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ZwischenzugZugzwang t1_j6ltpdc wrote

A ton of them. There's no shortage of well-reviewed horror movies (e.g., 2022 was a banner year - Barbarian, Bones and All, Terrifier 2), but there's a huge segment of the population that just feels this genre isn't for them.

My brother and I go to the movies together all the time, at least twice a month. We've been doing this the last several years. But I go to the movies at least weekly, and usually when I go without him it's to see horror movies. Occasionally I can convince him to give one a chance, but usually that only works if I can play it as a hybrid genre movie (e.g., sci-fi horror) or if he has some other affinity to the IP or the cast or something.

I ask him all the time why he won't join me for these kinds of movies. At first I thought it was the gore, so I offered to only invite him to more cerebral/psychological horror movies. He adamantly insists that's not the problem. Admittedly, at first I didn't really believe him (my bad - in retrospect he was being truthful) so I probed further. His response is always the same.

"I just don't like the idea that they're trying to make me scared. I don't like feeling scared" he says.

I try to explain how it's all about being exhilarated more than scared, how it's thrilling to try to guess what happens next, and ultimately ask him if he truly never gets morbidly curious about fucked up subjects like the things often depicted in horror movies. His answer? No, he genuinely just doesn't get morbidly curious like that. I've kind of poked him on this a few times (again, mea culpa, I should have just took him at his word the first time) and he seems sincere.

So yea, all this is to say I think there's a huge subset of the population for whom horror is off limits. They might acknowledge it's well made, they might have zero moral objections to it, but it's just not for them. They won't watch a horror film unless they have some incentive to (e.g., their little brother drags them to the movies or something). Ultimately, these people don't necessarily dislike the concept of horror movies, but they just have zero attraction to them.

I suspect that a high enough percentage of the Academy is this way to effectively prevent horror movies from becoming serious awards contenders.

On one hand I hope that changes because I like the genre, but on the other hand I don't begrudge people like my brother who avoid it just because it doesn't do anything for them.

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Zachmorris4186 t1_j6mngow wrote

Why did terrifier 2 get so much publicity? Theres zero story and its low budget as hell.

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RRC_driver t1_j6n8cnd wrote

I have the perception that 'horror' films tend to rely on jump scares. Which doesn't interest me.

But I love Silence of the lambs.

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ZwischenzugZugzwang t1_j6nf1dv wrote

I'd encourage you to expand your horizons. There's plenty of horror films that don't rely on jump scares, it's just that there's a handful of very high profile franchises that do (e.g., conjuring, Annabelle).

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RRC_driver t1_j6nfp7v wrote

That's the problem.

I'd describe silence of the lambs as a psychological thriller, more than horror.

I see Aliens as sci-fi

I see predator as an action movie.

Horror is not a label that attracts me, though all of those could be described as Horror.

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ZwischenzugZugzwang t1_j6ng26z wrote

Yea you're like my brother. Everytime he enjoys a horror movie he decides it's because it wasn't a bona fide horror movie. I think some of the movies you're talking about are undeniably horror movies though, even if they're something else too.

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RRC_driver t1_j6nhls0 wrote

Exactly. It's the problem with the 'horror' genre.

Depends on how you describe it.

There's not much difference between predator, Alien and Halloween.

A group of people being killed one by one, by a monster.

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[deleted] t1_j6p5r0r wrote

Maybe your brother just thinks that thrillers are better at horrifying, than real horror movies. Not that hard to imagine.

Predator isn't a thriller either though, it's clearly an action movie. And if you put Predator in as horror, you might as well throw everything in that basket.

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