Scary Movies

The simplest definition of fear that most people will give is to say anything you are afraid of, or makes you feel scared, that is fear.  I have to question whether this is actually true however because I've come to realise that there are things that I am afraid of, but I wouldn't consider them scary, and likewise there are things I consider scary that I am not afraid of which seems to negate that simple definition.

What can you find scary that you aren't afraid of?   Well as it turns out, there's quite a lot that you can find scary which you aren't afraid of in itself, but you are afraid of the ramifications or the implications.  For example, I find the rise of populist politics that mirror those of the second world war to be something that is scary, not because politics in itself is scary and not because the people that hold those views are scary but simply because the fact it has become so prevalent demonstrates the willingness of humanity to abandon its history and to discard the lessons of the past.  The second world war reshaped the world in many ways, countries were born that didn't exist before it, and countries that existed before it faded into history.  There were a lot of actions that were carried out by people which we looked back on with horror and asked how such extremism could ever become a reality, and yet we are now creeping ever closer to that reality once again, with the ultimate irony being that many of those people who were the most outspoken objectors to such actions are now riding that wave of populism - the opponents have become the proponents.

There is a quote, often attributed to Franklin D. Roosevelt, that says the only thing to fear is fear itself.  There is wisdom in that regard because it recognises that fear is fluid, it takes many forms and it changes form at will.  What we fear today we may not fear tomorrow, likewise what we love today may one day cause us fear.  In the world of Harry Potter created by JK Rowling, a being exists known as a Boggart, a magical entity that takes the form of whatever the person fears most when they approach it.  There's an interesting question to be asked about what we would see if we approached it ourselves.  For me personally I don't know what it would turn into.  That is not to say that I do not have fears, I have discussed that topic before on this blog, I do have fears they just aren't those that most normal people have e.g. death doesn't scare me.  In terms of what physical manifestation of fear a Boggart could assume, I have no idea.

There are things I am afraid of, spiders etc, but those are not things I am incapable of overcoming.  They are things that make me uneasy, and they do evoke a response of panic, but they are things that I can confront with relative ease.  Something large enough to capture it under, take it outside, and release it, is sufficient for me, if there's no alternative then killing it is also an option.  Fear in the true sense of the word I would consider to be something that paralyses us, something that we cannot confront.  By that definition I don't know what would actually fit that descriptor.

When you separate the concept of being scared from the concept of fear, you inevitably turn to the former and ask yourself what it means to be scared of something.  Most people will see "scary" movies when they are growing up.  These movies are horror films, or thrillers that were designed to make the viewer feel uneasy but in a consensual way.  Where fear is traditionally something we do not want, scary movies are something we elect to subject ourselves to with the active desire that they will scare us.  This is inherently difficult to achieve because you are entering into a state of mind willingly which by it's nature is meant to be something you instinctively want to avoid.

I believe one of the reasons why movies particularly those released around Halloween are no longer seen as being scary is not because they aren't created with the same effort or creativity as they once were, but simply that the novelty has worn off.  When these types of movie first came about, they had never been seen before, there was a novelty to them, and most people I know who witnessed them for the first time in their youth they never thought they were particularly scary.  There is greater scrutiny that is placed on media as it has evolved and there are greater expectations of production value and realism.  I believe one of the reasons why scary movies devolved to being synonymous with gore was because this was something that people generally never experience for themselves in real life, so they can't accurately judge whether it is realistic or not.  Whereas classic horror movies showed depictions which people could more easily dismiss because they could ask themselves how likely the events would ever be to happen to them.

When you think of classic scary movies and ask people what their favourites are, most people will name Halloween type movies that objectively are not scary and arguably they never were.  Ask people to name classic scary movies and your typical responses will be from the Nightmare on Elm Street franchise, Friday the 13th franchise, or maybe those from the Scream franchise, all of which people will give varying degrees of fear they attributed to their first experiences but ask them if they are scary and you'll get a mixed response.  Some people won't even name movies that are intended to be serious, they'll give franchises that incorporated degrees of dark humour and the occult, like the Child's Play franchise, or they'll name spoof movies that were designed to ridicule the genres like the Scary Movie franchise.  Some people won't name movies that are scary at all but rather movies that were simply set at Halloween like Hocus Pocus.

There was a movement that sought to transform the dominance of scary movies with content that rather than inspiring fear in the audience, they just made them feel uncomfortable.  If you could make the audience feel disturbed then that was a shortcut to notoriety.  Movie series like Hostel and Saw took this idea to extremes, but again ask me if I would consider them scary movies and I'd still say no, they are disturbing I'll concede that much at least but that's not fear that you feel when you watch them.  That begs the question, what movie are you actually afraid to watch?  Some people are afraid to watch certain movies because of the occult nature and the topics they touch upon, for example the The Omen franchise, or The Exorcist but is that aversion really fear or is it just a desire not to dabble in something they perceive as dark.  What is a scary movie?