Why do we like being scared?

[Letti]

What's so damn good about it? Why is it good to scream to tremble or to cry out and jump up as we are watching a movie?
We like watching horror movies about crazy killers but I am sure we wouldn't like to meet them face to face in real life.
So?

[Darkthoughts]

Good question!!

I have no clue to the answer I mean I get really scared when I watch horrors. Not so much during the film, but after when I'm trying to get to sleep unable to stop replaying the scariest parts in my head!

Is it something to do with confronting fear d'you think? Its sort of safe to see your worst nightmares on a screen, knowing they can't physically reach out and grab you (no, I have not and will not watch Ringu!! )

[Mike Beck]

I think it's all about getting that rush. your senses are heightened when you're scared. and i think darkthoughts is right about the safety factor of it being on screen or written on a page. a way to experience that rush without any real danger to worry about. like getting your achilles tendon sliced by a kid under a bed.

[Daghain]

Adrenaline. Oh yeah. And I LOVE a good scary story. It doesn't even have to be gory; when I was a child we had a record (yes I am dating myself, we acually owned a RECORD PLAYER, people) of kids' poems (and this will also date me because now I could imagine the "this will scar my kid for life" comments) of an English recording of The Erl King that scared the living hell out of me. I listened to it incessantly; I totally loved it. It was one of those recordings with the spooky background music and the guy with the really spooky voice too - nice touch.

When I got in high school I discovered that it was origninally written in German, and people, let me tell you, the Germans can scare some kids (I blame my third-generation German father for a love of this stuff).

For your amusement (or horror):

The Erl-King

Who rides so late through night and wind?
It is the father with his child;
He holds the boy safe in his arm,
He holds him close and keeps him warm.

"My son, why do you hide your face in fear?"
"Don't you see, father, the Erl-King there?
The Erl-King with crown and robe?"
"My son, that is only a wreath of the mist."

"My pretty child, come, come with me!
Some pretty games I'll play with you.
Many a bright flower grows on the shore,
And my mother has many golden robes."

"My father, my father, now do you hear
What the Erl-King is promising me?"
"Be calm, remain calm, my child,
The nightwind is rustling the dry leaves."

"Will you, sweet boy, now come with me?
My daughters will wait on you,
My daughters will lead the nightly round,
And rock you and dance you and sing you to sleep."

"My father, my father, don't you see there
The Erl-King in that gloomy place?"
"My son, my son, I see it clearly;
It is merely the old willows so gray."

"I love you, I'm charmed by your lovely appearance,
And if you're unwilling, I will use force."
"My father, my father, he's seizing me now!
The Erl-King has done me terrible harm!"

The father shudders, and now he rides fast,
In his arms he holds the moaning boy,
He reached his farm all troubled with need,
In his arms his dear child was dead.

The German version, which (and I LOVE the Germans for this, they tell it like it is, IMHO) scared the crap out of me all over again at the age of about sixteen:

Der Erlkönig

Wer reitet so spät durch Nacht und Wind?
Es ist der Vater mit seinem Kind.
Er hat den Knaben wohl in dem Arm,
Er faßt ihn sicher, er hält ihn warm.

`Mein Sohn, was birgst du so bang dein Gesicht?'
`Siehst, Vater, du den Erlkönig nicht?
Den Erlkönig mit Kron und Schweif?'
`Mein Sohn, es ist ein Nebelstreif.'

`Du liebes Kind, komm, geh mit mir!
Gar schöne Spiele spiel ich mit dir
Mach bunte Blumen sind an dem Strand,
Meine Mutter hat manch gülden Gewand.'

`Mein Vater, mein Vater, und hörest du nicht,
Was Erlkönig mir leise verspricht?'
`Sei ruhig, bleibe ruhig, mein Kind,
In dürren Blättern säuselt der Wind.'

`Willst, feiner Knabe, du mit mir gehn?
Meine Töchter sollen dich warten schön,
Meine Töchter führen den nächtlichen Reihn
Und wiegen und tanzen und singen dich ein.'

`Mein Vater, mein Vater, und siehst du nicht dort
Erlkönig Töchter am düstern Ort?'
`Mein Sohn, mein Sohn, ich seh es genau,
Es scheinen die alten Weiden so grau.'

`Ich liebe dich, mich reizt deine schöne Gestalt,
Und bist du nicht willing, so brauch ich Gewalt!'
`Mein Vater, mein Vater! jetzt faßt er mich an!
Erlkönig hat mir ein Leid's getan!'

Dem Vater grauset's, er reitet geschwind
Er hält in den Armen das ächzende Kind,
Erreicht den Hof mit Müh und Not,
In seinen Armen das Kind war tot.

Freaks me out. Every time. Damn, I love that poem.

[Darkthoughts]

That is fantastic - I don't speak German, but the English version was eerie enough for me.

Reminds me of the Buffy episode where the baddy was a monster that stole and killed children, die kinderstod? (sp) something like that.

In a way similar to you describing how listening to that freaked you out, when I was 12 I went to stay at a summer camp in France for a month with 8 other English kids and about 40 French kids. One guy had bought the cassettes (eh, not quite vinyl...but it was a long time ago too ) of War of the Worlds and we used to listen to it at night in our dorm, duvets on the floor, lights out, all crowded round the cassette player...its kinda thrilling to be scared sometimes isn't it

[Letti]

When I was 10 I could piss into my pants from the music of X-Files. It's strange to think back because now I don't find in scary at all.
(I watched it every time I could but I usually turned off the TV before the end of the film because I couldn't handle my fears.)

[Darkthoughts]

Its nothing to be ashamed of, I could only watch X Files if Rob was there aswell...I was about 22 at the time

[Letti]

Its nothing to be ashamed of, I could only watch X Files if Rob was there aswell...I was about 22 at the time

I feel much better.

[Jean]

Zombies, gore, monsters? Vampires? Voices whispering in the dark? What are the scariest parts of the movies and books, and why?

I watched The Shining, which is at best a mediocre movie; there are some moments there that should have been scary, - only for me they weren't.

The Shining (movie) spoiler

Spoiler:

There were those girls who in ghostly voiced said, "Come play with us", and Jack screaming in his sleep, and those flashes that revealed those horrible things, and the rivers of blood

and all of that was rather entertaining, but not scary. It was impressive (like someone yelling, "Surprize!" into your ear), and sometimes disgusting (which, too, is entertaining, as opposed to boring); all in all, the impact they made on me was exactly what any good special effect would have made. There was, however one scene that shocked me deeply, and scared me; it was frightening (as opposed to entertaining, impressive, or disgusting).

Spoiler:

If you remember, Jack keeps writing, presumably a novel... he keeps sitting there and typing it... and at last his wife sees what he's been obsessively typing. It's one sentence, "All work and no play make Jack a dull boy", over and over again, in various layouts, as text, as dialog, as verse, as epigraphe, - and I almost screamed out loud.

Because it was insanity incarnate. That's what I am personally afraid of most of all: insanity. Because, mind you, it is not a special effect, it is not some ingenious director's invention, it is not even brilliant play of a brilliant actor, like all other scenes of Jack going mad - it's the real thing, it steps off the screen and creeps here into my room. It's the sick horror of a living nightmare; something that never lets me find

DT7 spoiler

Spoiler:

the EEEEEEEEEE screamed by Crimson King

funny to any degree.

Well, what is your worst nightmare in movies, books or any other media?

[Jean]

I've made a new thread on fear, to reserve this one for the question Letti asked in the title. Why do we like to be scared, and what scares us most, seem to me different questions, and will be easier traceable in put in separate threads.

[Letti]

Great idea, Jean. I cannot wait to read the answers there.
(Anyway the title of the thread is excellent.)

[Letti]

Maybe I am redicious but for me the scariest thing about a movie is the music itself. If it's good and the movie is good, as well.

Zombies, monsters, vampires and stuff like that cannot touch me at all.

But an insane person can. Who respects nothing and who plays and lives in his own little insane world (where human's life is just a toy or even less) can scare the hell out of me.

[sarah]

great thread, jean


The movie version of The Shining used to scare me when I was a kid but it just seems sort of silly now.

What scares me most as an adult? Probably a Red Balloon all by itself. *shiver* IT has stayed with me for years.

[sarah]

I personally don't scare too easy. I don't really liked to be scared in the first place. I would have to say that books tend to freak me out a bit more than movies. If the writing is good, then my imagination can get my blood pounding.

IT, did the trick for me. eeeek!

[Daghain]

Love the thread title.

I'll agree with the insanity thing. As a matter of fact, a good psychological thriller will freak me right out every time, exactly because insanity and craziness are a real part of human existence.

[Mike Beck]

i'm afraid of insanity and clowns. and old men charging at me with a pair of sharp scissors.

[Darkthoughts]

Things that are disturbing rather than flat out scary, freak me out the most. Like the book "We Need To Talk About Kevin" - it was totally vile because it was so realistic and probable.

[Matt]

I am scared mostly of the supernatural. SK has convinced me that reality is a very thin veil so I am always on the look out for things that have "crossed over"

Luckily my dog can sense that stuff so she is a great early warning.

[Wuducynn]

Things that are disturbing rather than flat out scary, freak me out the most. Like the book "We Need To Talk About Kevin" - it was totally vile because it was so realistic and probable.

How about things that are disturbing but not necessarily "real" whatever that word means...like the movie "Naked Lunch"? Or "Fire Walk With Me"? Have you ever seen those?

[Erin]

Great thread Jean!

There is a scene in Exorist 3 that scares the bejezus out of me. It shows a nurse working at the end of a hallway in a mental institution. She gets up and goes to check in a room, she then locks the door and turns to walk away. Instantly she is chased by a patient wearing a stolen nurses uniform weilding a pair of shears. The scene then jumps to a picture of a headless statue. It creeps me the fuck out.

Here is the scene. It is always on those "Scariest Movie Moment Countdowns"

[Mike Beck]

that movie is terrifying. i love exorcist III. that scene is freaky as hell.

[Erin]

I know right? And that scene where the patient crawls on the ceiling. I think I had nightmares for a week.

[Daghain]

Nope, go watch Hard Candy. That'll scare the heck out of you. As a matter of fact, I would be willing to bet a good 50% of the men who watch it will have to leave the room at one point.

We have a friend who will no longer let DBF pick the movie.

[Erin]

Oooh I've never even heard of it. I'm always looking for good horror movies.

*goes to add it to Netflix*

[Daghain]

It's an excellent psychological thriller with a healthy dose of gross-out. On a scale of 1-10, I'd say the ewwww factor is around 6 or 7.