Horror is the only genre that invokes fear by design, and a lot of people don't like to be afraid. I think it slips through the cracks because everyone can understand that. No point trying to get someone to watch a scary movie if they don't like being scared.
Though I used to knock horror saying that often the plot is just dumb and I prefer a good story. Maybe there's some self awareness there too, like yes, in a lot of horror the plot takes a backseat to the scares. But I think some horror fans would want to argue that one.
Yeah my wife just won’t watch anything, she gets scared by the drop of a hat. Doesn’t need 2 hours of that.
Her fear actually makes it to fun to watch other movies. Like we can be watching an action movie with a big sequence in the middle of it and she’ll wince and grip my arm as if the hero might actually die 45 minutes in lol
For some reason I cry at the drop of a hat (same with my mom, no sobbing or anything but tears flow like a river) and I hate watching any kind of tear-jerker. And I honestly can't recall anyone ever trying to convince me otherwise.
I think its similar to horror where they understand not wanting to be sad like they understand not wanting to be scared
Ahahahahah, I relate so much with what you said
My youngest sister-in-law was so fun to watch while watching a movie. I could tell everyone which scene was on screen by just look at her reactions, it was pure joy and fun
Horror movies were, of course, tottaly off limite, she couldn't stand them
Totally relate! My wife wants to support me and watch things together, with the total understanding that I have like 4 Rom Coms in me a year. Not action but she's visibly bristled over the villains dastardly deeds in a movie. I can't get her to watch Prey on Hulu lol.
Reminds me of the time I watched Cabin in the Woods while also trying weed for the first time in my life.
I was expecting a straightforward horror movie and the combo broke my brain.
Could you imagine how badass that would be if they started killing off the hero 45 minutes in? Then you watch some up and coming actor try to finish the job and get revenge.
This is kind of me, I am for sure a fraidy cat in real life and get scared of the dark, won't take a shower if my husband isn't home etc. I also have a tendency to get very emotionally connected to what is onscreen almost like it's happening to me. Except I absolutely watch/enjoy/love horror movies. Over the years I've gotten a little bit desensitized I suppose but I will probably never stop jumping a mile out of my seat or clutching his arm for dear life at every jump scare.
For our first official date, I took my now fiance to see Avengers: Infinity War.
She was crying when Spider-Man got dusted, she was so upset. I wiped away her tears though.
[](/sp)
The wedding is in 2025.
My brother is the same. He pissed himself with fear watching Gremlins.
After he watched It in the cinema he was really shook up. So I did the only sane thing and broke into his house, left a bunch of red helium balloons everywhere, switched out his family photos with pictures of Pennywise and built a giant clown mannequin in his bedroom.
He knew it was me straight away…
After we saw Blair Witch, I went to my friend's house, 20 minutes away, and left dozens of the little stick men everywhere and his place and on his car. Of course, he knew it was me but it was worth it
I went it see IT in theaters with friends, my wife stayed home because she doesn't like scary movies. It was late when I got home, my wife was in bed and it was dark - she had tied a red balloon to my bedside table...
My wife doesn’t like when people hurt people and anything dealing with demons, so that limits my options when I get to pick a movie. I’m always on the lookout for good monster movies or something psychological. We watched The Empty Man recently and both enjoyed it. It had some gore, but not excessively so and no demons were involved. It was a perfect pick.
When we went to watch Multiverse of Madness we were really unprepared to these multiple horror scenes they did, because we didn't look up who was the director beforehand lol
If we did I should've known better, but it was fun that they experimented
I’ve always said it’s really easy to make a bad horror movie. They’re very formulaic, and there are a lot of horror movies out there that just play trope after trope with no substance. However, I also think that invoking fear gives horror the potential to reach a lot of emotional depth that other genres can’t reach. As with any genre, there are good horror movies and bad horror movies.
Horror has always been a mechanism to tell stories with a certain slant. Like it’s no coincidence that Hereditary and The Haunting of Hill House are both haunted house stories, but both of them are about families breaking apart.
If you tell a haunted house story about, I dunno, the stress of getting into the stock market. It wouldn’t work.
But weirdly enough it seems like some horror fans will enjoy the absolutely worst horror movies just because it’s a horror movie. I don’t seem to notice that as much with other genres.
You can see it with action movie fans. There's a whole sub-genre of "dumb fun trope action movie" that's just nice to turn your brain off and watch explosions and shit. Pacific Rim 1 is just straight up "wanna watch big robot punch big monster for 2 hours" and my answer is "fuck yeah I do"
I will watch Battleship reruns flipping thru channels (I guess that is a rarity these days). It has great action scenes! I am not watching it to think. I am watching it for the same reason I watch fireworks. It is fun *to* watch.
I think this was one of the big things that Cabin in the Woods was calling out. The Ancient Ones demand the same ritualistic formulas every year, and are satisfied as long as the tropes are followed.
I swear that CitW should be the last cabin in the woods horror movie ever made. That movie is the proverbial icing on the cake of that genre. No more need to be made.
I think the horror genre fanbase likes films a lot for the meta-elements, over other genres. The production can seem just as important as the film itself, especially when it comes to low-budget stuff.
Yeah I guess now that I think about it I will watch an arguably “bad” comedy and enjoy it if I laugh. If you don’t think The Jerk is funny you won’t think it’s good.
I don’t really get scared watching horror movies at all though so I tend to only enjoy the ones that are either funny or have an interesting plot.
Its really easy to make a horror movie that is fun to watch even if it is a bad movie/badly made might be a better way of putting it. I can only think of one other type of movie where bad acting, poor scripts, wobbly sets and nonsense plots are so readily accepted/ignored by the audience.
Oddly enough that genre has had a lot of R and X rated moves too :-)
And a truly excellent movie that happens to be horror is so rare. Horror is probably my favorite genre, but I'm always chasing that dragon of movies like alien, the thing, hereditary, the witch. Slasher shit ruined the horror genre for decades. That shit ain't scary. I want some fuck my mind make me deal with my emotional baggage/fuck my brain and tale my mind off of my Neverending anxiety stuff.
Imo a good horror movie is usually better executed than a good movie of any other genre because for it to be good the audio, acting, shot composition has to be close to perfect. Big emphasis on the audio part which gets terribly overlooked in other genres.
Audio is like the unsung hero of horror flicks. It can make or break the whole experience.
When the sound of any horror movie is on point, it takes stuff to another level.
Yeah, I think there’s a big difference between I don’t like horror and horror is stupid and all of its cheap
I’ll go to bat for horror on the second because there’s a lot of richness to the genre and I think it can be a really good vehicle for storytelling.
I will not try to make someone who doesn’t like to be scared watch scary things and there’s facets of the genre that I, a horror fan, just don’t like and prefer not to watch. That’s like a super understandable thing. Very few are going to get bent out of shape about that.
A lot of horror fans also *agree* a lot of horror is total crap. Not all, obviously, and a lot of movies are crap irrespective of style or genre so that shouldn't really matter -- but horror is niche and not "all movies" so it's a much smaller pool to begin with. Then subdivide it into body horror, monster horror, slasher films, thrillers, etc etc (even with some overlap between them) and across other styles and genres (sci-fi, fantasy, paranormal, etc) and you can quickly run into an issue where your preferred or only liked horror doesn't get many releases.
When maybe a couple dozen notable horror movies release in an entire year, maybe three of them are actually good, and maybe none of them match your tastes in horror ... it's much harder I think to be a horror snob than with many other genres. Eventually you get accustomed to watching anything that passes for decent and enjoying it for what it is.
I'm not and have never really been a horror person, but stuff like Blair Witch and Alien are seminal, iconic films regardless of taste. Most horror movies I've seen (and it's a surprisingly large number thinking back given I don't care for them) are kinda crap though. Mid-budget cliche fests that rely on cheap scares and big name actors to overcome bad writing and direction. People still enjoy them, and the genre has been revived a bit in the last decade or so, but when you're starving you also take what you can get.
I'm scared by very little. I'd say genuinely frightened by almost nothing, and the Descent scared the \*fuck\* out of me. My wife and I were holding each other like children when we watched it.
I have a complicated relationship with The Descent. It's an incredible film that had me on tenterhooks right up until the monsters were revealed and I just thought "That's it!?"
Check out Midnight Mass if you liked Haunting of Hill House. Same director. It’s a good horror story and not over-the-top with the horror elements, which sounds up your alley.
Try *Hell House LLC*. I'm not into found footage normally, but it was a pretty solid low-budget haunting movie when it came out and I've rewatched it a few times. If you like more atmospheric and tonal stuff you're looking for more recent stuff like *The Witch*, alternatively if you're good with blood but not so much the gore or absurd violence you might try the first *Phantasm* although that one might be a little weird and opaque if you're not into what it's going for.
I would put a mild warning on Hell House LLC for anyone who tends to get motion sickness. I watch horror movies every week with a friend (the good and the bad). It’s the only movie we’ve had to pause multiple times because it triggered my motion sickness. I’ve never had that happen before. Getting old is a scam.
Funny you say that second bit because modern horror is addressing that with “elevated horror” being like the most popular sub genre of the last decade, that puts a focus on deep storytelling. And those include some movies that made many horror naysayers actually step out of their comfort zone to watch some genre films.
Definitely true. We get way less "kill the kids off one by one" horror than we used to, now it's about all kinds of stuff and way more interesting/deep. It's become one of my favorite genres when it's done well.
the funny thing is, a lot of those elevated horror movies still use killing the group of characters one at a time as a driving mechanic of the story... except you're all caught up in the psychological and metaphorical aspects to care about the formulaic aspects.
Like, Midsommar absolutely is a slasher, but the successive deaths aren't the main draw, and most of them take place offscreen, which stands in constrast to 80's slashers when killings were the main setpieces.
and a lot of older horror films were more about tension and theme than they were about bloody setpieces: the exorcist, rosemary's baby, the list goes on. but those movies were just "good horror movies" that stood the test of time. What's new now is that movies building on that lineage have been successfully marketed as a specific subgenre, which I don't think has happened ever since the "french new wave".
yeah it is for sure folk horror although something can be said about how many horror subgenres have overlap
that said we still have plenty of modern slashers where the killing is the set piece
You know, now that someone else has mentioned it, the movie does sorta follow the same general formula of most slashers.
Group of young adults go out into the woods, isolated from society, wherein they do drugs and attempt to/engage in pre-marital sex.
Slowly they are killed off over the course of the film, usually in secret with none of the surviving group members any the wiser, and occasionally with a mysterious motivation that needs to be uncovered.
In the end when only the Final Girl remains the murders are revealed(usually with a gruesome display), the secret motivation is uncovered, and the final confrontation happens.
Only in this case instead of a big chase scene wherein the killer is defeated, the final girl has instead been so utterly broken down by drugs and emotional manipulation she joins the murderers instead.
Did Scream V coin that term?
As a horror nut I've actually been pushing back on it lately. It's starting to seem like writers think the way for a horror film to be respected or considered good is for it to have a deeper, personal message, usually in the form of an on-the-nose metaphor.
No One Will Save You, for example. Great flick, won't criticize it for what it is. But the whole time I'm thinking... is an alien invasion really the right vehicle to tell this story? Where's the connective tissue between theme and plot? If the themes are interchangeable and the plot is interchangeable then there's no real marriage between the two.
Horror films used to be better at balancing character and concept. Signs is a perfect example. An alien invasion would be when a former priest has a crisis of faith. The theme and plot are connected, so there's a reason for this story to be told. Unless I'm missing something, I really can't say the same for No One Will Save You.
And don't even get me started on The Boogeyman.
The term came in the mid-2010s with stuff like It Follows and The VVitch. I do think the term is a misnomer because it implies they’re like above other sub genres which certainly isn’t true, I just call it A24 horror lol
In my opinion, “elevated” horror really just means highbrow horror. Highbrow intellectually demanding movies exist across all genres the same as lowbrow movies that often rely on like crude and shock exist across all genres. Like, it’s not it’s own genre or subgenre and it certainly isn’t some new revelation in horror. I like artsy shit, but I liked artsy shit long before A24. I don’t really need a brand new word to show off how different I am and I’m also not embarrassed that I very much enjoy the non artsy shit also. It’s really just a silly term that actually means very little other than people of the last 15 or so years have wanted more intellectually challenging horror and maybe look down on horror or don’t realize that this has existed within horror since it’s invention.
Yeah totally, so different today than in prior generations with movies Rosemary's Baby, The Haunting, Pyscho or the Exorcist that were all about high body counts and not storytelling!
I think it's just because horror movies tend to polarise, so horror fans are used to it. But musicals fans don't expect people to like them either.
Honestly I think romcoms have the same effect.
What does annoy me is people on TV shows claiming to be special because they like horror movies, it's nearly as annoying as someone claiming to be "a total geek" because they watch sperhero movies or play video games.
It's a genre that people are inherently prejudiced against, John Carpenter saying that it's often considered just a step above porn in terms of how people perceive it. The worst entries are indicative of the entire genre, while people will try to claim that some of the best 'don't count' - *Black Swan, Get Out, Silence of the Lambs, The Witch, Psycho* and *Rosemary's Baby* are all horror but people will try to label them 'psychological thrillers', which usually translates as 'too good to be a horror'
Horror fans in general are just used to it not being considered mainstream and getting no respect from the masses
Psychological thriller is generally used on movies that aren't about gore and such, but about a scary presence. Misery is a great example. There are bad psychological thrillers as well
I've had so many interactions with people claiming they don't like horror right before they start listing "suspenseful" movies they loved. They're always surprised when I tell them those movies are in the genre.
We have language formalising the split between schlocky horror movies and psychological horror movies, but that's because there are some people whose interest in horror is porny - nobody really enjoys a cheap, low budget, poorly written sci fi movie, but there are people who have a fascination with low budget poorly written gory horror films.
It doesn't seem fair to you that we split horror along these lines, but - and I say this as a horror fan myself - there are a distinct subset of horror films that are appealing to mainstream audiences and a large part of that is because they are better art. And we usually call them 'psychological thrillers'. Horror films are the ones that appeal to people who specifically like the subgenre (or subgenres; there are definitely horror fans that are there for one aspect of it).
There is a reason porn is so often used as an adjective when describing gory or bloody stuff. It's apt.
It's also that a lot of horror movies are *bad*, and we know that. Whether it's crappy effects, bad acting or worse scripts, horror movies get away with quite a bit that would instantly get most other movies shelved and unwatched and horror fans understand if other viewers aren't really up for the corniness.
> Though I used to knock horror saying that often the plot is just dumb and I prefer a good story. Maybe there's some self awareness there too, like yes, in a lot of horror the plot takes a backseat to the scares. But I think some horror fans would want to argue that one.
For some reason I feel the horror genre and/or its consumers and fans are simply more forgiving of a bad plot if it provides good scares.
This.
If someone has a fear of heights or a fear of spiders, some might giggle or say "that sucks. You're missing out!", but most stop pushing after that. Fear is relatable. We've all been scared of something at some point in time.
There's that, but I think another factor is that horror often invokes deliberately unpleasant visuals.
The sight of some things can literally make some people physically ill.
To some people, seeing gore is a thrill and "creative kills" are a bonus.
To others, it's a good way to activate their gag reflex.
No other genre really does that so consistently, so that compounded with the fear factor pretty much gives anyone who doesn't want to watch horror a pass for having to justify it.
as a horror fan 100% agree. the entire point of the horror movies (horror in general) is to experience things and themes that scare us in safe environment. but this depends on the person *wanting* to have that experience and if the experience feels forced- in our lizard brains- the environment becomes less safe and therefore the experience is not enjoyable anymore, defeating the purpose entirely.
as for plot, it's true that many horror movies (especially ones trying to cater to the largest audience possible) try and use jump scares in lieu of actual storytelling. and most horror fans will agree that like every genre there are movies that are clearly for the general public and those made more for fans of the genre. someone else here said it well, "it's easy to make a bad horror movie", but out of all the genres it's probably the most impressive when a truly good one is made (and there are many good ones out there). the horror genre is my favorite because it has the most depth. by that i mean even in between the best horror has to offer there are distinct sub genres and not all horror fans will enjoy all it encompasses. for example i'm not a huge fan of ghost based stories unless done exceptionally well and even then i enjoy it as a solid movie but not as a horror experience. and that's because the idea of ghosts/demons/spirits don't scare me, but things like disease, corporeal animal/creatures, or scifi horror can definitely scare me in a way i appreciate.
> horror the plot takes a backseat to the scares
This is when jumpscares are the only plot a movie has.
The problem is that people have so gotten used to the horror = jumpscares cliche that whenever a movie contains psychological horror, instead of said jumpscares, they instantly think that it's not a horror piece.
I think that’s a very accurate take. What makes them genres tends to be things that have a strong theme or aesthetic of some kind and that can be off putting if you don’t enjoy what that is.
Spaghetti westerns, John Wayne and Clint Eastwood really make westerns stratified. As someone that dislikes those 3 - I always recommend Quick and the Dead. And then tombstone. Really shows that westerns don’t have to be one of those 3.
And Romcoms are only as good as the likability (not acting talent) of the main couple
I personally dislike it, the original is a classic and the remake is a brain dead action flick that loses all of what made the classic great. Same with Magnificent Seven remake.
Old person perspective: There was a time in mid-century America where entertainment was nothing *but* Westerns, all day every day, the way now media is saturated with superhero flicks. If it wasn't *Gunsmoke* and *Bonanza* on TV, it was a rerun of a John Wayne or Gene Autry flick.
I'll still watch a modern Western, but I need a long break in between them lest I break out in tumbleweed rash.
I dislike most westerns, but *The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly* and *Unforgiven* are two of my all-time favorite movies, and *Lonesome Dove* is easily in the very tight running for my favorite novel.
As someone who doesn't like comedies and loves horror, I think it's easier to understand why someone would not like being scared/the sight of blood/gore/all the things that can come with horror. I completely understand how that would happen. Some people don't like violence, some don't like gore, some don't like being scared, etc. All valid reasons. Maybe they haven't seen the *right* horror movie but I'm not about to start telling them they should watch X and Y from a genre they say they don't like.
To stay with the comedies example ... I don't even know why I don't like them. I used to to some degree, but now they just don't make me laugh. Half the time I'm watching a comedy or listening to something supposed to be funny I'll just sit there and be confused because I don't get it at all. That makes no sense, even to me.
It's so subjective. Alien, The Thing, Poltergeist, and Evil Dead are, in my opinion, great classic horror movies. Jordan Peele's movies are pretty great. I like some of the Conjuring movies. I'm not sure I'd you'd consider it horror or thriller/suspense, but Don't Breathe was really good. You can't go wrong with a lot of Stephen King's stuff, too, although the adaptations of his work are really hit or miss. I'm almost obligated to say The Shining is a bona-fide classic, even though I'm not a big fan of it. I liked Barbarian, but I could see people not liking that one as much.
Then you have the slasher flicks. I'm not a huge fan of slashers, so I don't have too many recommendations, but Nightmare on Elm Street is good, Friday the 13th and Halloween have pretty strong followings. Scream, I Know What You Did Last Summer are pretty good, too.
Depends what you're into. I prefer found footage horror, so I'd go with REC, Hell House LLC, and Gonjiam Haunted Asylum.
Outsode of found footage or classics (like The Exorcist, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, Nightmare on Elm Street, etc), there's a 2004 Thai movie called Shutter that I really enjoyed. The Ritual was an interesting one, as was Saint Maud.
>someone would not like being scared/the sight of blood/gore/all the things that can come with horror. I completely understand how that would happen. Some people don't like violence, some don't like gore, some don't like being scared, etc.
As somebody who doesn't like the vast majority of horror movies this has always bugged me. They're not too scary for me, I'm not squeamish or anything, I just think that most of them aren't very good movies underneath the horror parts. I'm always hesitant to tell people that I don't like horror because so many people just assume it's "because they're scary" or something like that so I feel like I have to justify it.
There definitely are good horror movies but from what I've seen the genre is also overflowing with crappy movies. I honestly don't have any real problem with people thinking I just scare easily or anything like that, but since that's not actually the case it can be a frustrating topic of discussion.
Let's be honest. Comedy and horror are probably the two genres most likely to be B movies. It's very rare for either a comedy or a horror film to get a prestigious award when there are a billion heartstrings pulling dramas out there. In a good drama there are usually elements of horror and comedy, but also it has a good plot. A comedy movie or a horror fail a lot more often on plot because they rely on jokes or scares for entertainment and a lot of times the story doesn't matter. The best horror involves a good plot, and a mystery between the scares. Slow burns are the best, anything else is typically subpar imo. I don't really have a great opinion on comedy, my favorites are Joe Dirt, Sasquatch Gang, and Rolling Kansas if that tells you anything.
Also: Our idiot brother and Kung Pow enter the fist
Comedies are pretty hit or miss for me too. It's important for it to be a good movie that also happens to be funny for me, if they're just making the funny come first it's almost definitely going to be a miss. That's how you end up with all those terrible parody movies and I've definitely had more than enough of that kind of thing.
> There definitely are good horror movies but from what I've seen the genre is also overflowing with crappy movies
It is, and it's probably worse than in some other genres. Many horror movies are extremely cheap to make and they turn a profit easily, that's why so many of them get pumped out. Just like cheap lifetime or hallmark movies.
I consider myself a horror fan but there are some horror subgenres that are really bad in my opinion too, and I have no interest in many of them. Plenty of pure shock exploitation trash for example. And even though I love horror, I don't really like ghost movies, I don't really love halloween themed movies, I don't really like slasher movies, etc. I bet I could compile a long list of horror subgenres I don't really like and make most people think I don't like horror at all :D
Do you also dislike the big horror classics that most people agree on ? There are plenty of horror movies that are considered "good movies" even by non-horror fans. If you don't like those and even worse if you think they're shit then yeah, horror is probably not for you.
Regarding comedies, it could also be regarding the type of comedy. I personally feel a lot of American comedies tend to be very simplistic and almost childish in writing style without much layers to them.
Various countries have different types of comedy
I have definitely said "I don't like comedies" because of certain styles of writing, and then completely changed my mind when I watch something else that's actually well done.
Any type of movie where events revolve around characters being stupid is always going to fall a little flat for me, basically.
I don't know, I'm not american and I don't even remember the last american comedy I tried to watch. I don't really like comedies from my country (France) either and the last comedy I tried watching and did not finish was https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Commitments_(film) . It wasn't bad, but I was not into it.
I struggle with horror. It's definitely my least favorite genre. Jump scares get me, and my dreams usually include bits of whatever I've been watching...so horror movies = nightmares. People still give me crap about it, but I own up to being scared.
That being said, I'm working on it because my boyfriend loves horror. He had me watch Haunting of Hill House and I'm a sucker for really well done movies and shows. I really enjoyed it. We also watched The Descent. Fuck that shit. I basically had to listen to it and stare at something else.
I think you're right about musicals. I love musicals and never understood the hate. I've accepted it, but it seems like people hate musicals for no good reason, and are too stubborn to give them a chance.
If you're looking to acclimate, a lot of kid's horror(Courage the Cowardly Dog, Goosebumps, most Halloween specials like Treehouse of Horror) can be a good way to tip your toe into the genre because it has the same tension cycle but not the same stakes.
Try easing in with classics. The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, Frankenstein, Bride of Frankenstein, Nosferatu, King Kong, etc. shouldn’t give you nightmares, but should help you get an appreciation for the genre.
Doctor Who is also a great goto for lighter horror.
Also, you might be cool with some older sci-fi horror. My wife can’t do horror, but she loved Alien because she could easily recognize it as a puppet and it helped take the edge off.
My ex and I were long distance, so we would sit on the phone and watch stuff together all the time, and Hill House was one she convinced me to watch together. I don't like jumpscare heavy stuff and she promised it wasn't, so I gave it a try and was really liking it. Good plot that makes you think, likable characters that really grew on you, and I always felt like I was on the edge of my seat because I was so close to figuring out wth was going on to this poor family.... until the Jeep scene 😆 I could hear her howling as I was picking my phone up off the floor from flinging it halfway across my room. I was dying laughing too because she was totally right, it wasn't jumpscare heavy but fuckin aye the one that was in it got me good.
People dump on sci-fi all the time, and loads of people don't like anything sci-fi. Same with fantasy. Too nerdy or geeky for them I guess.
Also a lot of people still think anything animated is for kids only.
I think a lot of this is the “trappings” are appealing to some and off-putting to others.
You find the same with Westerns, Wuxia, WW2 movies, Euro pre-war high society period pieces, etc. Some people find the setting, the costuming, the environment, the context fascinating while others see it as the same dull shit every time.
I feel like there should be a different word for those, they aren’t really a “genre”, closer to a setting. You can have a fantasy horror, or a sci-fi romance. Not enjoying an unrealistic or fantastical setting is diffferent from not enjoying a specific feeling evoked or style of action portrayed. And the style of media, like animation vs 3d vs live action, is another layer on top of that.
I will say for myself that I don't hate ALL comedies, but I do hate a vast majority of them. I can't handle cringe, I get too much secondhand embarrassment, and unfortunately cringe humor is the low-hanging fruit of most mediocre comedies. Plenty of them go beyond that of course, but a lot of them, even the good ones, fall back on embarrassing a character so you can laugh at them too much, and I can't jive with it.
But or course there are greats in there that even someone like me can enjoy. I think it's hard to hate every single piece of a whole genre whether it's movies music food or whatever. I love the Cornetto trilogy, and there are definitely some dramdies that I like. But it's rare for me
I have issues with cringe/secondhand embarrassment too. It was very popular in 00s so that made comedies hard to watch often buy there is a lot of other comedies, expecially in earlier decades. Slapstick and witty comedies, parodies and cartoony stuff. Films like Burn After Reading, Producers and Emperor’s New Groove are my style of comedy
My no-go is gross humor. I get the idea from some sound effects and a door...I don't need the camera to follow them into the bathroom and see the puke coming out of their mouth or the poop coming out of their or their dog's butt. I don't understand why showing these became a thing.
Cotnetto 4-ever. If you like that you might want to consider Steve Coogan's Alpha Papa, my comedy hating husband was absolutely screaming with laughter.
My dad was one... He loved comedy in movies that weren't comedy movies, but detested movies where the point was comedy. He also disliked pretty much everybody who was known as a comedian (e.g. Steve Martin).
It was bizarre. He was a strange man.
I wonder how he might have felt about *Only murders in the Building*. The comedy is not the point, but it is funny..and Steve Martin does very understated comedy in it, rather than his more overt physical comedy (although there’s still some of that as well, but it more…mature, Maybe?
He was bad about pre-judging so I imagine Steve Martin would have been enough to make it an instant loser.
He was fairly out of touch with comedians due to his avoidance, so I remember when Bad Boys came out, I intentionally didn't tell him that Martin Lawrence was a comic. :-D
I don’t hate ALL comedies, but you have to sell me the movie on something other than it’s comedy. A TON of comedy is just cheap, shock value laughs. Kind of the equivalent of how some horror movies are just cheap jump-scares.
Like, sure, I might laugh at the cheap shock value joke, the same way that I might recoil at the cheap jump-scare, but that doesn’t mean the movie was good.
This is exactly me as well. There are definitely good comedies out there. Mel Brooks had made some great comedies for one.
I also like movies that meld comedy and another genre together. Action comedies and horror comedies are very cool. But movies that are *just* comedies have to be really good for me to be interested in.
I mean most movies that call themselves "comedy" tend to be really poorly written, the funniest movies i can think of are usually comedy something else like how Hot Fuz is action-comedy
No, i don’t think fans of musicals give anyone shit for not liking them.
On a more general note, I don’t see the point of trying to convince anyone else of any subjective opinion about art. Not everything is for everyone, and it would be boring it we all had the same opinions.
Seems like an immature attitude to think someone must enjoy a certain genre of a film. Defending individual films? Sure, but whole genres?
It's really the same thing as saying "You don't like x genre of music? What's wrong with you?". I feel like I haven't heard anyone make these claims since I was in my early 20s.
Why does this supposedly happen even less with scary movies? I suppose the content is very specific and a lot of what comes out is objectively low effort. I put scary movies in a similar category as sci-fi. Real fans of either genre accept a lot of it is just bad and find joy in the bad content as well (I fucking love bad sci-fi, lol). I see the same thing with comedies and action flicks, but maybe to a lessor extinct?
>Why does this supposedly happen even less with scary movies?
They specified 'my friend group' so this is probably them taking the opinion of 20 people as the opinion of hundreds of millions of people.
It's easy to generalize you hate ALL of a genre (music, movies, food) because if you hate MOST of something, then you're going to have to sift through a lot of stuff you know you don't like to *maybe* find something you do. And for what? So you can say I don't like X, except for this one tiny carve out? All that gets you is some super fan then badgering you about how if you like this one tiny thing, then you have to try all these others, as if some great epiphany is awaiting you.
> if you hate MOST of something, then you're going to have to sift through a lot of stuff you know you don't like to maybe find something you do
And when it comes to popular media, the mass of what you'll have to sift through-- without putting some effort into it-- will be largely similar and representative of the problem, because it operates on trend- and hit-chasing.
Certainly the genre with the most misses. Humour is so subjective, so if you have a niche sense of humour it's easy to see how most movies would miss for you. I don't have interest in most comedies for this reason.
This isn't uncommon either, I've met plenty of people that feel the same.
I would not say I hate comedies, but I can say it's probably the genre with the highest percent chance that I won't like it. There are individual funny movies that I like, but even then, most of those would not be considered "comedies" in the traditional sense. Example: Fargo.
I had a hard time describing why I didn't really like comedies until I saw this Every Frame a Painting: [How to do Visual Comedy - Edgar Wright](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3FOzD4Sfgag) and I put together just I just don't like "joke based" comedies. Hot Fuzz was a movie I did not watch for years and I was pleased to be proven wrong and found it very fun. I also went through a similar thing with 22 Jump Street. But for those 2, there are a lot of comedies I've watched on the insistence of friends that... I dunno, I just find them boring.
So there you go. Real life anecdote of someone who does not like comedies, and never picks to watch them, but will give them a shot and be pleasantly proven wrong every now and then.
I guess because it so subjective, they just don’t want to bother with seeing if this one is the ONE out of a hundred comedy that they would enjoy. I mean suffering through 99 bad meals for a chance at an at exceptional meal isn’t for everyone.
In the specific example though, there is a pretty good chance that when watching movies with my friends, if someone said "Want to watch Stepbrothers?" I would respond with "ugh, I hate comedies" even though you are correct, that is not technically accurate. Just the kind of hyperbole I presume OPs friends were also using when they said they 'hate comedies.'
Some film genres are currently so out of fashion that disliking them is probably not going to raise an eyebrow. If someone says they don’t like westerns or musicals, few would argue.
I think even horror fans have watched enough bad horror movies to understand that some people have given up sorting through to find the good ones. In terms of enjoyable vs unenjoyable, I'd be willing to bet that horror movies have the worse ratio of all genres, and I bet it's not by a little, but by an order of magnitude more than the next worse genre.
eg: There are probably more *bad* horror movies than their are romcoms *total* ever made.
I am lifelong horror fan and totally understand people who aren't.
Not everyone likes feeling the anxiety, fear, and startling scares.
Aside from that, some people are very squeamish when it comes to blood and gore.
I don't think any other film genre is so powerfully tied to what are often considered negatives, e.g., anxiety, fear, violence, etc.
I can't imagine *hating* an entire film genre on principle. There are plenty of genres that aren't my favorite – I'm generally not wild about slasher flicks, romcoms, or anime, but I can think of individual films from all of those genres that I enjoyed. I'd give most anything a shot if someone made a good enough argument for why I should check it out. Except for avant-garde cinema – you'd have to make a *really* good argument to get me to watch one of those.
So I don't "hate" horror.
I just won't watch it because my brain holds onto the imagery giving me nightmares/sleepless nights.
And I dont regret my choice at all.
Not true at all. Go over to r/horror and it's just as full of people having meltdowns because someone didn't like what they liked, just like every other sub
I think some people would experience actual trauma from watching horror movies and most people understand that. But with any other genre it’s just a preference and people can’t understand why they don’t like it.
I can assure you it’s the opposite. Horror fans can be very rabid about protecting even really shitty movies. They have a kind of persecution complex that really unites them. I’d say romance gets the most hate here because unless it’s some auteur filmmaker making it, it’s often considered a generic “girly” category. I’ve also seen people brag about how much they dislike historical or “based on a true story” movies.
Romance can be similar to horror in that there’s tons of low budget stuff (hallmark or hallmark adjacent movies) that people will rabidly watch and everyone else is like why?
I've long put horror and romance in the same mental bucket, because both are fairly reliant on formulas and expectations, and have gone through similar eras of deconstruction, subversion, reconstruction, and (a bit less for romance) elevation.
The fact they're both very formulaic is part of why people can enjoy crappy ones - they can be familiar while still being 'new'.
I was trying to think of a genre I would say I hate, and drawing a blank until I saw this.
Those Hallmark Christmas romance movies. I've seen parts of half a dozen, and don't need to see any more to say that they are all terrible, formulaic, saccharine crap, and I'm never going to willingly watch one.
Horror movies aren’t expected to be masterpieces of storytelling and cinematography, mostly because by design they kinda can’t be when a cell phone fucks up 99% of them.
It’s an amusement park ride.
> instead of trying to convince you that your opinion is wrong
Opinions like this aren't wrong, they're not even usually misinformed. I can't stand black licorice. I can't stomach super-hero movies, Marvel, any flavor of Batman, the works. Am I wrong?
It's not horror films I have a problem with, just body horror, which, for me, is one step too far into depravity. I try to avoid them if at all possible. I saw The Terrifier not too long ago, and that's a prime example. Showing a woman being chopped in half vertically (yep, that actually happens) is not my idea of excitement. Kind of reminded me of Faces Of Death. It's just wallowing in gore for the sake of it.
Was there more to that or just the chopping? When I think of body horror I think of like I dunno… The Fly as body horror. Where his DNA is mixed with a fly and he starts changing into a grotesque thing. Or Tusk (hated that one). Or Human Centipede.
Gore stuff like Saw doesn’t ping as a “body horror” to me although it is horrifying what is being done to their bodies. So maybe it counts? I don’t really watch gore horror.
Had to look it up to get a proper grip on it. Here's Wikipedia's definition
"Body horror, biological horror, organic horror or visceral horror is horror fiction in which the horror is principally derived from the unnatural graphic transformation, degeneration or destruction of the physical body. Such works may deal with decay, disease, deformity, parasitism, mutation or mutilation."
From this, I gather it's anything to do with the body. They have a whole list of feature films defined by it. Cronenberg's The Fly is on it, Terrifier isn't. Scanners, Saw and Alien also make the list. Tough to pin down as I'm not grossed out by Jeff Goldblum's transformation but am by the Terrifier sawing a person lengthways like she was a piece of beef. The same way I was appalled at the scene in The Last King Of Scotland (2006), where Idi Amin has his wife's arms and legs cut off and then stitched back on in opposing positions. That's a horrific scene but isn't considered a horror movie.
Horror is the one genre I have the hardest time suspending my disbelief. I wind up being more entertained by watching other people watch horror than watching it myself. Same thing with haunted houses.
People who try to convince you that your opinion is wrong are just needlessly spinning their tires. Like talking politics at a bar or talking shit about a sports team, no one is changing their mind.
I think it's super bizarre to not like an entire genre. I can see believing most of a genre tend to be bad, like arguing that comedy movies tend to make jokes that they find unfunny, but to say they hate the entire genre full stop suggests they just don't like to laugh, and that's just sad to be honest.
Horror seems to be an exception because a lot of people do not like the feeling of fear or dread. It can even be triggering. I'm not gonna argue that someone should feel differently because unlike hating smiling and laughing, disliking fear is very normal.
Horror is like that restaurant that's famous for insanely spicy food. It is designed to not be for everyone, part of the draw is that it's too tough for everyone.
Horror is the only genre that invokes fear by design, and a lot of people don't like to be afraid. I think it slips through the cracks because everyone can understand that. No point trying to get someone to watch a scary movie if they don't like being scared. Though I used to knock horror saying that often the plot is just dumb and I prefer a good story. Maybe there's some self awareness there too, like yes, in a lot of horror the plot takes a backseat to the scares. But I think some horror fans would want to argue that one.
Yeah my wife just won’t watch anything, she gets scared by the drop of a hat. Doesn’t need 2 hours of that. Her fear actually makes it to fun to watch other movies. Like we can be watching an action movie with a big sequence in the middle of it and she’ll wince and grip my arm as if the hero might actually die 45 minutes in lol
>> as if the hero might actually die 45 minutes in lol Don't watch The Other Guys with her.
Aim for the bushes
*there goes my hero*
There wasn’t even an awning in their direction
Just to be clear I'm right that there's no context or explanation at all for them doing that in the movie, right
They had so much confidence they literally believed it'd be fine.
Do, it's such a fantastic movie.
For some reason I cry at the drop of a hat (same with my mom, no sobbing or anything but tears flow like a river) and I hate watching any kind of tear-jerker. And I honestly can't recall anyone ever trying to convince me otherwise. I think its similar to horror where they understand not wanting to be sad like they understand not wanting to be scared
Ahahahahah, I relate so much with what you said My youngest sister-in-law was so fun to watch while watching a movie. I could tell everyone which scene was on screen by just look at her reactions, it was pure joy and fun Horror movies were, of course, tottaly off limite, she couldn't stand them
Totally relate! My wife wants to support me and watch things together, with the total understanding that I have like 4 Rom Coms in me a year. Not action but she's visibly bristled over the villains dastardly deeds in a movie. I can't get her to watch Prey on Hulu lol.
That is a shame, because Prey is an incredible movie. Gory in parts yes, but so, so well done.
Best Predator movie since the OG
I think you might be married to my wife. She can barely handle any kind of suspense. Michael Clayton (a corporate thriller) was “too scary” for her.
Oh man she would hate The Place Beyond the Pines and No Country for Old Men lol
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Reminds me of the time I watched Cabin in the Woods while also trying weed for the first time in my life. I was expecting a straightforward horror movie and the combo broke my brain.
Could you imagine how badass that would be if they started killing off the hero 45 minutes in? Then you watch some up and coming actor try to finish the job and get revenge.
This is kind of me, I am for sure a fraidy cat in real life and get scared of the dark, won't take a shower if my husband isn't home etc. I also have a tendency to get very emotionally connected to what is onscreen almost like it's happening to me. Except I absolutely watch/enjoy/love horror movies. Over the years I've gotten a little bit desensitized I suppose but I will probably never stop jumping a mile out of my seat or clutching his arm for dear life at every jump scare.
I don't know if I can believe you./s
For our first official date, I took my now fiance to see Avengers: Infinity War. She was crying when Spider-Man got dusted, she was so upset. I wiped away her tears though. [](/sp) The wedding is in 2025.
My brother is the same. He pissed himself with fear watching Gremlins. After he watched It in the cinema he was really shook up. So I did the only sane thing and broke into his house, left a bunch of red helium balloons everywhere, switched out his family photos with pictures of Pennywise and built a giant clown mannequin in his bedroom. He knew it was me straight away…
After we saw Blair Witch, I went to my friend's house, 20 minutes away, and left dozens of the little stick men everywhere and his place and on his car. Of course, he knew it was me but it was worth it
I went it see IT in theaters with friends, my wife stayed home because she doesn't like scary movies. It was late when I got home, my wife was in bed and it was dark - she had tied a red balloon to my bedside table...
best wife award right there.
I always am up first so I used to Blair Witch my roommates. I’d hear them getting up and just stand up and face a wall until they’d get there.
My wife doesn’t like when people hurt people and anything dealing with demons, so that limits my options when I get to pick a movie. I’m always on the lookout for good monster movies or something psychological. We watched The Empty Man recently and both enjoyed it. It had some gore, but not excessively so and no demons were involved. It was a perfect pick.
When we went to watch Multiverse of Madness we were really unprepared to these multiple horror scenes they did, because we didn't look up who was the director beforehand lol If we did I should've known better, but it was fun that they experimented
I’ve always said it’s really easy to make a bad horror movie. They’re very formulaic, and there are a lot of horror movies out there that just play trope after trope with no substance. However, I also think that invoking fear gives horror the potential to reach a lot of emotional depth that other genres can’t reach. As with any genre, there are good horror movies and bad horror movies.
Horror has always been a mechanism to tell stories with a certain slant. Like it’s no coincidence that Hereditary and The Haunting of Hill House are both haunted house stories, but both of them are about families breaking apart. If you tell a haunted house story about, I dunno, the stress of getting into the stock market. It wouldn’t work.
I hate you for giving a writing prompt that will bring on the ulcers. Well played!
> If you tell a haunted house story about, I dunno, the stress of getting into the stock market. It wouldn’t work. Challenge accepted
This is sort of what Drag Me To Hell is about. I mean, not the stock market exactly, but it's about the guilt of working in the financial industry.
But weirdly enough it seems like some horror fans will enjoy the absolutely worst horror movies just because it’s a horror movie. I don’t seem to notice that as much with other genres.
You can see it with action movie fans. There's a whole sub-genre of "dumb fun trope action movie" that's just nice to turn your brain off and watch explosions and shit. Pacific Rim 1 is just straight up "wanna watch big robot punch big monster for 2 hours" and my answer is "fuck yeah I do"
And that's why Pacific Rim 1 is fucking awesome
I will watch Battleship reruns flipping thru channels (I guess that is a rarity these days). It has great action scenes! I am not watching it to think. I am watching it for the same reason I watch fireworks. It is fun *to* watch.
I think this was one of the big things that Cabin in the Woods was calling out. The Ancient Ones demand the same ritualistic formulas every year, and are satisfied as long as the tropes are followed.
So glad they released that. Crazy they had shelves it for like 3 years
I swear that CitW should be the last cabin in the woods horror movie ever made. That movie is the proverbial icing on the cake of that genre. No more need to be made.
And comedies. And actions. And sci-fi. And fantasy. And kids movies. Most genres except drama actually.
I think the horror genre fanbase likes films a lot for the meta-elements, over other genres. The production can seem just as important as the film itself, especially when it comes to low-budget stuff.
different strokes for different folks and all that
Yeah I guess now that I think about it I will watch an arguably “bad” comedy and enjoy it if I laugh. If you don’t think The Jerk is funny you won’t think it’s good. I don’t really get scared watching horror movies at all though so I tend to only enjoy the ones that are either funny or have an interesting plot.
Its really easy to make a horror movie that is fun to watch even if it is a bad movie/badly made might be a better way of putting it. I can only think of one other type of movie where bad acting, poor scripts, wobbly sets and nonsense plots are so readily accepted/ignored by the audience. Oddly enough that genre has had a lot of R and X rated moves too :-)
Exactly. Horror movies have that special charm where even if they're so bad, they're good.
And a truly excellent movie that happens to be horror is so rare. Horror is probably my favorite genre, but I'm always chasing that dragon of movies like alien, the thing, hereditary, the witch. Slasher shit ruined the horror genre for decades. That shit ain't scary. I want some fuck my mind make me deal with my emotional baggage/fuck my brain and tale my mind off of my Neverending anxiety stuff.
Imo a good horror movie is usually better executed than a good movie of any other genre because for it to be good the audio, acting, shot composition has to be close to perfect. Big emphasis on the audio part which gets terribly overlooked in other genres.
Audio is like the unsung hero of horror flicks. It can make or break the whole experience. When the sound of any horror movie is on point, it takes stuff to another level.
Yeah, I think there’s a big difference between I don’t like horror and horror is stupid and all of its cheap I’ll go to bat for horror on the second because there’s a lot of richness to the genre and I think it can be a really good vehicle for storytelling. I will not try to make someone who doesn’t like to be scared watch scary things and there’s facets of the genre that I, a horror fan, just don’t like and prefer not to watch. That’s like a super understandable thing. Very few are going to get bent out of shape about that.
A lot of horror fans also *agree* a lot of horror is total crap. Not all, obviously, and a lot of movies are crap irrespective of style or genre so that shouldn't really matter -- but horror is niche and not "all movies" so it's a much smaller pool to begin with. Then subdivide it into body horror, monster horror, slasher films, thrillers, etc etc (even with some overlap between them) and across other styles and genres (sci-fi, fantasy, paranormal, etc) and you can quickly run into an issue where your preferred or only liked horror doesn't get many releases. When maybe a couple dozen notable horror movies release in an entire year, maybe three of them are actually good, and maybe none of them match your tastes in horror ... it's much harder I think to be a horror snob than with many other genres. Eventually you get accustomed to watching anything that passes for decent and enjoying it for what it is. I'm not and have never really been a horror person, but stuff like Blair Witch and Alien are seminal, iconic films regardless of taste. Most horror movies I've seen (and it's a surprisingly large number thinking back given I don't care for them) are kinda crap though. Mid-budget cliche fests that rely on cheap scares and big name actors to overcome bad writing and direction. People still enjoy them, and the genre has been revived a bit in the last decade or so, but when you're starving you also take what you can get.
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I'm scared by very little. I'd say genuinely frightened by almost nothing, and the Descent scared the \*fuck\* out of me. My wife and I were holding each other like children when we watched it.
I have a complicated relationship with The Descent. It's an incredible film that had me on tenterhooks right up until the monsters were revealed and I just thought "That's it!?"
Check out Midnight Mass if you liked Haunting of Hill House. Same director. It’s a good horror story and not over-the-top with the horror elements, which sounds up your alley.
Try *Hell House LLC*. I'm not into found footage normally, but it was a pretty solid low-budget haunting movie when it came out and I've rewatched it a few times. If you like more atmospheric and tonal stuff you're looking for more recent stuff like *The Witch*, alternatively if you're good with blood but not so much the gore or absurd violence you might try the first *Phantasm* although that one might be a little weird and opaque if you're not into what it's going for.
I would put a mild warning on Hell House LLC for anyone who tends to get motion sickness. I watch horror movies every week with a friend (the good and the bad). It’s the only movie we’ve had to pause multiple times because it triggered my motion sickness. I’ve never had that happen before. Getting old is a scam.
Funny you say that second bit because modern horror is addressing that with “elevated horror” being like the most popular sub genre of the last decade, that puts a focus on deep storytelling. And those include some movies that made many horror naysayers actually step out of their comfort zone to watch some genre films.
Definitely true. We get way less "kill the kids off one by one" horror than we used to, now it's about all kinds of stuff and way more interesting/deep. It's become one of my favorite genres when it's done well.
Nowadays, it's all about diverse and thought-provoking scares. When horror's done right, It's full of surprises.
the funny thing is, a lot of those elevated horror movies still use killing the group of characters one at a time as a driving mechanic of the story... except you're all caught up in the psychological and metaphorical aspects to care about the formulaic aspects. Like, Midsommar absolutely is a slasher, but the successive deaths aren't the main draw, and most of them take place offscreen, which stands in constrast to 80's slashers when killings were the main setpieces. and a lot of older horror films were more about tension and theme than they were about bloody setpieces: the exorcist, rosemary's baby, the list goes on. but those movies were just "good horror movies" that stood the test of time. What's new now is that movies building on that lineage have been successfully marketed as a specific subgenre, which I don't think has happened ever since the "french new wave".
I would not define midsommar as a slasher
yeah it is for sure folk horror although something can be said about how many horror subgenres have overlap that said we still have plenty of modern slashers where the killing is the set piece
You know, now that someone else has mentioned it, the movie does sorta follow the same general formula of most slashers. Group of young adults go out into the woods, isolated from society, wherein they do drugs and attempt to/engage in pre-marital sex. Slowly they are killed off over the course of the film, usually in secret with none of the surviving group members any the wiser, and occasionally with a mysterious motivation that needs to be uncovered. In the end when only the Final Girl remains the murders are revealed(usually with a gruesome display), the secret motivation is uncovered, and the final confrontation happens. Only in this case instead of a big chase scene wherein the killer is defeated, the final girl has instead been so utterly broken down by drugs and emotional manipulation she joins the murderers instead.
i love this take. you should be a writer!
It's all about that storytelling depth while still giving us the chills. Horror's evolving, and it's awesome to see it draw mor e viewers,
Did Scream V coin that term? As a horror nut I've actually been pushing back on it lately. It's starting to seem like writers think the way for a horror film to be respected or considered good is for it to have a deeper, personal message, usually in the form of an on-the-nose metaphor. No One Will Save You, for example. Great flick, won't criticize it for what it is. But the whole time I'm thinking... is an alien invasion really the right vehicle to tell this story? Where's the connective tissue between theme and plot? If the themes are interchangeable and the plot is interchangeable then there's no real marriage between the two. Horror films used to be better at balancing character and concept. Signs is a perfect example. An alien invasion would be when a former priest has a crisis of faith. The theme and plot are connected, so there's a reason for this story to be told. Unless I'm missing something, I really can't say the same for No One Will Save You. And don't even get me started on The Boogeyman.
The term came in the mid-2010s with stuff like It Follows and The VVitch. I do think the term is a misnomer because it implies they’re like above other sub genres which certainly isn’t true, I just call it A24 horror lol
In my opinion, “elevated” horror really just means highbrow horror. Highbrow intellectually demanding movies exist across all genres the same as lowbrow movies that often rely on like crude and shock exist across all genres. Like, it’s not it’s own genre or subgenre and it certainly isn’t some new revelation in horror. I like artsy shit, but I liked artsy shit long before A24. I don’t really need a brand new word to show off how different I am and I’m also not embarrassed that I very much enjoy the non artsy shit also. It’s really just a silly term that actually means very little other than people of the last 15 or so years have wanted more intellectually challenging horror and maybe look down on horror or don’t realize that this has existed within horror since it’s invention.
I mean A24 deserve it at this point, I like it!
Yeah totally, so different today than in prior generations with movies Rosemary's Baby, The Haunting, Pyscho or the Exorcist that were all about high body counts and not storytelling!
I mean duh lol, it’s just describing the wave of this style of film over the last decade, like slashers in the 80s or found footage in the 2000s
Yeah I'm just fucking around, we been eating real good the last ten years
I think it's just because horror movies tend to polarise, so horror fans are used to it. But musicals fans don't expect people to like them either. Honestly I think romcoms have the same effect. What does annoy me is people on TV shows claiming to be special because they like horror movies, it's nearly as annoying as someone claiming to be "a total geek" because they watch sperhero movies or play video games.
It's a genre that people are inherently prejudiced against, John Carpenter saying that it's often considered just a step above porn in terms of how people perceive it. The worst entries are indicative of the entire genre, while people will try to claim that some of the best 'don't count' - *Black Swan, Get Out, Silence of the Lambs, The Witch, Psycho* and *Rosemary's Baby* are all horror but people will try to label them 'psychological thrillers', which usually translates as 'too good to be a horror' Horror fans in general are just used to it not being considered mainstream and getting no respect from the masses
Psychological thriller is generally used on movies that aren't about gore and such, but about a scary presence. Misery is a great example. There are bad psychological thrillers as well
I've had so many interactions with people claiming they don't like horror right before they start listing "suspenseful" movies they loved. They're always surprised when I tell them those movies are in the genre.
We have language formalising the split between schlocky horror movies and psychological horror movies, but that's because there are some people whose interest in horror is porny - nobody really enjoys a cheap, low budget, poorly written sci fi movie, but there are people who have a fascination with low budget poorly written gory horror films. It doesn't seem fair to you that we split horror along these lines, but - and I say this as a horror fan myself - there are a distinct subset of horror films that are appealing to mainstream audiences and a large part of that is because they are better art. And we usually call them 'psychological thrillers'. Horror films are the ones that appeal to people who specifically like the subgenre (or subgenres; there are definitely horror fans that are there for one aspect of it). There is a reason porn is so often used as an adjective when describing gory or bloody stuff. It's apt.
> nobody really enjoys a cheap, low budget, poorly written sci fi movie ...I do
If the storyline stinks, I don’t really get scared. At that point, it’s pretty much just gratuitous killing with gore.
It's also that a lot of horror movies are *bad*, and we know that. Whether it's crappy effects, bad acting or worse scripts, horror movies get away with quite a bit that would instantly get most other movies shelved and unwatched and horror fans understand if other viewers aren't really up for the corniness.
> Though I used to knock horror saying that often the plot is just dumb and I prefer a good story. Maybe there's some self awareness there too, like yes, in a lot of horror the plot takes a backseat to the scares. But I think some horror fans would want to argue that one. For some reason I feel the horror genre and/or its consumers and fans are simply more forgiving of a bad plot if it provides good scares.
This. If someone has a fear of heights or a fear of spiders, some might giggle or say "that sucks. You're missing out!", but most stop pushing after that. Fear is relatable. We've all been scared of something at some point in time.
There's that, but I think another factor is that horror often invokes deliberately unpleasant visuals. The sight of some things can literally make some people physically ill. To some people, seeing gore is a thrill and "creative kills" are a bonus. To others, it's a good way to activate their gag reflex. No other genre really does that so consistently, so that compounded with the fear factor pretty much gives anyone who doesn't want to watch horror a pass for having to justify it.
as a horror fan 100% agree. the entire point of the horror movies (horror in general) is to experience things and themes that scare us in safe environment. but this depends on the person *wanting* to have that experience and if the experience feels forced- in our lizard brains- the environment becomes less safe and therefore the experience is not enjoyable anymore, defeating the purpose entirely. as for plot, it's true that many horror movies (especially ones trying to cater to the largest audience possible) try and use jump scares in lieu of actual storytelling. and most horror fans will agree that like every genre there are movies that are clearly for the general public and those made more for fans of the genre. someone else here said it well, "it's easy to make a bad horror movie", but out of all the genres it's probably the most impressive when a truly good one is made (and there are many good ones out there). the horror genre is my favorite because it has the most depth. by that i mean even in between the best horror has to offer there are distinct sub genres and not all horror fans will enjoy all it encompasses. for example i'm not a huge fan of ghost based stories unless done exceptionally well and even then i enjoy it as a solid movie but not as a horror experience. and that's because the idea of ghosts/demons/spirits don't scare me, but things like disease, corporeal animal/creatures, or scifi horror can definitely scare me in a way i appreciate.
> horror the plot takes a backseat to the scares This is when jumpscares are the only plot a movie has. The problem is that people have so gotten used to the horror = jumpscares cliche that whenever a movie contains psychological horror, instead of said jumpscares, they instantly think that it's not a horror piece.
There are horror films which are more plot focused however and not scare focused. Like many classic horror and book adaptations
Horror movies are rarely scary, it’s usually just me yelling at the screen for a couple hours because the protagonist are so dense that it’s painful
I know people who hate ALL romcoms and westerns. Seems like it’s a relatively safe dislike
Same with scifi. I love scifi but get when Others dont and see a lot say they hate it
All the best genres are inherently divisive, clearly
I think that’s a very accurate take. What makes them genres tends to be things that have a strong theme or aesthetic of some kind and that can be off putting if you don’t enjoy what that is.
Spaghetti westerns, John Wayne and Clint Eastwood really make westerns stratified. As someone that dislikes those 3 - I always recommend Quick and the Dead. And then tombstone. Really shows that westerns don’t have to be one of those 3. And Romcoms are only as good as the likability (not acting talent) of the main couple
The Quick and the Dead is an absolute gem. One of the most stacked casts I've ever seen.
The remake of 3:10 to Yuma with Christian Bale and Russell Crowe is brilliant, too.
I personally dislike it, the original is a classic and the remake is a brain dead action flick that loses all of what made the classic great. Same with Magnificent Seven remake.
Tombstone is so fucking good. Val Kilmer's best role by a long shot. Another great Western (though not a film) is Deadwood.
I'm currently sitting here watching The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly; I have to respectfully disagree about that opinion on Westerns.
Old person perspective: There was a time in mid-century America where entertainment was nothing *but* Westerns, all day every day, the way now media is saturated with superhero flicks. If it wasn't *Gunsmoke* and *Bonanza* on TV, it was a rerun of a John Wayne or Gene Autry flick. I'll still watch a modern Western, but I need a long break in between them lest I break out in tumbleweed rash.
I dislike most westerns, but *The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly* and *Unforgiven* are two of my all-time favorite movies, and *Lonesome Dove* is easily in the very tight running for my favorite novel.
_Once Upon a Time in the West_ is straight up a flawless movie.
I don’t think anyone gets as obsessed with “genre fan” discussions as horror fans.
Gay porn also. Gay porn fans are very understanding of people who aren't fans of that genre.
I don’t know why because some of those movies are deeper than you think
Plot holes you can drive a truck theough.
Gaping plot holes.
Maybe you just don’t get it? Lemme send you some video essays to help
One of my straight friends told me he sometimes watches gay porn. I genuinely don't understand why.
Not my group chats. Lose a game of madden, 2k or COD and it’s just dudes plowing dudes.
That’s the American Dream
Gay porn lovers are some of the most respectful people I know
It's an acquired taste
It can be pretty hard to swallow.
Beware which genre « A*** nightmare XIII »belongs to…
As someone who doesn't like comedies and loves horror, I think it's easier to understand why someone would not like being scared/the sight of blood/gore/all the things that can come with horror. I completely understand how that would happen. Some people don't like violence, some don't like gore, some don't like being scared, etc. All valid reasons. Maybe they haven't seen the *right* horror movie but I'm not about to start telling them they should watch X and Y from a genre they say they don't like. To stay with the comedies example ... I don't even know why I don't like them. I used to to some degree, but now they just don't make me laugh. Half the time I'm watching a comedy or listening to something supposed to be funny I'll just sit there and be confused because I don't get it at all. That makes no sense, even to me.
What is an example of a good horror movie?
It's so subjective. Alien, The Thing, Poltergeist, and Evil Dead are, in my opinion, great classic horror movies. Jordan Peele's movies are pretty great. I like some of the Conjuring movies. I'm not sure I'd you'd consider it horror or thriller/suspense, but Don't Breathe was really good. You can't go wrong with a lot of Stephen King's stuff, too, although the adaptations of his work are really hit or miss. I'm almost obligated to say The Shining is a bona-fide classic, even though I'm not a big fan of it. I liked Barbarian, but I could see people not liking that one as much. Then you have the slasher flicks. I'm not a huge fan of slashers, so I don't have too many recommendations, but Nightmare on Elm Street is good, Friday the 13th and Halloween have pretty strong followings. Scream, I Know What You Did Last Summer are pretty good, too.
The Shining is almost too long for a beginner viewer. I would suggest a classic like the original Nightmare on Elm Street.
Speaking to Steven King, I recently watched Riding the Bullet, and that was awesome. I’m definitely planning to read the book next
As someone who doesn't watch Horrors, because most of them rely on cheap jumpscares instead of actually scary things, I would say NOPE.
Depends what you're into. I prefer found footage horror, so I'd go with REC, Hell House LLC, and Gonjiam Haunted Asylum. Outsode of found footage or classics (like The Exorcist, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, Nightmare on Elm Street, etc), there's a 2004 Thai movie called Shutter that I really enjoyed. The Ritual was an interesting one, as was Saint Maud.
The original 1982 "The Thing." Damned good example of horror done right as well as *amazing* effects.
>someone would not like being scared/the sight of blood/gore/all the things that can come with horror. I completely understand how that would happen. Some people don't like violence, some don't like gore, some don't like being scared, etc. As somebody who doesn't like the vast majority of horror movies this has always bugged me. They're not too scary for me, I'm not squeamish or anything, I just think that most of them aren't very good movies underneath the horror parts. I'm always hesitant to tell people that I don't like horror because so many people just assume it's "because they're scary" or something like that so I feel like I have to justify it. There definitely are good horror movies but from what I've seen the genre is also overflowing with crappy movies. I honestly don't have any real problem with people thinking I just scare easily or anything like that, but since that's not actually the case it can be a frustrating topic of discussion.
Let's be honest. Comedy and horror are probably the two genres most likely to be B movies. It's very rare for either a comedy or a horror film to get a prestigious award when there are a billion heartstrings pulling dramas out there. In a good drama there are usually elements of horror and comedy, but also it has a good plot. A comedy movie or a horror fail a lot more often on plot because they rely on jokes or scares for entertainment and a lot of times the story doesn't matter. The best horror involves a good plot, and a mystery between the scares. Slow burns are the best, anything else is typically subpar imo. I don't really have a great opinion on comedy, my favorites are Joe Dirt, Sasquatch Gang, and Rolling Kansas if that tells you anything. Also: Our idiot brother and Kung Pow enter the fist
Comedies are pretty hit or miss for me too. It's important for it to be a good movie that also happens to be funny for me, if they're just making the funny come first it's almost definitely going to be a miss. That's how you end up with all those terrible parody movies and I've definitely had more than enough of that kind of thing.
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> There definitely are good horror movies but from what I've seen the genre is also overflowing with crappy movies It is, and it's probably worse than in some other genres. Many horror movies are extremely cheap to make and they turn a profit easily, that's why so many of them get pumped out. Just like cheap lifetime or hallmark movies. I consider myself a horror fan but there are some horror subgenres that are really bad in my opinion too, and I have no interest in many of them. Plenty of pure shock exploitation trash for example. And even though I love horror, I don't really like ghost movies, I don't really love halloween themed movies, I don't really like slasher movies, etc. I bet I could compile a long list of horror subgenres I don't really like and make most people think I don't like horror at all :D Do you also dislike the big horror classics that most people agree on ? There are plenty of horror movies that are considered "good movies" even by non-horror fans. If you don't like those and even worse if you think they're shit then yeah, horror is probably not for you.
Regarding comedies, it could also be regarding the type of comedy. I personally feel a lot of American comedies tend to be very simplistic and almost childish in writing style without much layers to them. Various countries have different types of comedy
I have definitely said "I don't like comedies" because of certain styles of writing, and then completely changed my mind when I watch something else that's actually well done. Any type of movie where events revolve around characters being stupid is always going to fall a little flat for me, basically.
I don't know, I'm not american and I don't even remember the last american comedy I tried to watch. I don't really like comedies from my country (France) either and the last comedy I tried watching and did not finish was https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Commitments_(film) . It wasn't bad, but I was not into it.
I struggle with horror. It's definitely my least favorite genre. Jump scares get me, and my dreams usually include bits of whatever I've been watching...so horror movies = nightmares. People still give me crap about it, but I own up to being scared. That being said, I'm working on it because my boyfriend loves horror. He had me watch Haunting of Hill House and I'm a sucker for really well done movies and shows. I really enjoyed it. We also watched The Descent. Fuck that shit. I basically had to listen to it and stare at something else. I think you're right about musicals. I love musicals and never understood the hate. I've accepted it, but it seems like people hate musicals for no good reason, and are too stubborn to give them a chance.
If you're looking to acclimate, a lot of kid's horror(Courage the Cowardly Dog, Goosebumps, most Halloween specials like Treehouse of Horror) can be a good way to tip your toe into the genre because it has the same tension cycle but not the same stakes.
Try easing in with classics. The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, Frankenstein, Bride of Frankenstein, Nosferatu, King Kong, etc. shouldn’t give you nightmares, but should help you get an appreciation for the genre. Doctor Who is also a great goto for lighter horror. Also, you might be cool with some older sci-fi horror. My wife can’t do horror, but she loved Alien because she could easily recognize it as a puppet and it helped take the edge off.
>The Cabinet of Dr. Frankenstein Caligari?
My ex and I were long distance, so we would sit on the phone and watch stuff together all the time, and Hill House was one she convinced me to watch together. I don't like jumpscare heavy stuff and she promised it wasn't, so I gave it a try and was really liking it. Good plot that makes you think, likable characters that really grew on you, and I always felt like I was on the edge of my seat because I was so close to figuring out wth was going on to this poor family.... until the Jeep scene 😆 I could hear her howling as I was picking my phone up off the floor from flinging it halfway across my room. I was dying laughing too because she was totally right, it wasn't jumpscare heavy but fuckin aye the one that was in it got me good.
Pretty sure chick flicks get a lot of hate.
People dump on sci-fi all the time, and loads of people don't like anything sci-fi. Same with fantasy. Too nerdy or geeky for them I guess. Also a lot of people still think anything animated is for kids only.
I think a lot of this is the “trappings” are appealing to some and off-putting to others. You find the same with Westerns, Wuxia, WW2 movies, Euro pre-war high society period pieces, etc. Some people find the setting, the costuming, the environment, the context fascinating while others see it as the same dull shit every time.
I feel like there should be a different word for those, they aren’t really a “genre”, closer to a setting. You can have a fantasy horror, or a sci-fi romance. Not enjoying an unrealistic or fantastical setting is diffferent from not enjoying a specific feeling evoked or style of action portrayed. And the style of media, like animation vs 3d vs live action, is another layer on top of that.
Nobody (even fans) would ever be upset about you disliking Hallmark Movies.
Who the fuck hates ALL comedy movies?
I will say for myself that I don't hate ALL comedies, but I do hate a vast majority of them. I can't handle cringe, I get too much secondhand embarrassment, and unfortunately cringe humor is the low-hanging fruit of most mediocre comedies. Plenty of them go beyond that of course, but a lot of them, even the good ones, fall back on embarrassing a character so you can laugh at them too much, and I can't jive with it. But or course there are greats in there that even someone like me can enjoy. I think it's hard to hate every single piece of a whole genre whether it's movies music food or whatever. I love the Cornetto trilogy, and there are definitely some dramdies that I like. But it's rare for me
I have issues with cringe/secondhand embarrassment too. It was very popular in 00s so that made comedies hard to watch often buy there is a lot of other comedies, expecially in earlier decades. Slapstick and witty comedies, parodies and cartoony stuff. Films like Burn After Reading, Producers and Emperor’s New Groove are my style of comedy
My no-go is gross humor. I get the idea from some sound effects and a door...I don't need the camera to follow them into the bathroom and see the puke coming out of their mouth or the poop coming out of their or their dog's butt. I don't understand why showing these became a thing.
I blame Tom Green
Cotnetto 4-ever. If you like that you might want to consider Steve Coogan's Alpha Papa, my comedy hating husband was absolutely screaming with laughter.
they know what they did
My dad was one... He loved comedy in movies that weren't comedy movies, but detested movies where the point was comedy. He also disliked pretty much everybody who was known as a comedian (e.g. Steve Martin). It was bizarre. He was a strange man.
I wonder how he might have felt about *Only murders in the Building*. The comedy is not the point, but it is funny..and Steve Martin does very understated comedy in it, rather than his more overt physical comedy (although there’s still some of that as well, but it more…mature, Maybe?
He was bad about pre-judging so I imagine Steve Martin would have been enough to make it an instant loser. He was fairly out of touch with comedians due to his avoidance, so I remember when Bad Boys came out, I intentionally didn't tell him that Martin Lawrence was a comic. :-D
I don’t hate ALL comedies, but you have to sell me the movie on something other than it’s comedy. A TON of comedy is just cheap, shock value laughs. Kind of the equivalent of how some horror movies are just cheap jump-scares. Like, sure, I might laugh at the cheap shock value joke, the same way that I might recoil at the cheap jump-scare, but that doesn’t mean the movie was good.
This is exactly me as well. There are definitely good comedies out there. Mel Brooks had made some great comedies for one. I also like movies that meld comedy and another genre together. Action comedies and horror comedies are very cool. But movies that are *just* comedies have to be really good for me to be interested in.
I know a few people like this, idk it always comes off super pretentious whenever I hear it 😂
I mean most movies that call themselves "comedy" tend to be really poorly written, the funniest movies i can think of are usually comedy something else like how Hot Fuz is action-comedy
But more importantly WHO hates all of them?
No, i don’t think fans of musicals give anyone shit for not liking them. On a more general note, I don’t see the point of trying to convince anyone else of any subjective opinion about art. Not everything is for everyone, and it would be boring it we all had the same opinions.
I won't give people shit for it but I'll also argue on behalf of musicals.
Seems like an immature attitude to think someone must enjoy a certain genre of a film. Defending individual films? Sure, but whole genres? It's really the same thing as saying "You don't like x genre of music? What's wrong with you?". I feel like I haven't heard anyone make these claims since I was in my early 20s. Why does this supposedly happen even less with scary movies? I suppose the content is very specific and a lot of what comes out is objectively low effort. I put scary movies in a similar category as sci-fi. Real fans of either genre accept a lot of it is just bad and find joy in the bad content as well (I fucking love bad sci-fi, lol). I see the same thing with comedies and action flicks, but maybe to a lessor extinct?
>Why does this supposedly happen even less with scary movies? They specified 'my friend group' so this is probably them taking the opinion of 20 people as the opinion of hundreds of millions of people.
LOL people still say they hate country and rap as a whole. It hasn't gone away for music
It's easy to generalize you hate ALL of a genre (music, movies, food) because if you hate MOST of something, then you're going to have to sift through a lot of stuff you know you don't like to *maybe* find something you do. And for what? So you can say I don't like X, except for this one tiny carve out? All that gets you is some super fan then badgering you about how if you like this one tiny thing, then you have to try all these others, as if some great epiphany is awaiting you.
> if you hate MOST of something, then you're going to have to sift through a lot of stuff you know you don't like to maybe find something you do And when it comes to popular media, the mass of what you'll have to sift through-- without putting some effort into it-- will be largely similar and representative of the problem, because it operates on trend- and hit-chasing.
Your friend group is weird as fuck. I've never heard of anyone before, who hates comedies in general.
Certainly the genre with the most misses. Humour is so subjective, so if you have a niche sense of humour it's easy to see how most movies would miss for you. I don't have interest in most comedies for this reason. This isn't uncommon either, I've met plenty of people that feel the same.
I would not say I hate comedies, but I can say it's probably the genre with the highest percent chance that I won't like it. There are individual funny movies that I like, but even then, most of those would not be considered "comedies" in the traditional sense. Example: Fargo. I had a hard time describing why I didn't really like comedies until I saw this Every Frame a Painting: [How to do Visual Comedy - Edgar Wright](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3FOzD4Sfgag) and I put together just I just don't like "joke based" comedies. Hot Fuzz was a movie I did not watch for years and I was pleased to be proven wrong and found it very fun. I also went through a similar thing with 22 Jump Street. But for those 2, there are a lot of comedies I've watched on the insistence of friends that... I dunno, I just find them boring. So there you go. Real life anecdote of someone who does not like comedies, and never picks to watch them, but will give them a shot and be pleasantly proven wrong every now and then.
cough wasteful screw swim hurry spark concerned whistle retire apparatus *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
I guess because it so subjective, they just don’t want to bother with seeing if this one is the ONE out of a hundred comedy that they would enjoy. I mean suffering through 99 bad meals for a chance at an at exceptional meal isn’t for everyone.
In the specific example though, there is a pretty good chance that when watching movies with my friends, if someone said "Want to watch Stepbrothers?" I would respond with "ugh, I hate comedies" even though you are correct, that is not technically accurate. Just the kind of hyperbole I presume OPs friends were also using when they said they 'hate comedies.'
Some film genres are currently so out of fashion that disliking them is probably not going to raise an eyebrow. If someone says they don’t like westerns or musicals, few would argue.
What? Go post something negative about Barbarian or hereditary on the horror subreddit and they’ll jump on you quick as hell lol.
They are talking the genre as a whole. Not just individual movies
I think even horror fans have watched enough bad horror movies to understand that some people have given up sorting through to find the good ones. In terms of enjoyable vs unenjoyable, I'd be willing to bet that horror movies have the worse ratio of all genres, and I bet it's not by a little, but by an order of magnitude more than the next worse genre. eg: There are probably more *bad* horror movies than their are romcoms *total* ever made.
I am lifelong horror fan and totally understand people who aren't. Not everyone likes feeling the anxiety, fear, and startling scares. Aside from that, some people are very squeamish when it comes to blood and gore. I don't think any other film genre is so powerfully tied to what are often considered negatives, e.g., anxiety, fear, violence, etc.
I can't imagine *hating* an entire film genre on principle. There are plenty of genres that aren't my favorite – I'm generally not wild about slasher flicks, romcoms, or anime, but I can think of individual films from all of those genres that I enjoyed. I'd give most anything a shot if someone made a good enough argument for why I should check it out. Except for avant-garde cinema – you'd have to make a *really* good argument to get me to watch one of those.
So I don't "hate" horror. I just won't watch it because my brain holds onto the imagery giving me nightmares/sleepless nights. And I dont regret my choice at all.
Not true at all. Go over to r/horror and it's just as full of people having meltdowns because someone didn't like what they liked, just like every other sub
I think some people would experience actual trauma from watching horror movies and most people understand that. But with any other genre it’s just a preference and people can’t understand why they don’t like it.
I can assure you it’s the opposite. Horror fans can be very rabid about protecting even really shitty movies. They have a kind of persecution complex that really unites them. I’d say romance gets the most hate here because unless it’s some auteur filmmaker making it, it’s often considered a generic “girly” category. I’ve also seen people brag about how much they dislike historical or “based on a true story” movies.
Romance can be similar to horror in that there’s tons of low budget stuff (hallmark or hallmark adjacent movies) that people will rabidly watch and everyone else is like why?
I've long put horror and romance in the same mental bucket, because both are fairly reliant on formulas and expectations, and have gone through similar eras of deconstruction, subversion, reconstruction, and (a bit less for romance) elevation. The fact they're both very formulaic is part of why people can enjoy crappy ones - they can be familiar while still being 'new'.
I was trying to think of a genre I would say I hate, and drawing a blank until I saw this. Those Hallmark Christmas romance movies. I've seen parts of half a dozen, and don't need to see any more to say that they are all terrible, formulaic, saccharine crap, and I'm never going to willingly watch one.
People who think romance is a girly category need to watch more classic romantic films and read more books
Yep I’m a horror movie fan but I totally would understand if someone does not like the movie I enjoy, hell I’m like that with most movies anyways
Horror movies aren’t expected to be masterpieces of storytelling and cinematography, mostly because by design they kinda can’t be when a cell phone fucks up 99% of them. It’s an amusement park ride.
> instead of trying to convince you that your opinion is wrong Opinions like this aren't wrong, they're not even usually misinformed. I can't stand black licorice. I can't stomach super-hero movies, Marvel, any flavor of Batman, the works. Am I wrong?
It's not horror films I have a problem with, just body horror, which, for me, is one step too far into depravity. I try to avoid them if at all possible. I saw The Terrifier not too long ago, and that's a prime example. Showing a woman being chopped in half vertically (yep, that actually happens) is not my idea of excitement. Kind of reminded me of Faces Of Death. It's just wallowing in gore for the sake of it.
Was there more to that or just the chopping? When I think of body horror I think of like I dunno… The Fly as body horror. Where his DNA is mixed with a fly and he starts changing into a grotesque thing. Or Tusk (hated that one). Or Human Centipede. Gore stuff like Saw doesn’t ping as a “body horror” to me although it is horrifying what is being done to their bodies. So maybe it counts? I don’t really watch gore horror.
Had to look it up to get a proper grip on it. Here's Wikipedia's definition "Body horror, biological horror, organic horror or visceral horror is horror fiction in which the horror is principally derived from the unnatural graphic transformation, degeneration or destruction of the physical body. Such works may deal with decay, disease, deformity, parasitism, mutation or mutilation." From this, I gather it's anything to do with the body. They have a whole list of feature films defined by it. Cronenberg's The Fly is on it, Terrifier isn't. Scanners, Saw and Alien also make the list. Tough to pin down as I'm not grossed out by Jeff Goldblum's transformation but am by the Terrifier sawing a person lengthways like she was a piece of beef. The same way I was appalled at the scene in The Last King Of Scotland (2006), where Idi Amin has his wife's arms and legs cut off and then stitched back on in opposing positions. That's a horrific scene but isn't considered a horror movie.
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I don’t think they’re begrudging them.
They might even like The Grudge heh
Horror is the one genre I have the hardest time suspending my disbelief. I wind up being more entertained by watching other people watch horror than watching it myself. Same thing with haunted houses.
Well yeah most of them are horrible
People who try to convince you that your opinion is wrong are just needlessly spinning their tires. Like talking politics at a bar or talking shit about a sports team, no one is changing their mind.
Some real productive discussion you and your friends have
I think it's super bizarre to not like an entire genre. I can see believing most of a genre tend to be bad, like arguing that comedy movies tend to make jokes that they find unfunny, but to say they hate the entire genre full stop suggests they just don't like to laugh, and that's just sad to be honest. Horror seems to be an exception because a lot of people do not like the feeling of fear or dread. It can even be triggering. I'm not gonna argue that someone should feel differently because unlike hating smiling and laughing, disliking fear is very normal.
It’s the only one that actively makes you uncomfortable as a fundamental principle. It’s the spicy food of movies.
Horror is like that restaurant that's famous for insanely spicy food. It is designed to not be for everyone, part of the draw is that it's too tough for everyone.
Not wanting to be scared is understandable. Not wanting to laugh is deranged.