Are horror movies that include supernatural entities like ghosts, satan, devil, lucifer, spirits, haunted house, possesed person, voodoo, etc. scary?
And how about non-supernatural but still fictional horror movies, like monsters, dracula / vampires, aliens, dragons, etc.?
Finally, how about fictional story but non fictional antagonists, like snakes, sharks, serial killers, psycopaths, or psychological horror movies?
supernatural entities like ghosts, satan, devil, lucifer, spirits, haunted house, possesed person, voodoo, etc. scary?
When I was little, Poltegreist felt so scary!
Since I read Dawkins' books (The God Delusion is very scary btw, totally not recommended for a religious person like me), those movies become silly and lose their scariness. I found the haunted house genre especially silly. Like Ghostbusters silly, and not scary at all.
I wonder how a stupid movie sometimes be scary? Maybe it's the jumpscares?
I am a life long horror fan so don't find horror films scary.
I am also atheist & supernatural stuff.... especially Asian ghost films are my favorites.
I don't think the fact I am atheist makes any difference to what horror films or films I like in general... is it different for religious people?
Well, I was a believer and I found horror movies with posessed person theme very scary. Case in point: The Rite. That movie was really scary back then because I still believed in posession, evil spirits, exorcism, etc. It felt so real. Sometimes I'm afraid that it would happen to me.
Now, I'm no longer a believer and it makes a different experience in watching horror movies, especially the supernatural ones. They became silly and imaginary just like superhero movies or something. All the supernatural theme in The Rite became just like some magic in Dr. Strange movie. Nonsensical and just pure fantasy, no connection to the real world whatsoever. Thus, not scary at all.
Of course, I still can enjoy supernatural horror movies just like I also can enjoy superhero movies. It just not feel scary anymore. And when a horror does not feel scary, what's the purpose then? It's like watching a non funny comedy!
All very fair comments & as silly as it is to overlook I didn't really think about religious people might get more impact from supernatural films but it does of course make sense.
Pure fantasy like you said. I enjoy it & i like the superhero films, lord of the rings and shit like that... they are kind of my downtime from watching horror & exploitation films. But horror could definitely be classed in the same fantasy way.
"It just not feel scary anymore. And when a horror does not feel scary, what's the purpose then? It's like watching a non funny comedy!"
This is something where I do understand what you are saying but you are most probably not a horror fan & by that I just mean a lover of the whole genre... I don't expect to watch silent horror or things like Hammer & expect to be scared, I watch them because I love the horror genre.
"It's like watching a non funny comedy!"
If you only take new films into account that are trying to be scary I agree with you but what scared you years ago kids find amusing & what scares kids now days I/maybe we find amusing... Paranormal Activity & all that kind of shit but it is just times changing.
I posted about this elsewhere on MC, but my experience is similar to yours. When I was a child and still had religious faith, The Exorcist scared the crap out of me.
I don't really find horror movies scary anymore, but some very well done films in that genre can make me uneasy. I saw Blair Witch Project in the theater and was totally engrossed and unsettled by it. Mothman Prophecies is another one that falls in that category.
Yes, if it's a well made movie, it is still scary even if it features things that don't exist. (ghosts, satan, etc).
I mean many religious people don't believe in aliens and they still find alien movies scary. Zombies aren't real and there are scary parts in zombie movies. Even most scary movies featuring real animals like sharks or snakes, have those animals behaving in ways they never would. Movies make animals super smart and calculating and super determined to kill people for no reason. Animals mostly just want to be left alone in the real world.
Fear comes from your subconscious most of the time, so it does not have to be something that is a real life danger to you personally. It does not have to be a rational fear.
This is a good point. I honestly never thought of it. So thank you for pointing it out.
However, I still have lingering question about this.
I am a computer programmer, so when I see movies that depicted computer hacking in a very unrealistic way, I cringed. I can still enjoy the movie because most of the time it happens on a movie that was not about computer hacking per se. It's just used as a plot device.
Now I'm no biologist or zoologist or anything so I don't know much about wild animals. But I wonder if such person watches animal themed horror movies, does he cringe?
If so, does it affect the scariness level of the movie?
Btw, there are many horror movies which mostly only peruse jumpscares. I think jumpscares are not scary, they startles but not frightens.
Yeah. Why wouldn't they?
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Yeah, I never thought of that.
Apparently, there are 2 prespectives on this.
One, like me, found horror movies, specifically the supernatural ones, lose their frightening factor because I no longer believe such things to be real. Or, to be more technically correct, it's not the movies which lose scariness, it's me who became numbed for the scares.
This may only happen to people who used to be a believer but no longer believe. I don't think it affects anybody who are atheists from birth or very young age.
Secondly, like some previous posters said, horror movies are scary not because the subject matter. They can be anything, from ghosts to aliens to animals and if it's a good movie, it can still scare the audience because fear is innate and not always rational. So atheists would still find horror movies scary even when they don't believe it.
However, I still kinda convinced that it would be even more scary if you really believe it.
You make some excellent points, kamen. However, one should remember that when you sit in the darkened movie theater, you have already at least partially suspended your disbelief. The job of a good horror movie director is to increase that suspension so that he/she can scare the bejesus out of you. And one of jhis/her main weapons is your own imagination.
As the late, great Alfred Hitchcock knew, what you do not see is scarier that what you do see.
But you're probably right that if you really believed it, it would scare you more.
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Would an atheist not fear an impending nuclear holocaust which is both a prophetic, spiritually based apocalyptic event and also a possible harsh reality ?
shareI think so. However, I would say that most nuclear holocaust movies are not horrors but sci-fis. Sci-fi can be horror too. And if that so, then yes. Today, even the news on tv about North Korea is scary and unsettling. Imagine the possibilities!
I also found, as an atheist AND as a believer before that, that war movies can be really scary. For example, I can't sleep well for many days after watching a war movie about Nanking. I didn't even realize it was a black and white movie. It felt so real when I remember the scenes from the movie it looks like they were in color. Strange. Apparently I imagined the colors myself.
Those movies just aren't usually marketed as horror movies.
On the other hand, supernatural horror movies about ghosts and possessed person, haunted house, etc. feels silly and not scary at all now that I don't believe them. It used to be, but it's not anymore.
That's why I find this interesting and I want to have a discussion about this. Many people already gave insights for me. So I'm thankful.
I followed a true crime story today where a guy snapped, murdered his girlfriend, then dismembered her body in the bathtub and flushed her organs down the toilet.
Who does that to another human being, someone he supposedly loved just prior to that ?
It's a good question.
I'm not an atheist, nor am I religious. I don't find movies about satan/the devil/lucifer, etc scary as a result. Nor those about vampires, werewolves, dragons, zombies, etc.
Aliens are different (unless we're talking about E.T.) because my personal jury is still out on if they exist or not, and if so, are they benign or malignant?
Films about killer sharks (Jaws!), serial killers, psychopaths, and psychologically frightening movies, can be scary to me, depending on how well they're done. The Haunting (original 1960s version) and Silence of the Lambs were both scary to me, for instance.
Wow, we're such an opposite 😉
I'm an atheist but religious. I go to church and listen to sermon, sing praise n worship songs, make friends, celebrate Christmas, Easter, etc. I don't see the reason not to. I'm used to it since childhood. It's kinda like a tradition really. I just don't believe the God exist.
Aliens on the other hand, most probably exist. It's just the probability that we will encounter them is extremely low. Movie's depictions really make it seem far too probable. I bet humanity will extinct long before we ever have any chance to contact other intelligent life-form as shown in sci-fi flicks.
I have never lose any sleep because of a sci-fi/horror alien movie. They never frightens me. War movies did.
That's interesting! I've never before met anyone who's an atheist, yet goes to church, sings hymns, and celebrates religious holidays.
I too celebrate religious holidays, partly out of childhood tradition, partly because I'll celebrate just about any holiday. Although I'm Jewish, I do have a menorah, and light the candles at Hanukkah, along with getting a Christmas tree and decorating it. I enjoy that kind of thing, and it sounds like you do too, so why not?
About aliens, I met a friend of a friend -- both reliable and truthful sorts of people, not given to fancy or overactive imaginations -- who very reluctantly told me about his Encounter of the First Kind, and only did it because our mutual friend urged him to. It was an unpleasant experience for him, and it was evident in his face and voice as he told it. He certainly seemed credible to me. I've also read about and seen any number of other seemingly very credible people (military personnel and sometime high ranking but retired, law enforcement, and others) tell their stories, and they are compelling. I find it difficult to believe all of these people are either lying, or victims of their imagination. But, as I said, my inner jury is still out.
War movies are frightening. Not the Hollywood glamorized movies that were so popular after WWII and well into the 1950s, but the ones that portray what war is really like.
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