How do you watch horrors?

[Artemis]

I sometimes find myself in a tricky spot - attracted by the premise of a film I wouldn't normally watch because I don't generally like to be shit-scared, and typically have an aversion to gore/slasher stuff. Or, a film becomes so notorious or acclaimed that I want to watch it despite being unlikely to have a good time watching a film of that nature.

I know it will be sacrilege to those who insist that the only way to appreciate a movie is to sit through it come what may, but I'm easily affected and don't especially want certain images in my head, so if a film is intriguing but unpleasant, I'll sometimes watch until the point I'm troubled, then turn off the sound (occasionally put on the lights and some music) and fast forward through the bits I know would impact me, to get the gist out of context. Then I'll go back and watch it properly, knowing what's coming so I can enjoy it without feelings of dread and revulsion (which I appreciate many people love, but I am not one of those people).

It's just how I cope, ok? We all have our ways. What's yours?

[Kane Jones]

I'm the same with violence. I haven't watched Drive for example, purely because someone told me about the lift scene and I don't think I could hack it.  I love a good dust-up in an action film, but when the violence is too realistic or extreme, I can't bear it. That's why I dislike British gangster films or films about football hooligans. Perhaps because it's too close to home.

[Artemis]

Weirdly, I'm fine when it comes to guns, though. I sat through Reservoir Dogs and loved it (even the non-existent ear bit) but sudden or grotesque gore is just something I can't be dealing with. I'd never make it through any of the Saws. Psychological horror is fine, but I may need to watch the key bits with the lights on, out of context and with music in the background first.

[Talulah, really!]

Defocus my eyes by looking upwards (as if pushing your eyeballs up into your head so your primary focus is looking out through your eyelashes) so what's in front is in a blurry peripheral soft focus vision and not so razor sharply traumatic, seems to work for me.

[Kane Jones]

Defocus my eyes by looking upwards (as if pushing your eyeballs up into your head so your primary focus is looking out through your eyelashes) so what's in front is in a blurry peripheral soft focus vision and not so razor sharply traumatic, seems to work for me.

Weirdly, it's the sound I find most unpleasant. Crunching bone and screaming/crying out in pain.  Muting the sound works better for me.

[Thomas]

How do you watch horrors?

With my eyes gouged and dangling.

[Cerys]

I can watch anything.  I just have to deal with hours of Fridge Horror later.

[Puce Moment]

I don't mean to sound all too-cool-for-school but I find the vast majority very boring and become too aware of the mechanics of the genre to fully immerse myself in the visceral nature of the horrific elements.

Spoiler alert

PARKLIFE!

[close]

There are a handful that I think are excellent, but stuff like Saw, Hostel and shit like A Serbian Film pretty much make me yawn myself to jaw-ache. Although I did like Human Centipede 2, but that was mainly because of the lead actor and the beautiful b/w cinematography.

[El Unicornio, mang]

I don't find violence in films scary, but any ghost/monster/supernatural stuff and jump scares freak me out so I tend to avoid watching horror movies the usual way I watch films (in the dark with headphones on). I saw It Follows at the cinema recently and found myself looking away at parts where I knew something bad was coming.

[prwc]

I can handle just about anything because I'm well 'ard[nb]Desensitized from watching tons of horror films rather than going outside[/nb], though I'm well past my extreme cinema phase now, at least when it comes to newer stuff, as most of it simply is quite poor. I'm happy to watch the most clichéd and generic of pre-90s horror but there needs to be some interesting elements beyond shock value for me to tune in these days if it's a newer film.

[Kane Jones]

I don't find violence in films scary, but any ghost/monster/supernatural stuff and jump scares freak me out so I tend to avoid watching horror movies the usual way I watch films (in the dark with headphones on). I saw It Follows at the cinema recently and found myself looking away at parts where I knew something bad was coming.

The opposite of me.  Ghosty stuff I adore.  Sure, it scares me, but in that 'could never happen to me' kind of way. But if I see someone getting their head kicked in, I just go cold. Because, well - it could happen to me.

[Small Man Big Horse]

Full on gore doesn't bother me in the slightest, I think it's due to being desensitised to it at far too young an age, and a lot of the time if it's a bit OTT, or the kind of film that it's hard to take seriously (most slashers, Japanese b-movies, etc) then I'll just laugh out loud. There's the odd film which I think is a bit too much (Hostel and it's sequel just seemed needlessly horrible), and I've deliberately avoided watching A Serbian Film, but I'm more annoyed if anything by how disgusting something is if it's in a specific context where someone's being tortured or killed and it seems only to be trying to provoke a disgusted reaction from the audience.

I don't like jump scares, but only because I find them manipulative and lazy. If I watch another film where the heroine's worried something's going to happen to her, only for a cat to jump out of a cupboard (or something along those lines) I'll track down the director and, um, I dunno, give him a stern talking to or something.

As I mentioned recently in another thread, the only time I've ever had to look away from the screen was during the rape scene in Irreversible, I just couldn't take it any more. But I've a female friend who liked to masturbate whilst watching it. Which I don't quite know how to respond to, so I just try and blank out the fact that she ever told me it.

[DukeDeMondo]

I watch and write about horror for a living and I think even the weakest horror film has something to say about something, and some of the best have said more about anything than anyone has ever thought about saying about anything.

Saying that. The one film I really struggled with was Irreversible. I bought it, and was trembling as I did so, and took it home to stick on of a Saturday afternoon. It shook the last tit out of me like nothing before or since. I remember phoning a member of this very forum in a terrible panic... 20 minutes in I turned it off.

I  took it back for a refund, because I couldn't tolerate it. Then I bought it again a week later, and watched it as my girlfriend slept.

I haven't felt anything like that before or since. 

[madhair60]

I just watch the film normally then it's off for a shag.

[BlodwynPig]

It's all in the build up. Once the monster / gore is revealed, its a doddle.

Blair Witch, the beginning of Rec, mind's gone blank - but films that keep the tension on a knife edge - often with no release - are brilliant but shatter my nerves.

[Phoenix Lazarus]

It's all in the build up. Once the monster / gore is revealed, its a doddle.

Very true.  The latter's often not as good as the former.

[BlodwynPig]

99% of the time. There was a "cartoon" posted on the forum a few months ago - a kid looking at a copulating couple with a telescope. The woman turns her head and its the most unnerving and horrible image I have seen in pencil. The demonic hag then scuttles down the facing apartment and is seen in the final panel entering the kids bedroom in hideous glory.

Now, if that was a film and the reveal...that would be the 1% exception to the rule.

[BlodwynPig]

This fucker

[madhair60]

That's by Junji Ito, I think.

[BlodwynPig]

That's by Junji Ito, I think.

A disturbed and brilliant mind. Can anyone beat that image for horror?

[Brundle-Fly]

A disturbed and brilliant mind. Can anyone beat that image for horror?

Who was it that posted that Manga(?) comic strip image of the guy squeezing his massively spotty face and then all the pus rains down into a child's mouth? That was pretty horrific.

[Brundle-Fly]

I don't mean to sound all too-cool-for-school but I find the vast majority very boring and become too aware of the mechanics of the genre to fully immerse myself in the visceral nature of the horrific elements.

There are a handful that I think are excellent, but stuff like Saw, Hostel and shit like A Serbian Film pretty much make me yawn myself to jaw-ache. Although I did like Human Centipede 2, but that was mainly because of the lead actor and the beautiful b/w cinematography.

As a horror nut, I've pretty desensitised myself to gore too, but I wouldn't say I yawned through the torture porn movies you mentioned above.  What stops me from yawning is the utter nihilism of these films. That's what slightly turns my stomach today.

[Brundle-Fly]

Anyway, if I do want to watch a horror movie; it has to be at night, preferably late night and alone for maximum fear factor.

[Puce Moment]

I find it is something difficult to pin down, and is usually the conflation of lots of things working to push me into the 'disturbed' zone. I like creepy films like The Shining, The Others, The Orphanage, A Tale of Two Sisters, The Woman in Black, etc. But in terms of what really pushes me in terms of being disturbed, it is nasty stuff like Martyrs, Funny Games, and Eden Lake. I don't what it is about them in particular, just something that clicks. Films like The Bunny Game, The Girl Next Door and Grotesque are so blatant and unsubtle I might as well be watching a student film. Zero immersion.

[Junglist]

I watch and write about horror for a living and I think even the weakest horror film has something to say about something, and some of the best have said more about anything than anyone has ever thought about saying about anything.

Saying that. The one film I really struggled with was Irreversible. I bought it, and was trembling as I did so, and took it home to stick on of a Saturday afternoon. It shook the last tit out of me like nothing before or since. I remember phoning a member of this very forum in a terrible panic... 20 minutes in I turned it off.

I  took it back for a refund, because I couldn't tolerate it. Then I bought it again a week later, and watched it as my girlfriend slept.

I haven't felt anything like that before or since.

Irreversible is smart in the way it totally disorientates you at the start with that camera. One ex was really into horror, as am I, but she had to quite a few minutes in as she felt genuinely nauseous. Its a wonderful (if you can call it that) film.

The only real thing that affects me is anything involving eyes. I hate them being touched/messed around with and have to look away. I'm fine with most other things because I'm a sociopath I know its all fantasy.

Oh and Blair Witch destroyed me as a 15 year old, I slept with the light on. I refuse to re-watch due to not wanting to fudge that memory.

[Brundle-Fly]

I find it is something difficult to pin down, and is usually the conflation of lots of things working to push me into the 'disturbed' zone. I like creepy films like The Shining, The Others, The Orphanage, A Tale of Two Sisters, The Woman in Black, etc. But in terms of what really pushes me in terms of being disturbed, it is nasty stuff like Martyrs, Funny Games, and Eden Lake. I don't what it is about them in particular, just something that clicks. Films like The Bunny Game, The Girl Next Door and Grotesque are so blatant and unsubtle I might as well be watching a student film. Zero immersion.

Seen this? It has stayed with me for some reason.

[Puce Moment]

Seen this? It has stayed with me for some reason.

Do you know what? The sad thing is I may have and just forgot about it. I went through an extreme horror phase about 4-years ago and I probably saw it then. I will give it a watch though.

Irreversible is smart in the way it totally disorientates you at the start with that camera. One ex was really into horror, as am I, but she had to quite a few minutes in as she felt genuinely nauseous. Its a wonderful (if you can call it that) film.

Apparently Noe deliberately used a frequency and oscillation of sound to induce nausea, alongside the dutch angles which really start to make people seasick. I have a different reaction, which is also quite common - I get all shaky. Not in a scared way, but just affected by the sensory overload.

[BlodwynPig]

Only saw irreversible once and not likely to watch again. Doesn't the beginning feature a paedo discussing some nasty act he's done?

[newbridge]

I rarely watch horror. If you had to pick one movie to recommend that will scare me (not me in particular, but a hypothetical blank slate such as myself), what is it?[nb]I have no interest in pure gore like Saw or Hostel, nor do I find that genre scary because I am too preoccupied by the real world creepiness of the filmmakers[/nb]

The last horror movie I can remember being frightened by was The Ring (American version), but that was a long time ago and I was very young.

*Edit* Actually the scariest film for me is Fire in the Sky, which traumatized me in my youth. Maybe I will rewatch that.

[Consignia]

This fucker

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