Horror Movies Hold No Fascination Anymore

[limatunes]

There was a time--in what feels like a lifetime long ago, which was really only about 5-7 years ago--when horror movies held some kind of twisted fascination for me.

The tension was as intoxicating for me as it was for any adolescent with the need to feel defiant and unique by doing what almost every other adolescent does: resisting authority, making bad decisions, making interesting and somewhat absurd fashion statements, and most importantly, not flinching while watching the most gruesome slasher-movie on the shelf.

No one would know it, but I was TERRIFIED when the alien busted out of Kane's chest in the first Alien movie. I didn't take a bath or brush my teeth for about two weeks after watching IT but, like a big girl of 11, I sat through the whole movie without a single flinch or twitch. I watched all two hundred Halloween movies, and cringed my way through House of 1000 Corpses and The Devil's Rejects. I got through the Ring movies and even the Amityville Horror. Not to mention the whole slue of Exorcist films. I was strong. I proved I could take it.

It's been probably a good year or two years since I've seen a true "horror/slasher" movie, and it was time to prove my valor yet again.

Tonight we went to see the NEW Halloween movie by Rob Zombie.

Let me be the first to say, "What a bore am I?"

Instead of getting all squeamish and scared, I'm pounding the seat in frustration that if the mother had been carrying a gun she could've emptied her selective caliber into Michael Myers' chest after he killed her husband instead of wielding a Fireplace Poker like an idiot and then crawling across the floor for the phone in agony after he stabbed her an unknown amount of times.

I'm also sitting there counting rounds fired and how many times the .357 Colt Python goes "CLICK" before it "magically" fires ONE MORE TIME, despite the fact that that round would have already been fired.

Not to mention the poor house-clearing tactics of the police officers and the fact that no matter how big and psychotic one is, I doubt he could live through one round of 9mm to the back, a stab to the chest, and another five rounds of .357, not to mention the time lapse between those multiple rounds. Adrenaline would wear off, pain and damage would take over, the victim would MOST LIKELY die or be in too much pain to continue on in his current course of mutilation.

I'm also getting fed up with movies painting gun salespeople as redneck, unkempt crazies with poor hygiene and a thirst for destruction.

So, while everyone else is leaving the theater silently and with twisted, disturbed faces, I'm preaching the impossibilities of a fired round firing twice, and the stopping power of a .357 and the benefits of carrying all the time, so that if Michael Myers breaks down your door, your pulling out a gun and not left crawling across the floor for the telephone with blood running out of your mouth and the attacker standing over you with a butcher knife in both hands staging himself for that killer blow.

Yeah, horror movies are a disappointment.

[DefensiveCarry.com]

[Miggy]

Shooters make for bad movie goers and worse producers of slasher films. We cannot suspend disbelief.
I never enjoyed horror/slasher movies. I could never get scared by them because logic got in the way. My wife is a fan of them and she hates the fact I can't stand them and walk away or spent the whole movie criticizing it. I do have to say however that Wes Craven messed me up with the first Nightmare in Elm Street: How do you kill a bad dream?

[Tom G]

If limatunes had her way poor old Michael Myers would have been killed off in the first series. A lot of these movies have been revived too many times. I'm a fan of scary movies but most of them Idon't bother to watch.

[tanksoldier]

Yeah, horror movies are a disappointment.

Happens to me with a lot of movies and TV shows. Gun stuff is wrong, military facts/ operations/ equipment is wrong, characters are idiots who don't have the first thought of how to survive X situation... it drives my wife nuts.

Funny ting is I read lots of fiction and was a role-playing gamer (D&D, etc) as a kid... heck, even as a college student. I have a fertile (even overactive) imagination... but I can't suspend disbelief for some reason.

Probably, for both of us and others afflicted, the result of taking our own safety into our hands and having some idea of what to do.

If limatunes had her way poor old Michael Myers would have been killed off in the first series.

How horror movies would go down if Limatunes was the star:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4RgNLQTMbbs

[QKShooter]

I am just really enjoying reading in this thread so far.

[EW3]

Yeah, horror movies are a disappointment.

It seems like all new movies to me fit that statement, unfortunately. What especially drives me nuts is the trend toward hand-held camera work where you can hardly follow a damn thing and end up getting a headache

Limatunes, that was funny about the gun mistakes thing, I tend to do that with military movies all the time and drive my friends crazy. I see all kinds of things wrong: insignia in the wrong place, ribbons/medals out of order, and my biggest pet peeve of all: the "Hollywood Salute"

[peacefuljeffrey]

B-b-but he was in Vietnam! Surely he should know how to salute! He was active duty! How can this be?

I am in the group that can't abide stupid inaccuracies in movies. Also one with an active imagination.

But the stuff they represent inaccurately is ridiculous. Many times there is no reason why they couldn't represent it the way it really would be. Does every car that gets shot have to explode like it was packed with TNT? Do all guns that are empty have to go "click-click-clickety-click-click-click"? Do guns have to make a clickety-click sound just because someone raises them to point at someone? Do airliners have to explosively decompress the moment a gun is fired onboard?

Two possible explanations for why they don't represent reality accurately:
- They (correctly) realize that most people don't actually know how things really work, so they're more likely to complain, as an audience, that the real depiction is the fake. (You know, because everyone knows that if you shoot a car, it'll explode. )
- They themselves don't have a clue that they're representing it falsely. But that's not likely, because they would find out quickly that the guns don't make all those clicky sounds, and they have to be deliberately foleyed-in.

[ELCruisr]

I'm in the group as well this early AM. Never did horror movies as in many ways I grew up in one. Watched War Games on a SAC nuclear missile base. We all had fun hooting and laughing at what some director thought was a serious movie. My wife would get mad at me as I would complain about 150 lb blasts from a hand grenade. Pistols that shot way to many rounds, bottomless magazines, etc. Actually have not set foot in a theater now for a little over ten years. I find other REAL things more entertaining.

[sjones]

If Michael myers or other movie bad guys come after me and they survive 8 rounds from my .45,then I will be scared or worried,because I carry 24/7. sj

[KellyCooper]

Call me weird but horror movies have always been uncomfortable to me. I tend to be grounded in reality but when watching a horror movie, it is expected to "suspend disbelief" in order to follow the plot and or action of the movie. When I do this it opens me up to things that I KNOW are physically impossible but yet they are happening (on the screen) My mind goes crazy with "what if" scenarios based on what, in reality, could not actually take place. Being prepared for an armed mugger is one thing, but is there anyone here actually prepared for an army of zombies? (actually, now that I think of it, there probably are........and whether they admit it or not, it is for that very threat that they are so prepared )

[artz]

I got enough of the halloween/friday 13th series/freddy kruger movies after the 2nd movie of each.
I do prefer the ones with ghosts and such though.

[EW3]

Another gun TV/movie mistake I keep catching, as I become more proficient with handguns, is the multiple racking of a slide before the hero/protagonist engages some BG's. How many damn times must you rack the slide before you use a gun? Once, right?

Or how about the racking/cocking of a pistol as the BG reaches or other wise tries to kill the good guy. Hmmm "I know there is a BG out there just wanting to kill me, but let me keep this here gun unready to fire until he has the drop on me"

[TN_Mike]

Originally Posted by limatunes View Post

Yeah, horror movies are a disappointment.

I'm right there with you Lima. But, the thing with me is, I have never found horror movies to be entertaining at all. Only one or two have ever made me so much as flinch and to be honest, that was because the background music went from being dead quiet to loud as thunder in a split second. Never because of the stupidity on the screen.

And as far as finding fault with guns used in movies, military matters and any number of other details in movies, my wife has gotten to where she dislikes going to the movies with me because of how much I grip about inaccuracies during and after, sometimes long after the movie.

On the other hand though, when a movie gets gun handling right, I really enjoy the movie. I thought the movie "Collateral" had some very good gun handling in it and I enjoyed that movie very much. I just watched "Shooter" and it was so-so.

Movie makers always portray us gun owners and rednecks because they feel that we are just that. They live in California, where the lowly ordinary citizen doesn't need a gun and where they are above all of that. Those of us in fly-over country are uneducated and reactionary and as a result, we feel we must have guns. When we become enlightened and realize that the police will protect us we will all be better off.

[xmenspidey]

The last really good horror movie I saw was probably "Disturbia". Although it did take an awful lot to put the BG down for good:)

[Miggy]

Another gun TV/movie mistake I keep catching, as I become more proficient with handguns, is the multiple racking of a slide before the hero/protagonist engages some BG's. How many damn times must you rack the slide before you use a gun? Once, right?
[/I]

That happens to 1911s w/ cheap aftermarket mags a lot

But the mistakes I hate the most are the ever metamorphosizing gun. The hero or BG has a Beretta in one shot, then a Sig, then back to the Beretta.....AGHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!