I've seen a lot of movies this year, probably more than I have in a long time.
I pretty much exclusively watch horror and spooky things, with a few exceptions. It's just what feeds my soul the most. I don't claim to be an expert. I like what I like, I gravitate toward what interests me. I probably couldn't win a trivia contest but I could sure as hell talk your ear off about a movie if I love it, or hate it. Though I don't expect anyone else to feel as I do about anything. I enjoy conversation about these things.
That said, I always tend to see a lot of division among horror fans when it comes to their opinions of horror media. It's very black-and-white a lot of the time. It's absolute love and devotion, or it's a hate-fueled rampage. Being neutral on a horror movie doesn't seem to be a thing. And while I am extremely passionate about the things I love, and can come away from a movie feeling like it altered my brain chemistry somehow (or, alternatively, come away feeling like I lost two hours of my life that I'll never get back), the extreme way of thinking, and the divided opinions I see on just about every single new movie I've watched in 2024, have really got me thinking about and analyzing why people feel the way that they do.
One argument that I always see against whatever piece of new horror media is currently being spoken about, is always "It's not scary." And it's only recently occurred to me what a strange argument that is to make.
If we were truly "scared" by the things horror movies portray, would we be watching them the way that we do? I've never really thought about it until recently, but I, personally, have never watched horror for the jump scares or with the hope of having nightmares afterward. I simply enjoy dark subject matter and spooky imagery, and horror is the genre I find most entertaining and inspiring to my own self. The more I think about it, the more I feel as though so many horror fans are essentially chasing the feeling of being a young child, seeing Michael Myers or Freddy Krueger or Jason Voorhees, or whoever else (For me the first one was probably Edward Scissorhands!), on the TV for the first time, and not being able to sleep afterward, or get the image out of your head for several days.
But the thing is, most of us grow out of feeling that way. The image of a slasher or monster or ghost doesn't stay with an adult in the same way it would with a child, and the ones that do feel that way about horror characters or gore or spooky imagery, tend to steer clear of that sort of thing, or perhaps just watch horror seasonally, as a part of celebrating Halloween. Everyone I know who finds the subject matter of horror movies disturbing, tends to just simply veer away from them.
Yes, a horror film can be boring, but I don't think that "not being scary enough" is what makes a certain movie boring. For me, boredom with a horror movie comes more from a bad plot or overdoing rehashes of things we've already seen done multiple times. For example, In A Violent Nature had one very unique kill scene, but overall, it's not a movie I would watch again. It's "scary", by definition, and has more violent action than say, Longlegs (which, alternatively, is one of my favorite new movies this year), but it's nothing that hasn't been done before and is paced so strangely, that I didn't find it very engaging at all. That has nothing to do with how "scary" it was or wasn't; I, personally, just didn't find it to be well-written or acted. A
Also, another thing that I feel people forget about horror, is that there are so many sub-genres within it. And while most horror fans tend to feel the need to watch everything that comes out, I think sometimes people don't think about the fact that a certain sub-genre of horror, simply might not be their thing.
For example, when I was younger, I truly only enjoyed paranormal-based horror. It wasn't until my mid-to-late twenties that I started really appreciating slasher films, aside from maybe the Halloween franchise, which I've always had a soft spot for due to how it captures the atmosphere of my favorite holiday. I had no desire to watch movies like Scream or even the well-respected franchises like Friday the 13th or Texas Chainsaw, instead preferring movies like The Haunting, Rose Red, Insidious...things involving ghosts, hauntings, monsters, etc. At that point, gore and reality-based horror didn't interest me, so I just simply didn't watch those types of things, until I began to feel interested. These days, I like all sorts of horror, from paranormal to psychological to slasher to possession, but there was a time when I didn't, when a movie like Terrifier or even the newer entries in the Halloween franchise would have felt boring and pointless to me. (At one point I wouldn't watch anything at all involving exorcisms, I really don't remember why.) And, alternatively, I can see how it could be the opposite for someone else. Those who love slashers and gore aren't necessarily going to find a more psychological movie exciting. Again, to use these two recent movies as an example (and I do not intend to offend anyone who liked or didn't like either of these, they're just the recent examples that stick out to me the most), I don't feel as though Longlegs and In A Violent Nature were necessarily made for the same audience. Longlegs is somewhat of a slow burner, with a heavier, more psychological plot, while In A Violent Nature is straight slashing, with very little plot or substance. Preferring either of these concepts is fine (and I have nothing against slasher films with little plot, I just didn't care for this specific one), but I can't imagine too many people feeling equally impressed by two movies on such opposite ends of the horror spectrum. And that's okay. But you have to remember, just because something isn't for you, doesn't necessarily mean it's bad. And I think, in the horror community, sometimes people forget what may or may not be for them. I'm all for conversation and debate, but picking fights and belittling people over what they thought was a good or bad piece of media, is an exhausting thing to constantly see around.Just accept that something may not be your specific thing, and instead focus on what is. Or, at the very least, be able to back up why you didn't like something, beyond just saying it "wasn't scary". Scary can mean so many different things, and, sadly, there's no going back to when we were kids and saw our first slasher or ghost or monster or possessed child on-screen.
Again, this post is in no way meant to offend or call out anyone who likes or dislikes a particular movie, or has a particular opinion. I just see a lot of divide within the horror community and sometimes feel like people enjoy complaining more than they enjoy actually watching movies. Just my two cents on the subject.
Stay spooky, my friends.
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