I like horror movies, but not blood-and-gore movies. They're not the same thing. Movies that can scare the crap out of you without a drop of blood are what I really admire. Take the original 'The Haunting' - not one moment of on-screen violence yet a few really nail-biting scenes and one real screamer. Or the 'Weeping Angels' episode of Doctor Who - REALLY creepy.

No they do not. Not in the way you are suggesting. If these movies put "sick ideas" into their heads, they were sick enough to begin with and would've done whatever they've done anyway. People have been doing some sick s**t throughout history, even before horror movies and video games were available.

I watch scary movies to steel myself for the possibility of something scary happening to me in my own life. I would hate to be so scared that I could not do anything to help myself. :D

Elyasis wrote "I watch [it] to steel myself for the possibility of something scary happening to me in my own life". It doesn't strike me as "Oh my, let's run away from the weird guy!" as you understood it. It's more "Okay, I've seen a head chopped off many times, no time to faint, don't vomit, just run."

Sometimes, people can be frozen by something horrible happening right before their eyes and when you're in danger, those moments of shock can be lethal. It helps when you're used to that sight. The shock value is gone and you can function, instead of just throwing up, soiling your pants and screaming. So, in a way, watching gory things can be even educational.

Do you even know what a psychological horror is? Because the majority of your questions are actually related to the splatter genre despite the fact that I said I agreed with Oaktree and enjoy psychological horrors. Nowhere have I said that I enjoy watching splatter films, so your questions make no sense. I also have no idea why you felt it appropriate to write in such an accusatory tone, especially since you've completely misinterpreted what I wrote.

IMO psychological horrors are the best kind of scary movie because the filmmaker leaves so much of it to your own imagination, meaning that you have to interpret what is happening and so all the fear is inside your mind rather than laid out in front of you. Gothika. Paranormal Activity. The Blair Witch Project. All films in which the fear-inducing bits are hidden from physical view therefore you have to think to understand what is happening. Fear is a psychological state and these films really play on human fear by putting you in the same position as the characters and therefore making you feel the fear that you would if you were in their position.

Just because someone enjoys the horror genre doesn't mean they are actually going to go out and commit heinous acts themselves. It's incredibly judgemental and narrow-minded of you to say that anyone who writes horror has a sick warped mind. Like Damocles said: "this is art, a movie and not to be taken seriously". I can enjoy scary films but in no way does it mean that I have some hidden desire to run off and do a Scream. The majority of people in this world do actually have the capability to distinguish between reality and a fiction movie.

Enjoy your chance If we all agreed on everything, there would be no discussion and that would be boring.



I know it's not the same and I can see clearly why you disagree with me. Depending on my mood, I might even disagree with myself too But still, I remember how I used to be squeamish but after years of watching gory stuff, I became desensitised and even the real stuff didn't touch me anymore. So it might work, just clearly not for everyone.

Why would they have to be helpful? Do you want everything in society to be censored just so we can keep the psychopaths at bay? And what more, do you seriously think it makes a difference?



No, you don't need to have a "sick mind" to write a gory horror story - not in the way you are suggesting (as in you're probably suggesting the presence of some mental illness). All you really need is some creativity and a lack of certain inhibitions. I could write a damn sick and twisted horror story if I wanted to and at the same time I couldn't hurt a fly, literally.



I don't see what's so beneficial about planting the Bible into people's heads. As a matter of fact it, too, caused people to hurt other people in the same way you are suggesting horror movies do.



So? And the people who write romantic comedies and action movies are not doing it for the money? Only these "sick" bastards are?



Again, SO WHAT? You can't seriously pretend this is an argument. That's like saying you're afraid of rollercoasters so therefore they shouldn't exist and no one should ride them. No one forces people to watch movies. Some people WANT to be scared by a movie, hence the existence of this genre.



And I'm grateful my parents weren't trying to censor every damn thing that I watched. It's good we're both grateful



Good for you. That's your personal taste and it's irrelevant.



One could probably argue that you are sensitive to such things BECAUSE your parents shielded you from it and taught you it was bad or inacceptable. But I don't want to play psychiatrist now.



You are suggesting that everyone who disagrees with you is a lunatic serial killer or at least has those tendencies. Good luck with pushing that idea onto people. Like el flel said, most people have no problem telling the difference between fantasy and reality.

Totally agree with everything jooxis has written.

Yes CT, I did read the post and no I'm not suggesting that you likened me to a serial killer, however you have insinuated in previous posts (such as this one "something that doesn't fill my mind with such warped depravity") that people who enjoy horrors are somehow sick minded which is completely not true.

People like being scared. It's funny and gives you an adrenaline rush. It's not unhealthy or strange or bad. If you don't like scary films then no amount of explaining why others' do will ever make sense to you because you simply don't 'get' why people enjoy them. A similar analogy is my dislike of football. People can explain to me why they like it until they are blue in the face, I still won't like it nor understand why they do.

Due to your pretty extreme personal opinion of the genre you are massively overthinking the influence that a horror movie will have on someone. Most people don't take them as seriously as you do. Yes, there have been cases where people have emulated a film but those cases are so incredibly rare that your concern over what someone might do after watching one is really not necessary. It's completely redudant. If someone is going to copy something they've seen in a horror film then it's not the film we need to worry about; it's the person who is clearly dangerous and mentally unstable, and who most likely has ideas of their own.

You picked a serial killer who has nothing to do with this topic.
What struggles of his? He was sexually turned on by corpses and was what one would call "mentally ill". You think he should have talked to someone about his problems and then all those lives would've been saved? That's pretty naive. Lots of lives would've been saved if the police had been doing their job instead of handing his 14-year-old victim back to him.



I'm completely indifferent as to whether you personally want to watch this stuff or not. Hell, I don't even like to watch this stuff as much as most people do. That's not the issue so you can stop presenting it as an argument.

Or is it some desperate attempt to show off your "higher morals"? I mean, why do you keep emphasizing that you're too good to watch this stuff?



I let that part go. I said I was glad MY parents weren't like that. You can be glad that your parents are the way they are, why would I have a problem with that.



So we can agree on that.

Do you really think that there are people out there who commit brutal crimes but would otherwise not be doing so had they not seen some horror movie?



Unless you're a psychologist your diagnosis on someone's mental health isn't going to be taken seriously anyway.

Whoa did this thread take off or what? And its such a lively, interesting discussion too! I love it when that happens. I do want to make the point that when I created the title of the thread, I named it in exaggeration and also because a catchy title gets more views.

I do like the genre, and gory movies can be okay when the plot line at least makes it worth watching. CT I understand your point, but as you said, we are all different. You are grateful that your parents shielded you from those movies. I think its fantastic that you actually listened to them! That does show that they must be wonderful parents. My mom was a good mom, but a single mom and she didn't always have the time to enforce the things she told us to do. So, when she told me to avoid a movie because it was scary...well..I just HAD to see it then. (ah, memories.)

Being scared can be fun. I remember slumber parties with my friends where we would break out the Ouija Board and scare ourselves silly. I still have those great memories, and thinking anything bad or psychotic about it just seems silly.

I can't think of any serial killers that have copied their crimes exactly from a movie, but I can name at least a hundred scary movies that were made about them. Like others have said, the argument is kind of redundant, because its not this huge crisis sweeping the nation, ya know?

If you want to find real horror, watch videos of the bombings in the middle east that happen near schools. Watch children being carried away all bloody and missing limbs, and tell me that parents can shield their children from horror. Its all around us. I think these kinds of movies are inspired by real life, not just one person's mind.

Ya'll seem to be under the mistaken idea that this is the Debate Room. It isn't. So in the words of a rather amusing vampire...

Back your shit down!

Kthx.

Things can be scary w/o being excessively gory. Signs scared me. The Matrix scared me. I don't like "horror" so much, I do like what I call, "chilling" movies. Movies that don't go over-board with blood and guts, but make you think. I DO like the old 30's 40's "Universal Studies Monster movies". Like the Bela Lagosi "Dracula", the old "Wolf-Man" (I'd like to see the new). But Alien and Aliens were great... OH! And the 50's 'War Of The Worlds'!

Well I saw the movie the other day. I wish I hadn't, cause it's really stupid (although somewhat funny).

The Human Centipede looks disgusting. Thanks for making me want to watch it. How do people come up with this kind of stuff anyway? It looks like a twisted porno upchuck fest to me. I still want to watch it thought, just because you advised not to.

As if the movie is "100% Medically Accurate". Humans can't survive on human faeces ... can they?