This week I decided I would give horror films another chance and went to watch Friend Request. As soon as the lights went to black and the trailers for new horror films were played, I instantly regretted my decision. Throughout the whole film I sat with my hands over my eyes giving myself a tiny hole to peep through, the only time I dared to look at the screen was when it was daytime in the film.
I have never been able to watch horrors, at sleepovers if they decided to play a horror I would try to go to sleep, if my family put one on in the living room I would leave when it got scary. I have always been annoyed at myself for not being able to handle a horror film, so I would always try to push myself into watching one and then regret it. If I do attempt to watch a horror film or sometimes even just a thriller, they play on my mind for days meaning I can’t sleep, every light in the house must be on and I cannot be on my own.
Although I have always avoided watching them, at certain times in my life I trick myself into believing I can handle it, so I have managed to watch quite a lot of horror films even if I did cover my eyes for the majority of the films. I feel they are very predictable, I know to look away when the tense music rises or the main character is walking around on their own in the dark.
I’ve also found new horror films tend to be very similar and the idea of ghosts contacting us through computers and phones seems slightly ridiculous and boring. However films such as Sinister and Insidious are actually terrifying as they rely on making an audience jump and feel extremely tense, they are the type of horrors I would completely avoid.
I also find films like Saw and Human Centipede cross the line and rather than having an in-depth story and making the audience think, they use extremely graphic footage to repulse and scare an audience, I don’t think films of this nature should exist.
I think some of the most shocking and nerve wrecking horror films are those that have a sense of reality like Paranormal Activity or ones that claim to be based on a true story. I think they unsettle an audience even more because they fear that it could actually happen to them. Although I have my hate of horror films, they are one of the most popular genres of film and also tend to make a huge profit. Paranormal Activity was made for $15,000 and managed to make $161,830,890 at the box office.
Horror seems to be a very popular and profitable genre, it seems people will pay to be scared and have sleepless nights, however I do not think I will ever be one of them.
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