to turn my attentions to Sci-fi, in that case. Because modern horror just sort of makes me yawn. With a handful of exceptions.

Is Blink the one with the angel statues? I've never seen a single episode of New Who, but I've heard a lot about the episode with the angel statues.

[lovelies.livejournal.com]

It feels to me like societal fears were better adressed in the horror/sci-fi movies of the 50s and 60s. They don't seem as dated as movies from later decades, where the gore and shock has taken over. But the benefit literature has on the cinema is that it leaves much more room for one's own imagination, and the best stories help the reader construct the horror from their own fears. Yeah, that's exactly why they're so damn frightening.

Heh, I'm entirely biased for sci-fi, because I grew up watching the Outer Limits, the Twilight Zone, etc. But I really do think it's worth exploring. I forgot to say that the movie Event Horizon once scared the bejeesus out of me. Now I've seen it too many times, but the first time was very affective.

And yeah, it's the one with Weeping Angels, the kind you've got on cemeteries.

[regann]

Media that has truly scared me in the past fifteen years: the old version of The Haunting; the computer game Shivers (locked in an abandoned museum of weird/paranormal things, hunting rogue evil South American Spirits) and the film Stir of Echoes which haunted me.

I hate hate hate gory psycho-slash movies in the vein of Hostel or Tourista (?) or the Saw movies. They make me sick, not only because what's on screen but that people thought it up and that others can stand to watch it. EW EW EW.

I don't know if you care but similar questions have been posed about porn -- people are going more and more extreme, doing nastier and more shocking things until they've reached a point where plain old sex just doesn't do it for people anymore and they have to keep going farther and farther. I've only seen some of the tamest 'extreme' stuff out there and it's sooo disgusting I can't even think about it. (Please remember that I am not a perv but I used to work in the porn industry. :) )

Personally, I agree about atmosphere and almost suspense, as well as the fact that what you can't see is alot of time scarier than what you can. You never see anything in the original Haunting and that movie freaked me out so bad, I didn't want my mom to leave me alone. XD

[theladyfeylene.livejournal.com]

Ooooh, I've never heard of Shivers. But I looked it up real quick and I think I'm going to try and get my hands on it!

I've actually noticed that, at least in some capacity. I really like classic hentai, back when there were actual plots and stories and interesting characters, and I always check out the new stuff just in case. And....yes. I've noticed that trend. And hentai was pretty extreme even in the 80s. (hahaha, it's okay, I remember! :D)

Yes! Lovecraft was a master of the 'not describing the monster' and still evoking massive terror.

[theangstmonkey.livejournal.com]

The old Haunting totally freaked me out too!

I have to say though... the original Saw movie wasn't that bad, as far as gore. It was more about the situation of the two men trapped in the room together than it was about the gore. Even the gory traps were done as flashbacks with filters and sped up film so that you didn't really see as much as the later films. I really enjoyed the first one, it was all the ones after that that lost me. :(

[onsoullessfeet.livejournal.com]

I don't scare easy, so maybe I'm not the best judge for this. But I usually find that the old horror movies, such as The Omen (the original), are actually more frightening than, say, The Grudge. There's something about how the older films did it that gets me.

[theladyfeylene.livejournal.com]

The older films relied a lot more on atmosphere, which I think is key to horror. Sure, new ones have some suspenseful moments, but I don't find the overall atmosphere to be particularly frightening.

[kanara.livejournal.com]

Honestly, there isn't much out there that scares me. Death and dismemberment doesn't bother me at all, but there are movies out there that I to this day will not watch. I will not watch Nightmare on Elm Street. I will not watch Hellraiser (though my girlfriend is plotting to get me to watch this). i will not watch movies with puppets in them (except Child's Play). And I won't watch IT.

Two of these movies, IT and Nightmare on Elm Street, were something my brother made me watch when i was a child and they scared the crap out of me. I have issues with clowns because of IT and the thought of being trapped in a dream terrifies me. With NoES, it wasn't Freddy himself that was so scary, it was being preyed on from inside a dream that did it. The abstract concept behind the horror is what gets me when it is done correctly.

I agree with Katsu that a lot of the 'scariness' of things comes from atmosphere. Without the atmosphere to initially set you on edge, the rest isn't so impactful. The things I find that approach the line of scaring me are the things that could really happen. Things like Session 9 (mostly done by atmosphere), Silence of the Lambs or stories based on real stories such as The Mothman Prophecies. Movies like The Mothman Prophecies and Silence of the Lambs tend to get to me more than some of the others out there because I have either been to or know very well the locations where they were shot and that stirs up a more realistic feel to them.

Great special effect aren't the key, even though I will say the Silent Hill movie actually scared me in a couple places. It scared me because as I was watching it (alone in the theater, mind you), I kept remembering stuff from the games. By relating what was going on in the movie to my own life experiences is what heightened the level of horror to where I was actually feeling scared. It doesn't happen often and I am very impressed when it does.

[theladyfeylene.livejournal.com]

See, that's the exact opposite of me, and it's kind of insane. Things that actually could happen to me? Don't scare me at all. Things that have no chance of ever happening? Get to me like few other things. Go figure.

IT was creepy. I read the book when I was about eleven or twelve, and some scenes in it have never left me. The hobo scene, particularly, which wasn't in the movie. (Couldn't have been for, um, various reasons.)

I still need to watch the Silent Hill movie. Maybe tonight!

[lady-tigerfish.livejournal.com]

...Poe was one of the masters of atmosphere. I don't know how anyone can say Poe isn't scary anymore; maybe the anxieties of our age have changed, but speaking for myself, when I read Poe, I feel every clammy fog and hear every telltale heartbeat.

As for what scares me...it genuinely varies. I'd actually rather discuss it over AIM, if you can catch me ^_^;

[theladyfeylene.livejournal.com]

I don't know, honestly. I find Poe's writing beautifully creepy, and the themes he worked with are still used today. Being buried alive? Death walking among the living? Torture? Guilt so strong it manifests physically? The last one's the entire basis of the Silent Hill games!

Okay, awesome!

[yuuo.livejournal.com]

That's a good question. I don't know if I'm entirely the best one to ask, as what sets off my creep factor is probably not the norm, but... generally? Ghost stories and monster movies and their ilk don't creep me out much. Probably because they have been done to death to the point that I probably know better how to survive a vampire or zombie attack than I do something that's actually apt to happen. That's the other thing- we know it's not very likely to happen.

Slasher movies could theoretically happen, but they're so over the top and the only focus of them is the gore and eh. I don't like those movies because I can easily get squeamish. Not always, and sometimes, I can write grosser things than I've seen in movies. I seem to be pretty capricious in that regard.

As someone else said, the matter of realism can and does make things creepier, although I'm trying to think of a movie that truly creeped me the fuck out that was like that. Se7en was delightful, but it didn't scare me. I got lost in the symbolism of it. IT didn't bother me. The Stand and The Shining didn't get to me, although I really liked the labyrinth maze in the original Shining movie, but that's my own preferences getting tickled there and have little to do with the horror of the movie.

Weirdly, I think The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon kinda wigged me a tiny bit. But the things that really make my skin crawl? Things like the video in The Ring. Not the movie itself, but the video inside the movie. I've seen random little internet videos in its ilk and for some reason, the utter bizarrity of them tweak my mind a bit. It's probably just the element of the bizarre.

Although, whoever said Poe wasn't still creepy hasn't read the The Cask of Amontillado. That scared the bejeebus outta me.

But I'll admit, I also tend to revel in reading about and viewing things that explore the darker parts of human psychology. Shit that scares most normal people enthralls me in a morbid sort of way. I like to study it. I like to learn it. I like to watch it. And unfortunately, the best horror is the kind that preys on the mind, that draws from that deep well of darkness within the human mind, rather than on external factors.

Seriously, I'm the girl who thought The Devil's Rejects were fucking awesome and loved the whole effect of peeling off that guy's face and putting it as a mask on his wife to drive her crazy. That'd bother me if it happened in real life, but on a purely entertainment level? I thought it was damn cool.

I AM NOT NORMAL.

[theladyfeylene.livejournal.com]

I'm the same way - I've been trying to think of a movie or book that really scared me, and I can't. The only thing I can remember really, really getting to me was the King short story 'Room 1408'. Only the story though. I love the movie, but it didn't scare me any. (The ending I didn't like, because I saw the director's cut.)

Though things with aliens scare me to death. I have a horrible fear of aliens, stemming from being exposed to sensationalist tabloid style 'alien abduction' tv specials when I was very little. I don't even remember seeing them, but according to my mother, I caught part of one when they watched it and wouldn't go outside willingly for months afterwards.

[yuuo.livejournal.com]

Ha. Funny thing is? When I was a kid, I was scared of pretty much everything. I was scared of loud noises, of bugs (okay, that one I kinda still am), heights, my own body functions, you name it, it scared me. It was sad. I had to leave the room during Pinnochio because Monstro terrified me.

Now? I write shit like Jocasta (http://asylums.insanejournal.com/chaotic_library/9701.html), Pandora's Box (http://asylums.insanejournal.com/fma_alterverse), and It Ends With Swords And Knives (http://asylums.insanejournal.com/chaotic_library/12071.html).

Summary- I am fucked up massively?

[yuuo.livejournal.com]

You know, it fucking figures that comment editing is only allowed on paid journals. And I just let all my paid journals expire, too. 9_9 LJ, start making this a global option, and stop focusing on your little "how to ferret out the kiddie porn" and "how to piss off the users" useless features, mmkay? ♥

[viola-canina.livejournal.com]

Dismemberment... frustrates me, but it's a different feeling. I just feel angry and upset, but not scared. Uh, I don't know how to explain it properly, but... yeah. Like, for instance, war movies don't scare me the way horror movies do, they just make me want to cry or something. If I had to pick some truly scary movies (well, according to my personal standards), I'd name Ju-On, Dark Waters (the original Japanese version) and the The Blair Witch Project. The first two movies contain some icky/gory moments, but yes, it's the anticipation that scares me, and The Blair Witch Project is atmospheric and believable. I also enjoyed The Others because of the atmosphere and a neat plot twist.

[theladyfeylene.livejournal.com]

Oh, I love Dark Waters! Both versions, actually. I actually watched the American one just a few months ago, then tracked down the original. :D

The Blair Witch Project... I couldn't finish watching it, because the damn camera work made me want to throw up. The Others is more along the lines of classic horror, and definitely creeped me out when I saw it!

[viola-canina.livejournal.com]

Yes, The Blair Witch Project is a bit hard to watch because of those camera quirks, but I didn't mind them too much. And The Others is just interesting and rather sophisticated. =D

[chaneystarr.livejournal.com]

I think the only movie that ever scared the crap out of me was The Exorcist. Then again I was 20 and in a huge empty house in the middle of nowhere in a huge storm, to boot. I made Jon take me home with him (we were still dating) because I refused to stay there alone. >.>

I do enjoy watching scary movies, if even for the brief creepy factor. The Ring probably would have been forgettable except for the twist at the end when it kept going past the well and then I got goosebumps and all interested, because I hadn't anticipated that one. I liked the Grudge. I loved Sixth Sense, Silent Hill, The Haunting, The House on Haunted Hill. And I liked The Messengers (up until the end, anyways), The Others... *can't think of anymore without coffee* but yeah, none of them truly freaked me out, other than the Exorcist. Jon used to take showing me scary movies as a challenge, haha, because I really don't scare easily. Not through movies at least.

VIDEO GAMES, however... There were some things in Half-Life and Silent Hill and Resident Evil that crept up in my dreams for weeks afterwards. I think because it's easier to immerse myself in those stories. The same way with books. I don't do that a whole lot with movies.

Now I'm going to be pondering this all day. XD

[theladyfeylene.livejournal.com]

You know, I've never actually seen all of The Exorcist. I've only caught bits and pieces. Gah, yes, there's a case of RL atmosphere adding to things!

It's funny that you list Sixth Sense as horror, because I wouldn't have classified it as that. But it does have all the right elements, doesn't it? I always looked at it as more of a mystery/thriller, but it does meet every horror movie requirement. Huh.

Video games... I have this theory about video games. Through the controller, you're directly connected to the little guy on the screen. There's a much more personal investment in games than in movies. Which is why playing them creeps me out more than just watching them played.

Hahahahaha, I HAD THINKY THOUGHTS!

[yuuo.livejournal.com]

Yeah, video games are more likely to creep me out, but I think that's because I come up against things that I know are going to kick my ass, so I become a weenie. XD; The ReDeads fucking terrify me on Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask. Wind Waker, they annoy me, but they're so silly looking at the same time that I can't take them seriously. And Twilight Princess is an entirely different beast and obnoxiously easy to kill, so eh.

Watching me freak the hell out going into the Shadow Temple is probably pretty funny to the outside observer. When I go into each room, I IMMEDIATELY play the Sun's Song, even if it's a room I know doesn't have a ReDead or Gibdos in it. And me in the well = epic freak outs, because there's no way around one of the Gibdos if I want to get all the damn skulltulas. And Gibdos take 8 hits with the little Kokiri sword. I WANT MY BIGGORON'S SWORD WHERE IT'S ONLY TWO STRIKES KTHNX. :(

::thread hijacks all over your post, sorry :(::

[chaneystarr.livejournal.com]

Yes, it does. Then again, the things in the Exorcist are some of the things I find creepy anyways. It's also about what scares you. Like, Cath can't watch anything with creepy or ghosty kids/babies in it. It freaks her the hell out. She also can't watch anything with dolls, because that in itself scares the shit out of her. I'm not exactly sure what my buttons are (besides needles/sharp pointy things. And clowns. Clowns are the scariest shit ever.) but I know there are some scenes that just scare the shit out of me because it gets led up to the right way.

You know I had to stop and think about that myself this morning when I was typing it, but that movie had atmosphere like whoa. And the one he did after that with the aliens... which the title is escaping me at the moment. I wasn't overly scared in it except for the time when the thing was reaching under the door. I think that's one of my creepy factors: you KNOWING something's there and knowing its dangerous and being unable to see it. I think the scene that creeped the shit out of me the most in the grudge was the things fingers in her hair in the shower. I go dkfjskdfhdf everytime I see it.

Yes, this is true. You get much more intuned with the little dude, because it becomes an extension of you, rather than you watching some stranger on the screen you're yelling at for BEING STUPID DONT GO THAT WAY.

YOU DID! XD

[wishwords.livejournal.com]

What an interesting post, and no, I didn't realize that you wrote horror. wikdsushi and I have been talking about this for several months. There is something cheap feeling about modern horror. One of the best recent "horror" movies I can think of is The Others. It's not scary, but it's creepy. There is that moment where you realize what is going on and the hair on the back of your neck stands up for just a moment.

Anyway, yeah, we should have a club of people who are disenchanted with modern horror. I've been thinking of going back to read a bunch of Poe and see what my brain comes up with when I combine all that with modern storytelling. Hmm, maybe we could start an invitation only community where we could experiment and help each other.

[theladyfeylene.livejournal.com]

Oh! Yes, I've moved into horror almost exclusively, as it seems to be the only genre I ever finish anything for. And I do enjoy it, quite a bit. My mother jokes it has to have something to do with growing up in an old New England mill town. :D

Oh The Others was so good! That's the one that always comes to mind for me, as well, when thinking of good recent horror. It's creeping and subtle and everything was done so well.

That sounds like a very very good idea!

[cacodaemonia.livejournal.com]

Let's see, I'm going to post, then read the other comments so that I am not influenced by them. XD

I startle easily, but almost nothing actually scares me. Maybe because I used to watch all kinds of horror movies and gore-fests when I was a kid, but that's beside the point. For me, the scariest part of a horror movie/book is what you don't see. My imagination can produce things that are so much more terrifying than anything Hollywood could show me. I think the power of understatement has been lost in most horror.

Um... and clowns. Clowns terrrify me. Because they're... just evil. EVIL. D8

[cacodaemonia.livejournal.com]

Now that I've gone back and read the other comments I have to add a couple things.

You know the monster in The Neverending Story? That thing still gives me the shivers! I think it's partly that you don't really see him until he's dead, and partly that he's intelligent and rational, not some mindless killing machine.

Also, someone mentioned The Shining. Did you ever see the 1997 mini-series with Steven Weber? Some of the masks they used in that REALLY freaked me out; especially this one wolf-like mask. And the guy wearing it crawled on all fours and moved weirdly, and GAH!

So, yeah, masks can be really creepy (probably part of why I loathe clowns), and creatures that seem part-human part-animal are kinda freaky.

[yuuo.livejournal.com]

!! I have, and that was an awesome remake. I liked Jamie better in that one than the original, but it lacked the hedge maze, so thus I was sad. That, and Jack Nicholson.

But god, I remember those masks. Yeah, those were fucking creepy.

[demyx.livejournal.com]

The Ring terrified me. I dunno exactly why, I think it was pretty much the fact that she crawls through a TV, something that is in everyone's homes and something that you can't ever escape from. It was the idea that if you were cursed by the tape, you could not escape it. I still actually get nervous around static TVs (therefore, the scariest part of Silent Hill for me is the static TV in the apartments. XDDD), because at any moment it could turn to an image of the well and I'd just be screwed. It was doubly terrifying because you just don't think of technology as evil, it seems so out of touch with the "spirit" world, but when the spirits mess with technology, it scares the shit out of me. XD

But now nothing else scares me. I can be startled, yeah, and obviously real life threats like fires and guns scare me, but Hollywood just doesn't do it anymore and it makes me sad. I like the feeling of being terrified but I have to make do with the suspense and being disappointed at the actual scary part.

(I give props to the American version of the Grudge though, there was a scene included in that version that scared the shit out of me and left me a little leery of windows for weeks. XD it was the same principle.)

[mjules.livejournal.com]

I don't watch or read a lot of modern horror, though I do love my Poe and Hitchcock, mainly for the reason that they've (the modern ones) lost the element of suspense that makes things terrifying for me. It's the same principle I could apply to porn - throw me straight into the sex or the maiming or what have you and I'm all blase and "Can we change the channel?" or possibly even grossed out. Build up to it - give me a little foreplay, if you will, and then don't reveal *exactly* what's going on - just strongly hint at it and let my imagination fill in the blanks - and I'm much more likely to react in the way you want me to.

Modern horror mostly just squicks me. Classic horror or psychological horror or suspense usually has me on the edge of my seat. Give me a mystery to solve, something that keeps me invested in the storyline and unable to look away even when the situation is becoming unbearable... that's what'll hook me.

Classic X-Files did this well. I don't know why, but "Elegy" made me have trouble sleeping at night. I know so many people who didn't think that episode was scary at all, but it included all the non-stylistic (and several stylistic) elements that make a story scary for me.

1. It played on my sympathy. These innocent girls who were caught by surprise and had no time to defend themselves. Their choices were taken away from them. (Having my options removed usually puts me near the realm of insanity.)

2. The one person who really knew was unable to tell and was, in fact, under suspicion himself. Again with the removal of options or the blocking of a solution.

3. The person who kept seeing the signs didn't believe in such things, meaning she probably definitely wasn't making it up. Also, the terror it inflicted on her, experiencing something outside her logical paradigm, was experienced vicariously.

4. The barest of hints that someone you really loved and were invested in (ie, Scully) was also doomed, setting up a more long-term trepidation that would last for more than one episode.

I think the whole "No way out!" probably terrifies me more than anything, since I'm claustrophobic. Being buried alive is in my top three fears of all time. *laugh*

[ranchangrnl.livejournal.com]

Scariest movies to me are anything that play with my real life fears. I HATE anything to do with children. Ghost kids, disembodied child voices, babies crying- any sort of violence towards kids really really bugs me out. I think it's more the destruction of innocence since kids are either innocent victims or they're used to put you at ease such as demons who take the form of kids or kids who are demonic (Damien from the Omen for example).

So the Ring really scared me only because the mother killed the child and that really traumatizes me. Which is why I didn't like the second one because it was advocating drowning the kid for his own good. Seriously yuck.

Haunted houses also bug me out but only up until the point where you see the thing that is haunting it. The first time I see it I jump out of my seat. The second time... well, I'm expecting it so it's not as scary. But when I movie continues where there's that thing lurking just out of eyesight and the music is more breaths then actual music... erg, goosebumps.

Novels are creepy when there's a feeling of helplessness and the person is fighting against odds that are stacked against them to the point where they shouldn't be able to fight back... and it'd be so easy to just let go and accept fate and die. Like the buried alive scenario and things like the Pit and the Pendulum. Situations where you're stuck and the only way out is equally as bad. It doesn't really fit in movies since I didn't like Saw nor did I find it scary but if it was a novel... I probably would have been more horrified.

Also in terms of monsters I find psychopathic thrillers more scary. Where it's a normal person that does these horrible things. Battle Royale the novel was pretty scary in this way. Normal kids forced to do abnormal things. The book really gave you an insight into all of the kid's minds and it was crazy.

Probably the scariest thing I've ever seen that's now hilarious was the Blob when I was four. Scared the BAJEESUS out of me but now I look back and go "dude, jello. wtf was wrong with me?"

[theangstmonkey.livejournal.com]

Your comments about The Messengers are funny to me because I had a full out argument with one of my co-workers about how much that film disappointed me. She kept trying to tell me why it was a good film and I kept pointing out all the reasons it wasn't.

Anyway... I'm pretty picky when it comes to horror. I need some kind of psychological aspect to my horror in order for me to really get freaked out by it, and I prefer if it starts off kind of just with one or two things going wrong... like 1408 was very freaky to me for this reason, even if I think the film took it a little too far. It's all about knowing when is too far and when is just enough. I can't stand gore for that reason because most of the time they just try to go to the extreme instead of actually thinking about impact or presentation. Then it just becomes "how can we gross you out" instead of "how can we really get under your skin". I really think that presentation is important.

I can't really point to one film or what have you that scared me, but the original Haunting probably got me the most, then there are aspects of Ju-On and even to a lesser extent The Grudge... but I think Ju-On had it better because they used more psychological themes about what happened in the house and the anger of the ghost of the father. Tome also has it's moments for me... but I think Japanese horror is more freaky to me because they don't rely so much on gore.

I totally think video games and stories are way more scarier than films though, because you are more actively engaged in the first two. My all time best "this scared the shit out of me" is Silent Hill 3... I don't know something about that game just really, really messed with my head. I can't even pinpoint what it is, the whole thing is just... freaky. It might be because you get more into the cult... or maybe that was just me because I played SH4 before I sat down and played SH3 and I loved Walter so much that I really started looking into the series and discovered all the things the cult believed and did (the main reason for me that movie FAILED >[) and then the little bit of what I have seen of the Fatal Frame games... Gawd. >.