~~MiSeRy BuSiNeSs~~
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It's okay
In that case I pretty much agree with you.
What movies did I find fit into that category?
Do you mean in the category I mentioned in my post which aren't necessarily classified as 'horror' films?
If you do then I suppose David Lynch's 'Blue Vevet' which I found incredibly tense the first time I saw it, and I just didn't know what disturbing thing would happen next.
The film that had the most dramatic effect on me the first time I saw it was the uncensored uncut 'Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer'. It actually had a physical effect on me where my legs went numb and I felt really funny. My brain was telling me that it was just a fictional film, but it felt so authentic that my mind was telling me it was a snuff movie and it was wrong for me to be watching it.
I think that the films that truly give me a scare are the ones that have scenes in them that suddenly provide the disturbingly unexpected situations that you can't predict are going to happen, and you also can't predict how the scene will end or where it will go.........THAT'S what gets me.
It may not be necessarily the entire film that I find scary, but just scenes that POP out at me.
Stuff that springs to mind right now...
Scenes from the films I mentioned above (In no particular order):
1) In 'Blue Velvet' the scene of the boy hiding in the wardrobe as Frank is abusing the nightclub singer and using a gasmask. Really harrowing tense stuff. Generally disturbingly scary/creepy film overall in it's style.
2) 'Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer' - Most prominent scene was Henry and Otis watching the video of themselves killing a family. REALLY nasty stuff that got my heart pumping and my legs feeling numb. Very harrowing.
The opening scenes of the camera floating across several murdered women in various positions of death felt bad as well as it all felt so real.
Other stuff from films that are categorized in the horror genre:
3) 'Candyman' - Was very effective in places. The scariest scene for me was when Virginia MaRABen suddenly found herself transported into a kitchen where she is covered in blood and there's blood all over the kitchen floor and the noise of a baby crying can be heard.
This had an effect on me because the scene just happened for no apparent rhyme or reason how she got there, what was going on, and what was going to happen next.
4) 'The Texas Chainsaw Massacre' - The scene where the Grandpa cannibal is trying to smash the girl's head in with a hammer over the bucket. He keeps failing to do it right or dropping the hammer, and each time the hammer is put into his hand to try again and again. I just didn't know how it would end or when it would end. Seriously disturbing. Just incredibly inventive film making'
5) 'The Shining' - Again, several scenes here.
The two twin girls, the old woman getting out of the bath. It had many scenes which were both disturbingly shocking, or scary in the spooky supernatural sense.
6) 'The Thing' - I love John Carpenter films and he's excellent at providing tension based horror. This film I thought was especially good because you just don't know what's going to happen next or how nasty it's going to be.
There's many other examples I could post from various films, but these spring to mind for me right now.
The things that scare me and are evident in all the scenes I mention above is The Unexpected.
1) You don't see how it got to the scene.
2) You can't rationalise it. You can't figure out how what or why it's happening.
3) You can't see how the scene will end.
I think that if you can't see an escape route then you've got the potential for good horror.
Those appear to be three rules that seem to have a good chance of having the potential to scare me.
Because fear to me is being suddenly thrown into a situation with no rhyme or reason and having no clue how to get out of it or why it's even happening. Something where the horror appears to have no beginning, middle, or end.
Poor horror to me is the formula stuff, Often typified by cliched scenes of having a shot set up where the camera is on a character, but there's an expanse of space behind them to either the left or the right where you just know that somebody is going to predictably pop up to occupy that space. Often a character will just stand in front of a window (sometimes a window that's been boarded up with wooden slats) when you know that's a stupid thing to do when there's something outside trying to get them.
It feels lazy and contrived and it's film making by numbers. Won't scare me because you can predict what's going to happen and if you can predict that much you can be pretty certain that any end to the scene will be pretty formulaic and predictable too.
Maybe the formula to good horror is to ironically avoid the familiar formulas as much as possible. Because often it's the very formulas that they use to try to get the horror that in themselves kill any chance of horror.
In that case I pretty much agree with you.What movies did I find fit into that category?
Do you mean in the category I mentioned in my post which aren't necessarily classified as 'horror' films?
If you do then I suppose David Lynch's 'Blue Vevet' which I found incredibly tense the first time I saw it, and I just didn't know what disturbing thing would happen next.
The film that had the most dramatic effect on me the first time I saw it was the uncensored uncut 'Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer'. It actually had a physical effect on me where my legs went numb and I felt really funny. My brain was telling me that it was just a fictional film, but it felt so authentic that my mind was telling me it was a snuff movie and it was wrong for me to be watching it.
I think that the films that truly give me a scare are the ones that have scenes in them that suddenly provide the disturbingly unexpected situations that you can't predict are going to happen, and you also can't predict how the scene will end or where it will go.........THAT'S what gets me.
It may not be necessarily the entire film that I find scary, but just scenes that POP out at me.
Stuff that springs to mind right now...
Scenes from the films I mentioned above (In no particular order):
1) In 'Blue Velvet' the scene of the boy hiding in the wardrobe as Frank is abusing the nightclub singer and using a gasmask. Really harrowing tense stuff. Generally disturbingly scary/creepy film overall in it's style.
2) 'Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer' - Most prominent scene was Henry and Otis watching the video of themselves killing a family. REALLY nasty stuff that got my heart pumping and my legs feeling numb. Very harrowing.
The opening scenes of the camera floating across several murdered women in various positions of death felt bad as well as it all felt so real.
Other stuff from films that are categorized in the horror genre:
3) 'Candyman' - Was very effective in places. The scariest scene for me was when Virginia MaRABen suddenly found herself transported into a kitchen where she is covered in blood and there's blood all over the kitchen floor and the noise of a baby crying can be heard.
This had an effect on me because the scene just happened for no apparent rhyme or reason how she got there, what was going on, and what was going to happen next.
4) 'The Texas Chainsaw Massacre' - The scene where the Grandpa cannibal is trying to smash the girl's head in with a hammer over the bucket. He keeps failing to do it right or dropping the hammer, and each time the hammer is put into his hand to try again and again. I just didn't know how it would end or when it would end. Seriously disturbing. Just incredibly inventive film making'
5) 'The Shining' - Again, several scenes here.
The two twin girls, the old woman getting out of the bath. It had many scenes which were both disturbingly shocking, or scary in the spooky supernatural sense.
6) 'The Thing' - I love John Carpenter films and he's excellent at providing tension based horror. This film I thought was especially good because you just don't know what's going to happen next or how nasty it's going to be.
There's many other examples I could post from various films, but these spring to mind for me right now.
The things that scare me and are evident in all the scenes I mention above is The Unexpected.
1) You don't see how it got to the scene.
2) You can't rationalise it. You can't figure out how what or why it's happening.
3) You can't see how the scene will end.
I think that if you can't see an escape route then you've got the potential for good horror.
Those appear to be three rules that seem to have a good chance of having the potential to scare me.
Because fear to me is being suddenly thrown into a situation with no rhyme or reason and having no clue how to get out of it or why it's even happening. Something where the horror appears to have no beginning, middle, or end.
Poor horror to me is the formula stuff, Often typified by cliched scenes of having a shot set up where the camera is on a character, but there's an expanse of space behind them to either the left or the right where you just know that somebody is going to predictably pop up to occupy that space. Often a character will just stand in front of a window (sometimes a window that's been boarded up with wooden slats) when you know that's a stupid thing to do when there's something outside trying to get them.
It feels lazy and contrived and it's film making by numbers. Won't scare me because you can predict what's going to happen and if you can predict that much you can be pretty certain that any end to the scene will be pretty formulaic and predictable too.
Maybe the formula to good horror is to ironically avoid the familiar formulas as much as possible. Because often it's the very formulas that they use to try to get the horror that in themselves kill any chance of horror.
),It's now more the occasional scene that gets me but as a genre,most horror films are pretty predictable.
