Science/Skeptic Mentality and Fear

[SkepticalScience]

Just wanted to take a quick non-scientific survey to serve as a reference point.

Any of you ever find horror movies or TV shows scary??

I generally don’t, but I remembered being scared by all kinds of stuff when I was a kid. This was before I knew anything about science though. . .

I distinctly remember being scared of ghosts and alien abductions. Stories about those things totally gave me the willies. Now, I am just kind of annoyed by these things, and certainly don’t have any fear of them.

This T-Day I might rent some old scary movies and see how they impact me. I suspect, that aside for being startled, that I wouldn’t be scared of any of them.

Just wondering if others of like mind were in the same boat.

Thanks,
SS

 

[Luke T.]

I can be scared by a movie. It's just an indulgence in fantasy. If you want to scare me with a movie, just put a kid in danger. Even though it is a movie, that will get my teeth gnashing every time. I have actually caught myself getting pissed at the director for portraying a kid in danger.

I'm a little weird.

Horror movies of the Elm Street variety disgust me. They don't entertain or scare me. I avoid them.

 

[Ian Osborne]

To be truly scary (as opposed to simply gross, like Nightmare on Elm Street or The Evil Dead) a movie has to be plausable. The Firm (the Gary Oldman film about soccer thugs, not Tom Cruise's flick) was terrifying, even though it wasn't strictly speaking a horror film Why? Because anyone could find themselves in the wrong place at the wrong time and find themselves in the middle of such violence.

 

[Johnny Pneumatic]

As a kid, the poison gas street scene in Batman scared me. I saw the movie not long ago, not scary at all. I have however grown up since 1992 when I first saw it.
Virii, the freakish deadly kind like Ebola, scared the ◊◊◊◊ out of me when I was younger. Even now, when I watch Outbreak, I get a weird feeling. As for ghosts and monsters etc., I don't remember ever believing in them, so no fear there. Ouija boards once really creeped me out, be they in stores or movies, but now I see them for the waste of paper and plastic they are.

 

[Babylon Sister]

It isn't so much the horror parts that give me the shivers as it is the suspense. The hero's hand slowly moving toward the doorknob; the slow walk up the dark staircase, that sort of thing.

And don't forget the music! A good soundtrack and make me even more jumpy.

 

[Bikewer]

I jumped several times playing through Half-Life 2. ("We don't go to Ravenholm any more...") It was artfully chosen moments to unleash something on you when you're fully involved in the game.
Suspension of disbelief....

 

[puppypundit]

I agree with Babylon Sister , a good soundtrack can put you right on the edge of your seat. "The Changeling" with George C. Scott is a great example.

Just remembering the musical score gives me goosebumps.

I *like* the feeling of being scared by a movie or a book.

 

[Charlie Monoxide]

I would have liked to have seen the movie "Carrie" second time around when it was first out way way back. On the second viewing I watch the audience's reaction to the final scene ..... he he ....

Charlie (skeptic but escapist) Monoxide

 

[Rat]

Yeah, it depends what you mean by 'scared'. Doom 3 made me jump many times, even on several occasions when I knew it was about to; and knowing that you're about to be made to jump can, I suppose, induce fear.

So yes, films can induce suspense in me, and can make me jump. Once I switch off the TV, though, I won't be scared to go up the dark stairs or anything. I suppose that's what's changed over the last decade or two.

Cheers,
Rat.

 

[Gregory]

To be truly scary (as opposed to simply gross, like Nightmare on Elm Street or The Evil Dead) a movie has to be plausable.

I disagree, but it might depend on how you define "scary." The point of a horror movie, it seems to me, is that you become attached to the characters, and are therefore concerned for them. Therefore, it doesn't matter how plausable or un-plausable the threat is, as long as it is genuine for the characters.

 

[KingMerv00]

I haven't been "genuinely" scared in a movie theater for years. I can be shocked or made to jump but I never leave with worries on my mind.

 

[TragicMonkey]

It isn't so much the horror parts that give me the shivers as it is the suspense. The hero's hand slowly moving toward the doorknob; the slow walk up the dark staircase, that sort of thing.

Exactly. Aliens and monsters amuse more than horrify me; I tend to root for them, particularly if they're especially nasty like the "Alien" alien. What's scary is suspense. "Whatever Happened to Baby Jane" is a lot scarier than any "horror" movie produced in the last twenty years, despite being just two old ladies in a house without ghosts or monsters. The scariest thing is always going to be other people.

The absolute scariest movie I've ever seen is "Wait Until Dark", because Audrey Hepburn is so vulnerable and in so much danger, and who doesn't feel protective towards Audrey Hepburn? Literal edge-of-seat stuff, as you panic with fear for her.

Hitchcock suspense movies are good, but they rarely frightened me because I was always trying to anticipate the upcoming plot twists. "That woman...is actually a trained monkey with a knife! No, that's not it."

 

[Garrette]

Agree with TragicMonkey and BabylonSister.

Suspense is most important. To some extent this rests on plausibility, but only internal plausibility, not external or reality-based plausibility.

The Ring was the last movie that really really really scared me, and that was only about three years ago.

The original The Haunting is still among the most frightening when I'm in the right mood and prepare the setting.

Things like Nightmare on Elm Street can be startling, but not really scary. {That being said, I think the first Nightmare is actually scary; all the sequels are not}.

In addition, movies along the lines of Doom and especially Resident Evil are a sort of fun scary in a purely escapist way that doesn't leave me feeling drained. I'll frequently pop in Resident Evil or Pitch Black when I want something undemanding but distracting.