Poll: Avoidance of Horror Movies and Depression

[Kenjitsuka]

I guess people can't take the gore.
Silly billies!

 

[BlueSinbad]

Just hate shitting myself, I think it's fair enough.

 

[Nigh Invulnerable]

I think it's the lack of artistic merit. Horror, as we know it, has yet to have that one movie that helps to really define it as a genre with something that is recognizablly and obviously good to even the layperson; put another way, Horror has yet to have its own "Citizen Kane", if you will. Name almost any other genre of film and you will probably get a few titles that most people will say is the best in that genre because of a deeper message about life or something along those lines. Right now, the best most people can even sugggest is "Se7en" and that's more of a suspense thriller than a horror film. Basically, horror needs to make its own film that most people can agree is actually art if it wants to be taken seriously.

"Night of the Living Dead" is about as close to a "Citizen Kane" for horror that I can think of.

 

[SuccessAndBiscuts]

I utterly loathe "Horror" films.

Having said that I thought Alien was really good, to me a good horror film is something with a fairly believable threat and characters who don't act like they have just been lobotomised. Gore is fine too if its done well.

Unfortunately most of the "horror" market is these lobotomised people in an incredibly implausible situation and the only purpose for their existence is to serve as bags full of squidgy meat things and gore. The world is a frightening enough place as it is. I've had a few encounters with serious injury's and a horror films always seem to get it wrong, they could never serve to prepare you for a situation like that. Most "horror addicts" I've met simply haven't grown up yet, and faced with a real situation where someone's life on the line can't deal with it at all. (I realise this is a generalisation and my opinion)

But I love comedy, even the darker stuff I find funny.
(How someone can watch any of the SAW films and laugh only to get offended over a joke is utterly beyond me.)

Full disclosure I have been through depression (attempted to kill myself by walking into oncoming traffic) but it has never changed my stance on horror films or comedy.

 

[moretimethansense]

I have a massive collection of movies, many horror films as well. I have all that wonderful zombie stuff, the holy trinity (Jason, Michael and Freddy), and a slew of obscure 80's one offs. I haven't watched any of them lately, because I have been depressed.

It's the kind of depression that comes from being 28, having no friends left who didn't get married and disappear or move away from this pit I call home. The kind where all you do is go to work and watch your bank account grow little by little, telling yourself, I've got plans. In short, it's the kind of depression that just comes from being a responsible adult in life. It gets real boring real fast.

That said, every day before work I make a meal and watch a movie. For the duration of the winter, my comedy collection has been growing tremendously. Stand up, slapstick, RomComs, etc.

So now I, a huge horror fan, am thinking of several I'd like to watch but I just can't bring myself to put any of them on. I think I will force myself to and see how I feel later.

The whole self-awareness thing got me wondering though, do you think that people who only want to watch, light, fluffy movies, can clue you in as to whether or not they are suffering from some sort of depression?

Nope, I don't watch them mostly because they are dumber than a bag of hammers, perhaps you have just grown out of them?

Like people grow out of metal.

I take offence at that, your statement implies that Metal and Horror movies are somehow immature, which admittedly is true in some cases but certainly not all.
Peoples tastes can change but that doesn't mean you "grow out" of something eg I used to be a big Elvis fan, my tastes may have changed to harder music but that doesn't mean that I grew out of him, and I'm sure that Elvis fans would resent the implication.

OT: I actually like horror but my mother hates them for the scariness, and my mate doesn't like them prtly because opf the gore (which is weird considering his love of 6he Bloody Mess perk) and partly beccause the protagainsts tend to walk right in to it.

 

[DustyDrB]

I avoid horror movies and - even more than that - horror games because I hate the feeling of anxiety they give me. I'm also not into all that gore porn.

 

[Varanfan9]

People can't take a scare. I used to never watch horror movies cause I thought I wouldn't be able to sit through them. Now I can watch just fine. See fear is a negative emotion so people will want to avoid it at whatever costs.

 

[The Night Shade]

Because of guts and gore because today almost every horror movie relies on that (saw is just torture) if you see older horror movies you'll find them very different and more appealing

 

[Marowit]

I usually don't watch them cause they're just Trash in my opinion, and for the most part that just play on voyeurism. Pick any recent horror movie, Saw, Human Centipede, The Hills Have Eyes etc... and they're just gore-porn. Not to mention they are utterly predictable from start to finish.

Movies like Shutter Island, Alien/s, Splice, 28 Days Later, The Road, The X-Files and others (Thriller or Horror?) along the same vein I absolutely love, but I find them to be pretty thought provoking, creepy, eerie, and uncanny. But, then again blood n' guts don't scare me, and the absurd situations from movies like Saw just seem so contrived.

So yeah, I've had some slumps where I like watching Darker movies, but they hardly ever include ones that would be considered Horror - again I am not sure if the ones I noted are Horror or Thriller or somewhere in between.

 

[Raven's Nest]

I think it's the lack of artistic merit. Horror, as we know it, has yet to have that one movie that helps to really define it as a genre with something that is recognizablly and obviously good to even the layperson; put another way, Horror has yet to have its own "Citizen Kane", if you will. Name almost any other genre of film and you will probably get a few titles that most people will say is the best in that genre because of a deeper message about life or something along those lines. Right now, the best most people can even sugggest is "Se7en" and that's more of a suspense thriller than a horror film. Basically, horror needs to make its own film that most people can agree is actually art if it wants to be taken seriously.

There have been some really good horror films in the past, some of which have defined a sub-genre at least: The Shining (1980), Alien (1979), Psycho (1960), Dawn of the Dead (1978), The Exorcist (1973), The Wicker Man (1973) and many of the golden oldie Boris Karloff classics of the 1930's.

Notice how none of these were even made before the 80's except The Shining. I think the best of the recent horror films have been the aforementioned The Orphanage (2007), 28 Days Later (2002), The Devil's Backbone (2001), A Tale of Two Sisters (2003) and Scream (1996).

Edit: (Of which 3/5 of them are foreign!)

Edit 2: I might add Jaws (1975) to my first list and The Sixth Sense (1999) to my second...

 

[JUMBO PALACE]

I don't see how depression would deter you from watching a horror movie. Sounds to me like you could use a good cathartic slaughter-fest to get rid of some stress.

 

[Madara XIII]

Go watch Alien and come tell me Horror movies dont have artistic merit.

Most people I know either cant stand the gore or cant take a scare.

^ THIS!!!

People are just too squeamish now a days and can't see the Art in horror. It's disgusting if you ask me.

Sure there are alot of crappy horror movies, but there are a lot of good horror movies too that truely display every spectrum of the emotion known as Fear.

 

[Amorphisbob]

I don't care about artistic merit, but since "lack of artistic merit" is what's closest to the reason I don't watch horror movies

[rant]
I find your accusation of Horror movies having a "Lack of artistic merit" completely biased, untrue, and actually quite offensive. Granted that 75% of them are little more than mindless gorefests, but the other 25% are deep, intriguing, suspenseful screen gems. Then again, it can be said for any genre that for every genuinely good move there's 1000 turds to sift through. It's this closed-minded thinking, that horror movies "lack artistic merit", that's prevented horror and sci-fi films from winning oscars and it makes me sick. So go watch your boring merchant ivory film, your tee-off is at 8.
[/rant]

*edit* unless you've seen The Shining, Alien, Dracula, Rosemary's Baby, The Omen, Silence of the Lambs; the list goes on, your entire argument that horror films lack artistic merit is baseless and you should either admit that you're a pussy or shut the fuck up

OT: it's elitist assholes that snub their nose at anything they don't like and try to say it's because they're not artistic, and the fact that it's these kind of people that decide who win oscars is what depresses me

 

[Jonluw]

I don't care about artistic merit, but since "lack of artistic merit" is what's closest to the reason I don't watch horror movies

[rant]
I find your accusation of Horror movies having a "Lack of artistic merit" completely biased, untrue, and actually quite offensive. Granted that 75% of them are little more than mindless gorefests, but the other 25% are deep, intriguing, suspenseful screen gems. Then again, it can be said for any genre that for every genuinely good move there's 1000 turds to sift through. It's this closed-minded thinking, that horror movies "lack artistic merit", that's prevented horror and sci-fi movies from winning oscars and it makes me sick. So go watch your boring merchant ivory film, your tee-off is at 8.
[/rant]

Why are you saying this to me?
I've never said horror movies don't have artistic merit. I said that the poll option closest to my opinion was "lack of artistic merit"
I even said in my post that I don't care much about artistic merit.
The reason I chose that option was that the other options were "I can't handle scary stuff", "I can't handle blood" and "they make me depressed"

The reason I don't like horror movies (like I said in my post) is that they fail to entertain me.

 

[archvile93]

I barely see any movies at all (I think the last one was over four years ago). I'd have to say it's beacause they tend to be very predictable, and rarely ever scary, more startling. That's just a guess though.

 

[Zeekar]

I find it disturbing that with all the horror fans, no one has mentioned "Jacob's Ladder".

I know it's an obscure, hard-to-find film and all, but it the antithesis of a horror movie lacking in artistic merit; It's pretty much the holy grail for this thread, as a (read: the) classic psychological horror.

I might feel a bit depressed (not literally) watching that movie! Good luck feeling excited or happy after that one.