You are watching a horror movie shaking, sweating, and with a dry throat waiting for that intense moment to happen, and then BOOM, something. Would you Jump? Probably yes. However, you might laugh afterward. Do you know why? That’s because my friend, you weren’t scared. You were just surprised, and your body just responded to it.
5 Reasons Why Horror Movies Don’t Scare Me Anymore:
1. Stupid Jump Scares
Let me explain why this technique is one of the cheapest you can use in a horror film. Jump scares arent scary. They make you startle, and it’s NOT the same thing. Being startle is sudden and intense, but you quickly forget or even laugh about it when you realize it. Being afraid is like being stabbed and having the blade twirl up in you. The discomfort is excruciating. Horror filmmakers should keep jump scares to a bare minimum. And if they do use them, please don’t make us jump because of a cat, a bird, or anything else that isn’t threatening.
2. Tripping Just Makes Me Laugh
A character runs through the woods or abandoned alleys, attempting to flee the villain or a demon. They suddenly trip over something. Instead of getting back up and escaping, they crawl slowly until the antagonist can catch up. Or when they try to get into their cars, they suddenly forget how to use a key!!!
I understand that the purpose of tripping during a chasing scene is to increase the tension and make viewers think, “Oh, the villain has a real shot at outpacing his prey.” However, it’s just overused in every single horror movie. Now, if this happened, the first thing I will do is roll my eyes and be like, “Cool, such a money and time waste.”
If the locations these characters are running through have so many tripping hazards, I’m left wondering, “How come the villain never falls?” Do they have spatial awareness? Understandably, filmmakers would want to intensify the tension in such crucial scenes, but there has to be a better way.
3. SFX Makeup Isn’t going to haunt me
I will admit to it. As a kid, I used to get scared of SFX makeup. Making actors look scary or have a demonic appearance was terrifying. However, today, we see tons of makeup artists providing that same appearance around all social media, and it’s just not doing the job anymore.
4. Mismarketing
You have probably watched a horror movie trailer and were like, I’m definitely watching this, and then you get out of the movie theater being 100% sure you entered the wrong movie. Trailers this day are very misleading and are ten times better than the actual movie. Some trailers are brilliantly cut, and even if you think they’re giving away major plot points, you see the film and find out the trailer gave away nothing in both bad and good ways.
5. Horror Movies are Formulaic
This means that studios, and even independents, choose plot lines and features that they know will sell well in the past. Let’s take a look at zombies; they’re practically a franchise these days. And, while it is true that there was a time when Frankenstein Meets the Werewolf, they quit after a while. Ditto for Dracula etc. Compare any modern vampire movies with Nosferatu. Compare the original Nightmare on Elm Street, an excellent film, to the intentional parody it became. The same goes for Halloween. The plots are consistently predictable. They haven’t been given any thought or nuance. Is the sink filling up with blood? Check. Is that a scary face in the bathroom mirror? Check.
On the other hand, there are the scary gore flicks — yes, Rob Zombie — the formula of how many times we need to see fake gore and guts people get tired seeing it, so it gets amplified. As a result, there is now very little original material available because no one wants to spend money on something untested.
How about you, Do you get scared?
