Poll: Is Gore Truly Scary?

[the December King]

I think gore enhances the fear, if done right.

Take The Blair Witch Project ( as an example). There is a scene involving a bloody something found near the end of the film... it still gives me shudders, partly because I don't know exactly what I'm looking at in the scene, and partly because the victim wasn't dead.

Again, gore in and of itself doesn't serve to 'scare' as much as it does to make one uncomfortable, to shake up and upset. It implies physical violence, often something to be feared in and of itself.

 

[Lieju]

It can be used well, and like most elements, it is usually used badly.

As a someone who actually knows what the insides of a human body looks like and how it can be torn apart, most gore just looks dumb to me and takes me out of it.

Unless it's very over-the-top, in which case it's silly.

 

[loc978]

It really depends on you. If you've been exposed to quite a bit of actual gore in real life, no Hollywood reproduction is going to scare or disturb you, it's only either going to make you facepalm when it tries and fails to be "realistic" or make you laugh when it goes hilariously over the top... which is why I love the Evil Dead series.

For those of you who have never seen an actual shredded human corpse... I suppose it could be scary. I wouldn't know.

 

[Henkie36]

Gore isn't inherentely scary, something like Dead Space 2 proved that, mostly because it's overused in that. Or to quote Yathzee: ''Everyone is as about as attatched to their limbs as that one mountainclimber bloke'' (127 Hours for those who don't remember) So coming at it fro that perspective, no it's not scary. However, it can be used to amplify the atmosphere, and to use an example from he top of my head, like the scene in Cabin in the Woods where the zombie tosses the head of one of the group into the house. That was very good and very well timed.

 

[antidonkey]

Gore makes you uncomfortable but I'd never call it scary. It's often used to up the stakes in movies but gore by itself I find very lame. It's why I think the Hostel movies suuuuuucccccckkkk.

 

[Aetera]

Gore has absolutely no effect on me anymore. I've been completely desensitized to it due to the internet. It's not even startling. I find psychological horror movies to be the only kind that have any sort of horror to them anymore.

 

[BishopofAges]

For me, gore and blood has to be used as the tell-tale sign that the excriment is about to hit the fan. Let me give you an example, in Fatal Frame you almost never saw any blood smears or gore in the halls on the first day UNTIL you first encounter the long-armed ghost and then it was usually a smear here or there.

However, when you enter the shrine and theres a big-ass pool of blood on the ground infront of the alter, all I could think is 'I am royally boned'. This would come to be the first big ol' boss room with the lead researcher's ghost as the enemy. This is the setup that blood is bad, seeing blood or scratches, or something broken ment that it was getting more intense and that your butt is on the line if you enter/leave/pick something up in this room.

As the game progresses in Day 2 and 3, you see a lot more here and there (especially when its a scripted room for the Blinded ghost, I hate that ghost.) So from this point on it acts as a unconsious trigger for fear when you hear the ambiant music and see a blood smear or scratch, you instantly ponder your chances of survival and ways out of the room. THIS feeling is what makes/breaks a horror game for me, not the wave after wave of zombies, not the unique looking thing that I have to deal with in a specific way, and not the puzzle blocking my path, pure primal terror is what gets my goat and my money for horror.

 

[Canadamus Prime]

No, gore is just gruesome. You want to scare me? Show me LESS, not more.

John Carpenter would disagree.

I remember watching an interview with him as part of a documentary on the history of horror movies (can't even remember the title, Mark Gatiss was involved, BBC); apparently Carpenter isn't a fan of showing less, expressing a dislike for Val Lewton's techniques in particular (Lewton pioneered using unexpected, but familiar sounds as shock after building up tension, commonly referred to as the 'Lewton bus', due to a scene in his film 'Cat People', in which the protagonist is shocked by a bus suddenly letting off its air brakes)

Not really relevant, just an innaresting perspective.

I can't remember what the series was called, so I can't really give you the source material, but it's a great documentary series.

Well I don't think John Carpenter is very good at making scary movies so there ya go.

 

[Clive Howlitzer]

Gore is never scary. Especially CG gore. At least in older horror movies, all the pointless gore I could appreciate from an effects standpoint. Now, who cares.

 

[GTwander]

Well I don't think John Carpenter is very good at making scary movies so there ya go.

Uh, say what, what?

Easily one of the best movies, ever, ever.

 

[SirDeadly]

Gore by itself is not scary. The premise of the thing that created the mess it what is scary.

 

[Canadamus Prime]

Well I don't think John Carpenter is very good at making scary movies so there ya go.

Uh, say what, what?

Easily one of the best movies, ever, ever.

Well ok, except for that one.

EDIT: But what made that one good? You never did actually SEE the monster.

 

[sethisjimmy]

No, but it sure as hell can be/is entertaining. I think a lot of the time it doesn't even intend to be scary. It's just entertaining in the same way that gratuitous violence is.

In real life? Yes, probably very much so.

 

[Winthrop]

I find gore gross and unpleasant in certain situations, but not scary so much.

 

[Karfroogle]

I don't find it scary, it is however, sickening for me and often leads to a lingering feeling on that part of my body that was effected on the other person. This is real gore I'm talking about, video game gore isn't anything to me. The only thing I worry about with video game gore is if my little brother is present or not.

 

[GTwander]

Well I don't think John Carpenter is very good at making scary movies so there ya go.

Uh, say what, what?

Easily one of the best movies, ever, ever.

Well ok, except for that one.

EDIT: But what made that one good? You never did actually SEE the monster.

What are you on about?

You see the monster burst out of about half a dozen people.
It was the original Necromorph.

 

[JasonKaotic]

It -enhances- scariness, because it's unnerving. It kind of gives you an idea of the horrible things that could happen to the protagonist in that situation. But if a horror game/film tries to big itself up entirely on nothing but gore and expect people to shit themselves, it doesn't work.

 

[Canadamus Prime]

Well I don't think John Carpenter is very good at making scary movies so there ya go.

Uh, say what, what?

Easily one of the best movies, ever, ever.

Well ok, except for that one.

EDIT: But what made that one good? You never did actually SEE the monster.

What are you on about?

You see the monster burst out of about half a dozen people.
It was the original Necromorph.

I don't remember actually seeing anything like that. The closest thing I remember was when all those tentacle things were coming off the possessed dog.

 

[gamerguy20097]

The AAA movie industry seems to think so. But no. no it is not.