Anyone else can’t stomach their horror very well?

[Ottservia]

So I was playing the last of us 1(cause we wanna play the sequel) with a friend the other day and it was a lot of fun. Definitely a game worthy of praise but it’s sort of shed light to something I thought I had gotten over. After playing I was unable to sleep like at all. I’ve never been one for horror and every time I experience it(i.e. Fnaf, Resident evil, the last of us, left 4 dead, etc.) I just become sleep deprived for the next few days because my mind can’t shake this constant feeling of fear that something is gonna jump out and kill me. Like it’s all fake and not real and all but the feeling still lingers. Like I said I’ve never been one for horror. At this point I may just skip out on the last of us 2 for the sake of my own health. So what about you guys? How do you all handle your horror?

[Silver-Haired Maiden]

I don't consider The Last of Us horror at all. It's action sure, but I'd hardly consider it horror. Of course I enjoy horror games (not movies) so that might play into it a bit. I find them atmospheric and fun and they usually have engaging stories... usually. Also I'm pretty hard to scare. I used to be a lot like you though, I couldn't handle anything even remotely scary.

[Topaz Light]

In regards to Silver-Haired Maiden's comment, I do think it's worth drawing a distinction between something where the story's genre is horror and something that's just gruesome and violent, because something can be the latter without necessarily being the former, and vice versa, too.

I've found that I actually enjoy certain types of horror stories—mainly ones with prominent fantasy, sci-fi, and mystery elements with violence and jumpscares being downplayed—but I really can't stomach excessive violence or gore at all, even if it's just text. It just gives me this really... viscerally-uncomfortable feeling, y'know? I've found it hard to sleep after that kind of thing, too, historically.

[Jotari]

Never bothered me at all, even as a kid. Only film that ever had anything resembling that kind of effect on me was a really bloody Yakuza film that I stopped watching half way through, but that was more disgust than horror or fear and nothing of it lingered after I stopped watching.

Edited June 24, 2020 by Jotari

[Sidereal Wraith]

I'm pretty numbed to horror at this point in life. There are very few fictional stories, movies, etc that actually scare me. I did recently have a night terror based upon Clark Ashton Smith's 'The Double Shadow' so I guess that frightened me. 

Edited June 24, 2020 by Wraith

[null]

I’m pretty sensitive to graphic violence, gore, and horror in general. It’s part of the reason why I don’t play games or watch other forms of entertainment that feature it to any significant extent. As a matter of personal taste, I also just tend to dislike and skip out on entertainment that is heavy on stuff like that. It ruins my enjoyment. 

[Cysx]

It doesn't detract from my sleep(few things do as a matter of fact), but I do dislike graphic violence in particular, especially since images get burned into my mind for years depressingly easily, and said mind really likes to go dark places whenever I'm inactive. And yeah I don't find fear enjoyable either, although it's not to the point where I cannot deal with it. I just don't voluntarily go for that type of entertainment.

To be frank there's also the issue that I don't see a strong justification to getting "over it". I can/want to work on mental barriers of mine usually, but when it comes to horror in general I have a really hard time finding what exactly should be enjoyable about it(this is especially true for gore). Not trying to sound close-minded or critical but...  yeah, idk.

[coldhand25]

I used to be really bad with horror. Like, so bad, that I was afraid of horror-comedies even. I guess this changed when I was around 16-17, in a New Year's Party at my friends. There were quite a few of us there, and we had some drinks (back then when one beer wasn't enough to destroy me.......) and some people decided to watch some horror movies. I tried acting cool and going with the others - and had a plan of how I will pretend I fell asleep or something. The movie started, and it was super-boring, and bad. Like, real bad. I asked them if it's some kind of parody or something, but they said it's not and that it's pretty good. Well, anyways, after that I've started watching Walking Dead, started playing the TellTale games, and last spring watched a few Stephen King films with my sister and brother. I used to be afraid that I will have nightmares, but I never had any. I just came to the conclusion that, if some otherworldly being wants to get people killed, than it will, and if regular people manage to kill it, than it's not scary. This goes for IT, or any other demons, really.

Zombies don't bother me, in fact, I kinda have a thing for zombie movies lately. I also really loved The Last of Us, and currently I'm considering buying a used ps4 mainly for Part II. Or I will just watch a walkthrough as I did with Part I.

I do hate jump-scares though, but they don't keep me up at night. I'm not really playing horror-games heavy on jump-scares. Dying Light - although did have some jumpscares - had a real good atmosphere, and that's why I enjoyed it.

1 hour ago, Cysx said:

To be frank there's also the issue that I don't see a strong justification to getting "over it". I can/want to work on mental barriers of mine usually, but when it comes to horror in general I have a really hard time finding what exactly should be enjoyable about it(this is especially true for gore). Not trying to sound close-minded or critical but...  yeah, idk.

Same feelings, I don't enjoy the horror parts of a horror game, I enjoy the atmosphere, the story, the characters... As for gore, I actively avoid anything that has gore in it, be it text or graphic. I don't see how people enjoy it, or why. And no offence to anyone who enjoys gore, but I simply can't not judge people for it. Can't help it. (Now that I think about it, the "no offence" part doesn't really correspond to how I feel...) I don't mind blood or something, when it's reasonable, like in a game about war or something, but when it's simply cruelty, it's just pointless.

There is just one thing that scares me though - spiders. I have arachnophobia, and I feel nauseous - or at least uncomfortable, even by the sight of pictures of spiders. I tried to get over it by reading the wikipedia article about them, but all I managed was getting to the first picture, and then I closed it as fast as possible. I've never, and will probably never watch a horror movie that includes spiders....

Edited June 24, 2020 by coldhand25

[Interdimensional Observer]

I am a giant coward. Never watch anything horror, never play anything horror. And overly gory games are not at all appealing either.

When it comes to 3D Mario water levels, I still cower into being able to play them b/c of invincible enemies like Unagi- but the Mad Piano aside, I'm fine with SM64's boo level. I beaten Ocarina of Time 3D once, and never will I again, because I dread ReDeads, and have actually gained a Wallmaster aversion over the years. I skipped on MM3D altogether. Never once finished WW because I was so stupidly scared of the Ghost Ship. And Metroid Prime's tutorial area unnerves me.

-Yes, that is very pathetic, and thats my point.

This said, I don't mind "darkness" and "bleakness", I can get through Shin Megami Tensei games perfectly fine, it takes a real special moment to draw out a sense of "fatigue" from its stuff. 

[null]

5 minutes ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

I skipped on MM3D altogether

I don't blame you for not playing MM. I haven't touched that game for the same reason. I can't handle a final boss that acts like some demon out of hell or the creepy vibes that fill the whole game.

Edited June 24, 2020 by twilitfalchion

[Reality]

I could barely even watch JAWS back in the day.

I am getting better at it because I find reading Mike Hommel's October horror movie marathon reviews incredibly funny, and sometimes I want to do it along with hin.

For video games, I consider the Glassheads in MDK2 to be the scariest enemy right off the top of my head. The way they make that "shivering gasp" when they first spot you is pretty creepy, and their semi-immortal/invisibleness contributes to their. - But in general I don't worry about horror in games.

[Interdimensional Observer]

Just now, twilitfalchion said:

I don't blame you for not playing MM. I haven't touched that game for the same reason. I can't handle a final boss that acts like some demon out of hell or the creepy vibes that fill the whole game.

Majora ain't my problem, I can take on the dancing demon. It's the ominousness of the moon getting ever closer that makes me never want to play into the 3rd Day, I would want to rewind on the 2nd. Ikana Canyon is horror city. And I overthink how every time I don't go to the Romani Ranch, Romani is abducted by creepy aliens and gets lobotomized. The aquatic Deku Babas are sorta creep too, and so are the giant eels in that one place.

Just remember, it's all a projection of Majora's Mask itself, Nintendo decided to canonize none of Termina is real, after Link leaves, it soon fades away with the mask's cursed energies gone.

[Captain Karnage]

I think I'm just desentized to any kind of horror in any media. Mainly because I grew up watching horror movies and I wanted a lot of Courage The Cowardly Dog when I was little. I've reached a point where my dad and I bet on exactly what's going to happen in a horror movie down to each jump scare.

[Zapp Branniglenn]

I was terrified of zombie games and movies as a kid. But then Resident Evil 4 came out and I was mentally caught between fears and this incredible game that was like nothing I had ever seen. A couple years later I mustered up the courage to play the game on my own, about 10-15 minutes at a time, and eventually love overcame.

But if a horror game doesn't have good gameplay, It usually won't hold my interest, hence why I wouldn't count myself a fan of horror games. Fatal Frame, Silent Hill, Amnesia, Outlast. Most horror games are slow, repetitive, and don't encourage exploration.

Edited June 24, 2020 by Glennstavos

[Samz707]

I can stomach horror generally, I don't know why but there's something about horror in a video game that feels alot more detached than a movie so the gore/guts tend to rarely seriously terrify me in games (I guess due to you know, not being life-like), though I do prefer horror games since they can rely on tense gameplay and survival mechanics that fill me with a sense of constant dread rather than just gore and jumpscares.

I actually kinda love the thrill of a good ol' survival horror, never knowing if you have enough resources and constantly weighing up whenever it's better to fight, run or occasionally hide. (Which is why I'm not too much a fan of the "Just run away" games, it can work occasionally but in most of them for me it just kinda gets boring after a while.)

I do get annoyed when a non-horror game tries to be horror-y by just having tons of blood and guts everywhere, it can work occasionally (Tomb Raider 1's Atlantis is a strange place, where the walls are made of flesh that pulses as if it's alive while enemies are hatching from eggs, it's definitely something else being in this strange fleshy place that seems to be somehow alive.) but mostly it just kinda doesn't work. (Tomb Raider 2013, where it gets so over the top Lara has a literal bloodbath and they even do the "skeleton's head rolls off as you move by it" trope and the game is trying to be 100 percent serious here as if it doesn't realize how absurd it's being.)

That said, a well done horror movie (Such as The Thing.) will always manage to get the gore more gruesoem for me due to it being more life-like. (Though certain horror films do actually use dead animals and their guts for gore, which I feel is a bit much, I know at least for a time it was actually cheaper to just use real human skeletons instead fake ones which is kinda all kinds of messed up.)

 

Edited June 24, 2020 by Samz707

[Sir Gerwald of Vallora]

It depends on the horror. I adore suspense thrillers akin to Hitchcock or The Twilight Zone, Wickerman (the 70s one), even if they're not considered horror today. I really hate slashers on the other hand. Gratuitous gore, nudity, ect. is just not my thing. I also enjoy the Resident Evil franchise, more for the story than the horror but I'm not as effected by it when its a video game.

Spoiler

Also @Ottservia, while the first game is fantastic, I got the sequel spoiled to me early on, and I avoided buying the game. A friend of mine wasn't so lucky and did buy it. He confirmed that the spoilers were true, (not going to say them here in case you still want to go for it), but it really ruined the experience for him. And it's a shame, with years of work new technology, and especially Laura Bailey, one of my personal favorite voice actresses, as the antagonist, it was panning out to be a great sequel...

 

Edited June 24, 2020 by Sir Gerwald of Vallora

[Hawkwing]

Thanks to being stuck between a rock and a hard place, I haven't really explored the genre; Either I wouldn't be scared and feel like I wasted my time and money, or I would, and thus end up psychologically scarred, and I like my sleep. I don't mind when other games or movies have nightmare inducing elements (for the most part, anyway), but I've never really been interested in a pure horror experience.

With that said, I have become more curious in trying out more horror games after playing Resident Evil 4. While I didn't find the game to be all that scary (I would say that "tense" or "suspenseful" are better descriptions), I did enjoy the survival horror side of the mechanics, such as the game not being afraid to make you run low or even out of ammo, one-hit kill enemies that you had to be cautious towards approaching, limited healing options, and a control scheme that made it seem like you were never fully in control. It made me curious about the rest of the series and the mechanics of other horror games.

Similar case for horror movies after watching The Terminator. I wasn't scared or even frightened at any point, but I greatly enjoyed the story and loved the efficient execution of the titular killer robot. It really made the famous description seem accurate instead of just another over-hyped tagline.

[NegativeExponents-]

6 hours ago, Captain Karnage said:

I think I'm just desentized to any kind of horror in any media. Mainly because I grew up watching horror movies and I wanted a lot of Courage The Cowardly Dog when I was little. I've reached a point where my dad and I bet on exactly what's going to happen in a horror movie down to each jump scare.

Oof, I grew up like this and I still can't handle horror very well. Jaws, Chucky, House of the Dead, Evil Dead, Pet Sematary, etc. My family loved horror movies growing up and I could never stomach any of them. Even parodies used to scare me. I've gotten a bit better about it but it's still not something I like to subject myself to. I can handle some mild horror like Resident Evil series and even enjoy it but something like Until Dawn still has me cowering and would be unable to get through it by myself.

[Jotari]

I'm actually legit surprised at how many people can't stomach horror. I don't know many people in real life that have a massive aversion to it.

[Zanarkin]

I watch it and can usually handle it. Though I do have a sense of fear lingering for a while (few days) if its something I found particularly scary or creepy. Watching The Hauntings of Hill house, The Shining, and It (the old one and to some extent the new one) gave me that. It is particularly hard to deal with it, when I'm walking in the dark around my home or heading to bed. But I manage to fall asleep and can usually succeed in not reacting to the fear (like turning on the lights or walking faster or running up the stairs from a dark-ish place). The more scary and horror movies I watch the easier it gets. Though now I have started to be disappointed by scary movies since most have lost that sense of horror, unless the psychological build up is really good.

 

[Seazas]

Yesn't.

I come to enjoy more community stuff and sometimes the general story than the actual horror content.

Hi there I'm Freddy, wanna come and play

[DragonFlames]

I don't mind horror, necessarily, I just don't think many actual horror stories I saw do the horror well. I did see one of the Saw movies, but except for the fact that it was really gross, I was bored out of my skull the entire time. The only actual horror stories that actually managed to frighten me to some degree (albeit I was still very young back then) were some of Robert Lawrence Stine's books I've read quite a while ago.
One of those that I remember quite fondly is The Werewolf of Fever Swamp.

Otherwise, the most terrifying things in fiction, to me, don't even come out of the horror genre.
I find it much scarier when horror occurs in otherwise decidedly non-horror stories. One shining example of this are the Borg from Star Trek.

Edited October 6, 2020 by DragonFlames

[Shrow]

I don't play horror but I have played a lot of gory games; Mortal Kombat, Gears of War, Prototype, Warframe, Last of Us, usually action games that have that level of gore. Horror games I just don't touch, especially modern ones which are full of jumpscares, I can't handle them.

I actually have a pretty morbid curiosity when it comes to gore, i remember back in college I would dive in the deep web and browse gore thread. Video's of people being shot and stabbed were pretty common but the gore that was the worse was car crash victims, their faces and bodies looked so mangled they hardly looked human.

I do watch horror movies but only old ones. Modern horror relies too much on jumpscares and CGI.

On 6/24/2020 at 8:24 PM, Jotari said:

I'm actually legit surprised at how many people can't stomach horror. I don't know many people in real life that have a massive aversion to it.

We're on a niche forum of Fire Emblem nerds. So its very likely that people on here have similar traits. Such as autism, social anxiety, etc....