Calantha
Gryffindor Alumni
My name is Luck, this is my song, I happened by when you were gone
Posts: 4,493
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Post by Calantha on Nov 3, 2003 16:11:35 GMT -5
One of those things I'd like to figure out someday is why so many people think things are scarier if they're based on true stories. This is the real mystery behind urban legends. Isn't it scary enough that people are capable of making something like that up, without actually doing it? Anyway. It gets me too, I just don't know why.
Well, I think for me is that although it is scary that people can make up something so scary without doing it, the fact is that it never really happened. It's that line between doing and creating...like I could think about killing someone, but that wouldn't mean I had to act upon it. So in my head I just go ahead and think that no one will do such and such act because they're actually good people and before they get to the act they'll realize why not to do it... But when there are true stories about doing some sort of horrible murder/crime/whatever, it shakes my whole belief and all... Like, I know this kid who went crazy and stabbed a family and killed a man and injured a few others. That scared me too...because even though I might have thought in my head "So-and-so could do that" I believed he wouldn't, but when he did...passed the shock part of it, it was just down right frightening.
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Calavera Diablos
Ravenclaw Alumni
Draws grown men wearing underpants outside their trousers
Posts: 1,547
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Post by Calavera Diablos on Nov 3, 2003 19:09:25 GMT -5
One of those things I'd like to figure out someday is why so many people think things are scarier if they're based on true stories. This is the real mystery behind urban legends. Isn't it scary enough that people are capable of making something like that up, without actually doing it? Anyway. It gets me too, I just don't know why.
I watched 28 Days Later with a few friends this weekend, and it scared me for a variety of reasons. There were so many examples of what kind of monstrosities humans are capable of -- from what the scientists were doing to the monkeys at the beginning, especially the one hooked up to the TVs, to what the soldiers were prepared to do to the two female survivors. Plus, things about virulent viruses push one of my personal scares-me-badly buttons, because I have this dread of sickness. *shudder* And the film included some really brilliant scenes about human-ness that only added to the terror. Like (um, I'm trying not to spoil anything here, so we'll just say that the disease appears to attack the human brain and cause people to stop acting rationally) the scene where the dad becomes infected and tries to tell his daughter to get away, and the scene where the infected guy who's been chained up seems to be reaching out for help, but is really just luring an uninfected person closer, or taking a breather, or something -- it's an animal behaviour that, for a moment, looked human, and then wasn't. That one really got me
Ditto what Koko said about the scene in the tunnel -- the shadows were terrifying -- human shapes without human movements. Eeek...
Anyone else seen this? Opinions?
...I just want to throw in two more things I loved about it that had nothing to do with the scary-ness of it: 1. a real heroine, perfectly capable of doing whatever she has to do; and 2. good use of Faure's Requiem... that almost made me cry.... KokoBean and I had a big to do on that (check later pages). Yeah, at first I thought they were trying to make Selena too hard-ass, but you realise that after surviving that long with Mark, she had to shut down emotionally in order to survive a possible attack from the Infected (why the hell did everyone else call them zombies? They're still alive, people, they're just full of uncontrolled rage! Gr.) And she was a Chemist! ;D Ditto with Frank and Hannah. I liked the fact that Hannah pointed out that they would need one another to survive, it was quite a departure from the usual Kid players in Horror movies. Frank made me cry. It was such a touching moment, he even apologized for losing his temper at finding the Manchester Blockade abandoned. They've supposedly done other England-Quarantine movies before, I'm looking into that. The credits didn't pay any homage to other movies. Requiem? All I heard was Ave Maria and Abide With Me.
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Post by En on Nov 4, 2003 14:59:08 GMT -5
It's when they're driving up to the Manchester blockade. That eerie floating music:
In Paradisum deducant Angeli in tuo adventu suscipiant te Martyres et perducant te in civitatem sanctam Jerusalem Chorus Angelorum te suscipit et cum Lazaro quondam paupere aeternam habeas requiem
*shiver*
Yeah, one of the things that freaked me so hard in retrospect was that although Selena did things that, in this society, would be considered monstrous -- she had to. There were different ethics for survival in a plague situation. That scared me. ...Well, it could be argued that Jim going back for Selena and Hannah adequately disproved Selena's survival theory, but... I'm not sure.
OK, sort 'em: Frank, Hannah, Selena, Jim. _________________________
Cal -- good point. I guess -- for me, the act of putting something in text form is such a conscious act that the thought that other people could put such horrors down on paper frightens me. You're right though, there is a line between fantasy and reality, and all of us have had thoughts about how to do something atrocious that we've chosen not to do; I just -- have an overactive imagination or something.
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Post by KoNeko on Nov 23, 2003 7:38:12 GMT -5
See, I watched Texas Chainsaw Massacre last night and although I did find bits of it creepy (but not scary- or is it the other way round? ) I was more into thinking why the hell you'd run into a meat packing factory (I was half-expecting a dead person to be hung on a meathook and covered in plastic) or an old abandoned house. Like... it violated every "this is so obvious" rule in the survivial horror book.
I liked the bit with the hitchhiker in it at the beginning... some of those camera angles (like the one through her head) were pretty cool...
But yeah. On the drive home (at 3am) I did look over my shoulder a few times, especially when things in the boot of my car went "bump".
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Post by Rue on Nov 26, 2003 11:59:09 GMT -5
Movies which are made with the intent of scaring peple haven't scared me much in the past few years. They make me edgy sometimes, and I do the whole jumping onto my bed instead of regularly sitting on it, so anyone below it can't grab my ankles thing.
But I get even more like that with movies that just violate these huge moral laws I have. So I was watching this tv show about this pedophile who lured this 12 year-old girl into his hotel room, and I was like, grabbing onto my friends hand and hiding my eyes and moaning. And generally I can't deal with watching people cut themselves either... And Requim for a Dream freaked me out like crazy, so whenever people wach it I need to leave the room.
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Post by En on Nov 26, 2003 13:01:19 GMT -5
When I watch scary movies, I get this kind of... it's a deep lucid state, where I get really aware of movement and colours and sounds and stuff. I don't know what that's about. But they also make me feel like I need to cover my chest. Like, I have to cross my arms and put my hands on my shoulders, or hold a pillow, or something like that. Dunno what that's about either
I'm actually more comfortable in the dark than in bright light, which probably has a good deal to do with the fact that I can see way better in moonlight than sunlight (not much pigment on the old retinas... bleah). So being in the dark doesn't bug me, and I know perfectly well that there's nobody in my house but me, so... I do get jumpy about sudden noises though. There was one night that a big chunk of the tree outside my house came down right as I was watching a scary movie, and I jumped straight forward off the couch -- pity it wasn't an Olympic event, nearly a meter and a half for a sitting long jump probably isn't bad
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Post by Rue on Nov 26, 2003 21:15:10 GMT -5
Well, do you feel like your chest is the most vulnerable part of you? Because I know you were saying before that if you're wearing a thin shirt you can see your heartbeat, and that your ribs are really thin, so maybe you just feel like you need to give it more protection.
I get like that with my wrists. That's the one part of me where my veins are really visible, so if I'm feeling uncomfortable then I cover them up somehow.
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Post by Nie on Nov 28, 2003 4:47:03 GMT -5
See, I don't normally watch scary movies unless they have more of a sci-fi or fantasy theme. Why? Because I naturally have this thing where I take notice of movements and see things out of the corner of my eye all the time. That's pretty much how I live my life. So watching a movie that would make me paranoid as I saw those things probably wouldn't be good for my mental stability.
I'd be more inclined to watch scary movies if I had someone to watch them with, but I can never seem to find someone willing to watch scary movies with me. I'm not sure why, but people don't seem to like the idea of watching a scary movie with me.
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Post by KoNeko on Nov 29, 2003 0:14:46 GMT -5
I'm a bad scary movie watcher because I spend most of my time with my thumbs in my ears during the film.
Oh, Rue, I'm like that with the base of my neck and my ears. I freak out when things go in my ears, like even stray bits of hair or something. I think it has something to do with the whole earwig urban myth and the old mafia stories about making people talk using the "knitting needles in ears and mallets" ploy...
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Post by Rue on Nov 29, 2003 0:23:22 GMT -5
When I watch scary movies I'm fine with hearing it, like, the screams and panting and whatever, I just have problems seeing it. So I always hide my eyes and stuff... I even do that in cheesy romance movies and stuff when two people kiss in a really awful spot (ha! double meaning... sorry... : or when the wrong two people kiss. I just really don't like seeing it, even though the sound effects just whoosh by me...
Hey, do you think that's because of the way we dream? Like, if I have nightmares from a movie, it's almost entirely visual, as most of my dreams are... and if there is conversation in a dream, it's more like I get a sense of what we're saying, even though I don't notice each detail as much as I do with the visual stuff... So maybe I'm just protecting my subconscious self when I hide my eyes.
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Post by KoNeko on Nov 29, 2003 0:38:46 GMT -5
Yeah, I'm the other way round. I can watch all the gross and gory and ugly and scary stuff in the world, provided that I don't have to hear the freaky sound effects that go with it, I'm alright. That said, nightmares that I have are usually based on like, really weird or unnatural noises, like manical laughing or the sound of kids singing or something really... sinister. That would freak me out more than like, seeing a chainsaw wielding maniac or something like that.
Hmmm... that brings me to a point- what's the novelty and fun-ness of being scared? What is so enjoyable about being really freaked out or something?
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Post by Nie on Nov 29, 2003 0:44:56 GMT -5
Yeah, that would make sense, Rue. I mean if some part of you knows that seeing sary stuff is more likely to give you nightmares than hearing scary stuff, then the rest of you is going to try and stop you from seeing that scary stuff because it'll be better for you.
Perhaps that's why I don't like to watch realistic type scary movies but like watching vampire and werewolf movies. It's cos subconciously I know that vampiresand werewolves don't really exist (to my knowledge) and so aren't as scary as a real person with a butcher's knife going on a cold blooded killing rampage. I think it's cos I know those things sometimes really happen that I don't like to watch it. It reminds me that it's hard to trust people and that anyone out there could be capable of such things.
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Calantha
Gryffindor Alumni
My name is Luck, this is my song, I happened by when you were gone
Posts: 4,493
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Post by Calantha on Nov 29, 2003 9:33:47 GMT -5
Oh...the sound and the visuals get to me...although, I have before muted the tv if I rented a scary movie and it isn't as scary but then the silence scares me when I'm alone and I'm watching a scary movie.
I have to be away from windows (I always look out them and thinK I see a face or a body or something...stupid overactive imagination) and I curl up on one side of the couch with my dog or another person close to me. Sort of like how I can't sleep on my stomach because I can't see what's going on behind me and I feel quite vunerable.
I don't know why I watch scary movies but I think part of it is just to be afraid in a different way. I do get afraid of things but mostly it is worried-afraid...but scary movies gives me adreline afraid that I normally don't experience in my life. Also, when I watch them, I plot out what I would do to live in that situation...it's almost...almost like preparation...
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Post by En on Nov 29, 2003 12:17:02 GMT -5
One reason I like scary movies is because I appreciate the symbolism used, and another reason is that I like the adrenaline rush... but I think mostly I like them because of that energy / drug-like effect... for some reason, it's easier for me to write when I'm on a scary-movie rush. Dunno. That's weird, I know, but it probably comes from reading a load of Poe as a kid...?
Yeah, I have major chest issues, because of the being able to see my pulse thing and because I had super-bad asthma as a kid, along with other lung-related problems (my brain couldn't always figure out how to operate them, a condition known as apnea). So that's probably what that's about, and probably it's also a heat-conservation thing, because since my blood is so close to the surface, my chest gets cold really easily
Anyway... oh, for me it's definitely the visuals that get me, or worse, text. I cannot, cannot read scary books before going to bed. Nope.
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Natz
Ravenclaw Alumni
Posts: 4,269
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Post by Natz on Dec 10, 2003 10:45:18 GMT -5
I agree with you there En because scary books let your imagination pretty much run free while scary films just make you scared of certain aspects from the film. I did read a scary book once and started seeing vampires and wizards in my bedroom. Not fun. Although i do this quite often without the help of a scary book more often than not its a man sitting in my chair and i'm not sure why this is. I'm alright as long as i try and not look at the screen but i went to see Jeepers Creepers recently the second one and i ended up sort of making the popcorn jump cause i looked up at the most scary bit Yes i kind of hate it when its silent in your house and you start to get scared at the slightest noise.
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