I was talking with my son recently and he cautioned me that a particular movie on my list was a horror movie. That brought to mind the reason why I avoid horror movies. I’ve never forgotten two movies I saw in 1953, when I was 10 years old. Both caused nightmares.
The first was “Invaders from Mars,” a sci-fi movie, obviously. What I remember, without confirming the details, is human beings sinking into or being sucked down into an expanse of sand by aliens lurking beneath. The second was “House of Wax,” an old Vincent Price movie. In it he covers actual human beings with wax in order to display them in his wax museum. For whatever reason I remember something about the victims being alive and lying in open caskets.
I’ve no idea why I would have gone to see those movies, or why my parents let a 10-year-old do that, unless maybe they didn’t know … Nevertheless, lesson learned. I avoid horror movies. Those two would probably look pretty comedic by modern standards, but I’ve no plans to watch them again.
And jump scares. I can’t stand them. I recall Audrey Hepburn’s “Wait Until Dark” (1967) when I think of jump scares. No specific scene. Just my intense, involuntary reactions. My fight-or-flight mechanism must be huge. Trouble is, how do you avoid jump scares? If you knew about them in advance, they wouldn’t be jump scares.
The other thing I avoid at all costs is roller coasters. Falling is a very common theme in nightmares, and I don’t want to invite it. That’s exactly the feeling roller coasters elicit in me. Apparently most people get a kick out of that adrenaline rush, but not me. The roller coaster, the falling sensation, scared me half death. Some years later I hoped maybe I’d outgrown the fear. Or at least that awful sensation. So with a bit of peer pressure, I tried it again. Nope, still scared as hell. (And those were the old wooden coasters with no half-mile-long drops or upside down sections.)
So go right ahead, you do you. Watch the horror movies. Ride the roller coasters. I’ll pass.
I concur.
LOL. Good to know I’m not alone in this
https://youtu.be/olEbwhWDYwM?si=9ZK-YGlZXz6WQJQh
Maybe if I’d actually watched some horror movies, this would make more sense …
It’s the inverse of all the horror movie tropes, where people make really stupid decisions and do stupid things that facilitate the horror in horror movies.
Jesus, Colorado, you speak for me – including ‘Wait Until Dark’ – brilliantly tense movie. Efrem Zimbalist Jr as I recall.
As for r.c.s – I was one time taken on one when I was about 25, and I screamed in utter terror the entire time – and I mean TERROR. Maybe my adrenaline has something wrong with it. 🙁
I think it’s definitely the adrenaline. Fight-or-flight has a hair trigger in some of us, and then maybe excess adrenaline. Interesting that the adrenaline rush is something that some people crave and others avoid like the plague.
Or possibly it’s not a matter of adrenaline rush in you and me, but of something much stronger (and much horribler !) …?
“Benign masochism:
Some people find pleasure in experiencing fear-related sensations while knowing they are safe.” Google gave me that AI response.
My reaction was that I was TOTALLY UNSAFE and about to be flung off !
I don’t know but safe to say I’m no going to go back and research it!
I am a fraidy cat!!
We can huddle together!
I haven’t been near a roller coaster in years, but fear of falling is legit, especially for anyone at my age (80) – a simple fall, even from a ladder or a curb, can be a really serious business. Now, speaking of scary movies, the one I remember involved people were being attacked and killed by ants…LOTS of ants! I looked it up, turns out it was The Naked Jungle (1954) with Charlton Heston.
Eww, creepy, crawly ants. I can imagine some of those scenes. I’ll remember to skip that movie. And yes, I’m 82 and know all about the fear of falling that comes with that.
Like you, I was scared by an adult movie seen as a child. In my case, it was “The Lost Weekend” starring Ray Milland. It was about alcoholism and the D.T.’s. In the scene that depicts one of the protagonist’s hallucinations, a bat emerges from a hole in the wall, and then blood begins dripping from the hole. It gave me nightmares for years.
Other than that, I’ve not been much disturbed by horror movies, although I abhor the more-recent genre like slashers. In fact, my wife and I shared a like for the early ones, including “Psycho.” On our first date we went to see “Circus of Horrors.” The theme song was “Look for a Star”, a one-hit-wonder that is on my playlist and always recalls that first date.
Last night, I re-watched a movie called “Copy Cat” about a serial killer (Amazon Prime) with Sigourney Weaver. It was good for me the second time. In the movie, Weaver plays a psychologist who has agoraphobia caused by an encounter with the killer. I guess the effect of these things depend on the particular psychology of the individual.
Hmm, interesting. I saw all of Hitchcock’s films and they didn’t bother me. The “Psycho” shower scene probably scared me in the moment, but not with the awful terror/nightmare sort of reaction. I’m making a note to pass on “Copy Cat.”
I think the old movies were actually scarier than the ones now, which are more violent. The old ones, like “Wait Until Dark,” were more subtle and more psychological.
Maybe that’s the difference, the mind games the old ones played. Letting the viewer’s imagination do much of the work (and apparently mine worked overtime, especially at age 10). Today’s producers have so many special effects to play with.
Incidentally, the movie my son warned me about was “The Substance.”
Me too.
So glad I’m not alone in this. “It” was so popular and so talked about that it seemed I was the only one avoiding it. In my life, starting with Clarabell and continuing through decades of circuses, clowns have been funny, entertaining, laugh-provoking. Now we seem to have several generations who think clowns are scary. Sad.