And 0 situations where their building the tension to make you expect a jump scare. Like when they slowly turn the cabinet mirror, but there's nothing there.
You do you. Alien aren't scary but it's intense and well made, and i only watched it recently. The Thing too. They both excel without relying on cheap jumpscare.
I didn’t think I liked horror until I watched the original Alien. Now it’s up there for my favourite movie of all time. I’m still a bit nervous to branch out since I hate jump scares, but maybe I’ll check out the Thing. I’ve heard good things.
Antichrist (Lars von Trier) comes to mind (warning: body horro). But I would also like some good horror movie recommendations, tired of cheap jumpscares
You can just say that some horror movie simply isn't your cup of tea.
It's not enviable if you can only enjoy horror movies if you're surprised, but it's valid to have that kind of taste.
But Psycho and Alien are masterworks of tension in filmmaking (although Psycho is technically speaking a Thriller). And Evil Dead 2 is simply the perfect movie, so, this is my verdict on the meme:
You're entitled to your opinion. I can accept you not being able to enjoy a movie that many people can (still) enjoy. Don't expect me to be happy about it, though.
Hard disagree about horror films and 'scary movies' needing to be 'scary'. That's an extremely subjective measure that just starts useless arguments.
Just like any other film, what it actually needs is good writing, good acting, and good cinematography, parts which are more concrete than whether something's scary. The horror part is essentially just an aesthetic which a movie can sit within.
Also, quite often the view that 'scary movies should be scary' just leads to directors creating films that are hard to watch, period - full of vapid jumpscares, scenes made to just gross out the audience, and often just torture fetish content. It's a terrible metric to aspire to that generally degrades the entire genre imo.
The Internet gives us access to the kind of depths of human depravity on a daily basis that most people wouldn't have been exposed to in 1968, unless they had just gotten back from Vietnam.
It’s a failure of imagination on your part in some cases. In others the studio produced a confusing mess that might be scary if anyone could understand it.
I think an element of being scared is surprise and the unknown.
When something is done well it gets copied and becomes a cliche, then it's no longer scary. Old movies are where the cliches come from, so revising them no longer packs the surprise and unknown from when they were first released. The movies you watch today might be scary, but in a few decades when they've been mimicked a few times they will no longer hold that potency.
So, in a way, yes, older movies tend to no longer be scary. I think some of it is also learning the film making techniques. When we watch the behind the scenes of an actor in a suit, it makes the film lose some of that unknown.
Counterpoint, Begotten is unsettling enough to be kinda scary.
But actually I like "scary movies" not because "scary" but because "Monsters, Magick, Aliens, Kaiju, and Slashers are fun." Simply gore, torture porn, or jump scares just don't do it for me, I need an element of whimsy. I'll take Leprechaun in the Hood, or Jason X, or Killer Clowns from Outer Space, or The Thing, or Godzilla Vs Biolante, or The Blob, or even Attack of the Killer Tomatoes and Maximum Overdrive, before Hostel or Saw.
I re-watched the Exorcist recently. I found it scary, but in a different way from how people try to sell it.
The head turning, the vomit, the spider walking, that was all shocking (and cool) but not scary.
What I did find scary was all the science/medicine stuff. Doctors telling the mother that Reagan is faking it, or keeping her under sedation, or subjecting her to endless invasive tests. The real horror is the mother's realization that the material world cannot save her daughter. The horror of putting Reagan's life in the hands of faith.
So I'd say that it works on several levels, where for some people, scary is "OMG, a monster face!" and for others scary is the incomprehensible.
Do people think what induces fear is the same for everyone, we all have different triggers, what's scary for one person can be mundane for another, it's pointless to judge a movie by this one arbitrary factor, for me a horror movie is good or bad based on a lot more than just this one factor of how scary it felt
You're watching them wrong! You're not meant to watch old movies while half paying attention scrolling your phone. You lose out on so much of the movie that way! You have to watch them how the director intended. That is while half paying attention getting frisky with your date at the drive in.
48 Comments
raef@lemmy.world · 106 pts · 138d
People conflate being startled with being scared
P00ptart@lemmy.world · 69 pts · 138d
God I fucking hate jump scares. It's such a cheap/lame way to do it. A good horror movie has 0 jump scares.
Naich@piefed.world · 28 pts · 138d
Seven has 1 jump scare, and it is brilliant. But yes, a whole movie of them is just lazy.
raef@lemmy.world · 23 pts · 138d
They're cinematic Cup O' Noodles
Zozano@aussie.zone · 4 pts · 136d
One thing I loved about Longlegs is you'd give yourself mild jumpscares if you were paying attention.
You need HDR to see the contrast between shadows, but you'll see demons hiding in plain sight.
rants_unnecessarily@piefed.social · 2 pts · 133d
And 0 situations where their building the tension to make you expect a jump scare. Like when they slowly turn the cabinet mirror, but there's nothing there.
psx_crab@lemmy.zip · 52 pts · 138d
You do you. Alien aren't scary but it's intense and well made, and i only watched it recently. The Thing too. They both excel without relying on cheap jumpscare.
BurntWits@sh.itjust.works · 2 pts · 136d
I didn’t think I liked horror until I watched the original Alien. Now it’s up there for my favourite movie of all time. I’m still a bit nervous to branch out since I hate jump scares, but maybe I’ll check out the Thing. I’ve heard good things.
psx_crab@lemmy.zip · 3 pts · 136d
You should, but do note it start up slow, once it get going it's very well paced imo. it will also likely remind you of a popular game.
9point6@lemmy.world · 41 pts · 138d
Counterpoint: cinematography and story is more important to whether a movie is good than if it makes you jump
The shining is not a particularly scary film by modern standards, it's still rightly regarded as one of the best films of all time despite that
stenAanden@feddit.dk · -20 pts · 138d
It isn't scary
9point6@lemmy.world · 30 pts · 138d
But it's a good movie
morton@kolektiva.social · 6 pts · 138d
@stenAanden @9point6 What are some good contemporary horror movies? Most of them lately have been terribly boring.
whimsy@lemmy.zip · 2 pts · 138d
Antichrist (Lars von Trier) comes to mind (warning: body horro). But I would also like some good horror movie recommendations, tired of cheap jumpscares
morton@kolektiva.social · 1 pts · 138d
@whimsy I recommend it too. But is it a new horror movie? It's 17 years old.
whimsy@lemmy.zip · 1 pts · 138d
Damn, didn't think that it'd be that old...
stenAanden@feddit.dk · -3 pts · 138d
Some recent scary horror movies have been:
Hell House LLC 1-2
Lake Mungo
Long legs
LuckyFogic@kbin.earth · 10 pts · 138d
Ah, now it makes sense. You're into background noise.
Prunebutt@slrpnk.net · 39 pts · 138d
You can just say that some horror movie simply isn't your cup of tea.
It's not enviable if you can only enjoy horror movies if you're surprised, but it's valid to have that kind of taste.
But Psycho and Alien are masterworks of tension in filmmaking (although Psycho is technically speaking a Thriller). And Evil Dead 2 is simply the perfect movie, so, this is my verdict on the meme:
You make me sad
stenAanden@feddit.dk · -30 pts · 138d
Alien isn't scary
Prunebutt@slrpnk.net · 12 pts · 138d
You're entitled to your opinion. I can accept you not being able to enjoy a movie that many people can (still) enjoy. Don't expect me to be happy about it, though.
SomethingBurger@jlai.lu · 1 pts · 137d
It's also not a horror movie.
pjwestin@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 136d
It absolutely is a horror film.
pjwestin@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 136d
What is a movie you think is actually scary?
JayDee@lemmy.world · 29 pts · 138d
Hard disagree about horror films and 'scary movies' needing to be 'scary'. That's an extremely subjective measure that just starts useless arguments.
Just like any other film, what it actually needs is good writing, good acting, and good cinematography, parts which are more concrete than whether something's scary. The horror part is essentially just an aesthetic which a movie can sit within.
Also, quite often the view that 'scary movies should be scary' just leads to directors creating films that are hard to watch, period - full of vapid jumpscares, scenes made to just gross out the audience, and often just torture fetish content. It's a terrible metric to aspire to that generally degrades the entire genre imo.
LuckyFogic@kbin.earth · 5 pts · 138d
A movie being scary should naturally emerge from a story being well told.
bufalo1973@piefed.social · 2 pts · 137d
If you think about it, one scary movie but not in the "normal" way is Schindler's list.
And a scary movie is a hunting movie seen from the POV of the prey.
BackgrndNoize@lemmy.world · 20 pts · 138d
I have no idea what this meme is trying to convey
stenAanden@feddit.dk · -1 pts · 137d
Old scary movies aren't scary
BackgrndNoize@lemmy.world · 12 pts · 136d
Oh so it's a stupid generalization
dabaldeagul@feddit.nl · 19 pts · 138d
House isn't scary at all, though it is scary that the director thought Hugh Laurie was more American than most Americans.
turtlesareneat@piefed.ca · 5 pts · 138d
The subject in question is George Wendt's 1985 classic vietnam war flashback horror film. I can only assume.
IchNichtenLichten@lemmy.wtf · 2 pts · 136d
I assumed it was this one:
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/hausu
Technus@lemmy.zip · 14 pts · 138d
The Internet gives us access to the kind of depths of human depravity on a daily basis that most people wouldn't have been exposed to in 1968, unless they had just gotten back from Vietnam.
Simulation6@sopuli.xyz · 10 pts · 138d
It’s a failure of imagination on your part in some cases. In others the studio produced a confusing mess that might be scary if anyone could understand it.
Honytawk@discuss.tchncs.de · 8 pts · 137d
Who out there claiming old things aren't scary?
texture@lemmy.world · 8 pts · 138d
no movies are scary, wdym?
Couldbealeotard@lemmy.world · 7 pts · 136d
I think an element of being scared is surprise and the unknown.
When something is done well it gets copied and becomes a cliche, then it's no longer scary. Old movies are where the cliches come from, so revising them no longer packs the surprise and unknown from when they were first released. The movies you watch today might be scary, but in a few decades when they've been mimicked a few times they will no longer hold that potency.
So, in a way, yes, older movies tend to no longer be scary. I think some of it is also learning the film making techniques. When we watch the behind the scenes of an actor in a suit, it makes the film lose some of that unknown.
HyperfocusSurfer@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 5 pts · 138d
Old not scary movies are also not scary → old not scary movies are bad. So are new scary and new not scary movies. Hence, movies are bad.
ArcaneSlime@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 5 pts · 138d
Counterpoint, Begotten is unsettling enough to be kinda scary.
But actually I like "scary movies" not because "scary" but because "Monsters, Magick, Aliens, Kaiju, and Slashers are fun." Simply gore, torture porn, or jump scares just don't do it for me, I need an element of whimsy. I'll take Leprechaun in the Hood, or Jason X, or Killer Clowns from Outer Space, or The Thing, or Godzilla Vs Biolante, or The Blob, or even Attack of the Killer Tomatoes and Maximum Overdrive, before Hostel or Saw.
leave_it_blank@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 138d
Upvote for mentioning House. House and House II deserve better than being forgotten.
perishthethought@piefed.social · 4 pts · 138d
Even has a great subtitle
CrackedLinuxISO@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 5 pts · 136d
I re-watched the Exorcist recently. I found it scary, but in a different way from how people try to sell it.
The head turning, the vomit, the spider walking, that was all shocking (and cool) but not scary.
What I did find scary was all the science/medicine stuff. Doctors telling the mother that Reagan is faking it, or keeping her under sedation, or subjecting her to endless invasive tests. The real horror is the mother's realization that the material world cannot save her daughter. The horror of putting Reagan's life in the hands of faith.
So I'd say that it works on several levels, where for some people, scary is "OMG, a monster face!" and for others scary is the incomprehensible.
BackgrndNoize@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 138d
Do people think what induces fear is the same for everyone, we all have different triggers, what's scary for one person can be mundane for another, it's pointless to judge a movie by this one arbitrary factor, for me a horror movie is good or bad based on a lot more than just this one factor of how scary it felt
Fleur_@aussie.zone · 4 pts · 136d
You're watching them wrong! You're not meant to watch old movies while half paying attention scrolling your phone. You lose out on so much of the movie that way! You have to watch them how the director intended. That is while half paying attention getting frisky with your date at the drive in.
ms_lane@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 137d
'Scary movies' aren't scary.
Horror is a meme of a genre.
socsa@piefed.social · 3 pts · 136d
I'm sorry, I just have the kind of autism where scary movies are either cringe or hilarious.
db2@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 138d
House is good, I prefer the sequel though.