Sunday 15 October 2023

Nerd Church - My Kind Of Horror


Warning: this post discusses all kinds of general horror themes (as you probably guessed,) as well as briefly mentioning mental health problems



Title: My Kind of Horror. Image: silhouette of a woman with devil horns holding a pitchfork



I love horror - films, books, whatever, I am there.

Perhaps that's a bit stereotypical, given I'm a Queer millennial smol emo child with mental health problems, but I figure being scared of fulfilling stereotypes just gives them more power over me - and stereotypes can shove it, tbh - so here we are! Lol.



I love dark sh**.

Gothic, macabre, and angsty AF? Gimme!



I'm not really one for disgust - the gross side of horror is not my thing. 

The part of The Exorcist I look away at is the vomit. Ych y fi / Ew, yuck.



And I'm not a big fan of anything gratuitous 

- the Saw films aren't really for me, no hate to those who love them. It's just that I get alternately bored and grossed out.



I'm not really onboard with full-on, doesn't-stop, terror 

- not that many people can produce that effectively (she said, throwing shade all over the horror industry 😎) - 

or anything that involves more than a brief moment of social awkwardness or misunderstanding.

...I know it sounds weird, to put those two things in the same bracket. But that's kind of where they are in my head (thanks Anxiety, I hate you.)



I don't mind a jump-scare, though

- especially if it's one that I can see coming, but still manages to make me jump - those are my favourite kind.



I'm a big fan of creepiness - ghosts, demons, the evil kind of witches, and whatever happens to be spinning around Stephen King or Joe Hill's heads at any given moment.

Granted, I have a weird scare-o-meter when it comes to creepy - the more ridiculous, the less realistic, the more clearly fake, that something is, the more freaked out I am.

I mean... what's scarier than bad CGI, in my defence? 😅



But seriously, something's always a little off with my spooky radar.

The film The Fourth Kind is, objectively, batpoop and mediocre - there are alien owls in Alaska, I kid you not - but it freaks me the f**k out. Ugh, that movie...



Whereas a ghost throws sh** at my head IRL, and I'm like, 'Do you mind? I'm busy.'

When I watch ghost hunting shows, I always reckon the hosts are most in trouble when I'm not freaked out. 😅 

I jump at all the likely-just-the-wind stuff, and when it comes to the more sh**'s-got-serious stuff I'm like, 'Oh, it's just a ghost. He seems cool.'



My kind of horror is character-led - it's sweeping, creepy, tales of blood and betrayal.

It's creative - it's the stuff that takes risks with form and function, the stuff that plays with themes and emotions, the stuff that straddles multiple genres if its got to.



I like horror that tries - tries to be artistic, tries to make points about society, tries to bring something new to the table even though the table is pretty damn full by this point.

If it fails, then that's OK - at least it had the guts to explore this vibrancy that is the world we live in.



I like the stuff which you have to think, 'does that count as horror?' - not because it's not scary, but because it's got so much else going on.

Give me Shutter Island, give me The Lost Boys, give me Anna and the Apocalypse, give me a Jordan Peele film, hell, give me The Foo Fighters' Studio 666 - it was surprisingly good, and quite clever.



Give me whatever you want, but don't give me something that was too scared to try.

What's the point of horror that's scared of itself?

(And, of course, make sure there's enough of that sweet, sweet, angst to keep my emo goblin spaghetti brain happy! 😅)




Are you a horror fan?

What's your kind of horror?

Talk to me! 👻💬







You can follow me on Twitter @CeeDoraReads, on Pinterest, and on Dora Reads @ BlogLovin. For more ways to support me, check out the Support Me page




Related Reading:






Sharing and commenting shows much the love! 😊








7 comments:

  1. "My kind of horror is character-led - it's sweeping, creepy, tales of blood and betrayal.

    It's creative - it's the stuff that takes risks with form and function, the stuff that plays with themes and emotions, the stuff that straddles multiple genres if its got to."
    I guess same? I've read a bunch of horror books lately where there's a coming-of-age theme, and the horror goes hand in hand with other genres. Also, I've developed a certain tolerance for gore, but I draw the line at creepy-crawlers...reason why the only Supernatural episode I haven't watched (and never will) is Bugs 😂.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yeah, I'm not a fan of bugs either! There's a scene in Scary Stories To Tell In the Dark which... *shudders*

      Have you read any Juno Dawson books? She writers amazing YA horror. :)

      Delete
    2. Hollow Pike - her first book - is amazing! Say Her Name is also awesome :)

      Delete
  2. My sister and I love the horror genre, but like you, I definitely have some pretty distinct likes and dislikes. I too don't like to be grossed out, and will look away. We saw the first Saw film the other day and it definitely wasn't my cup of tea. But Jordan Peele is awesome! Us is a horror movie that will always stick in my head.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yeah, Saw films really aren't my thing. With stuff like that, I tend to just listen to YouTubers talking about them, instead of *actually* watching them. Except American Psycho, but then, while the actual violence is probably Saw-level, it's not as constant and unrelenting!

      I love watching vids of people debating WTF Jordan Peele's movies actually mean - because I am a massive nerd ;)

      Delete

Comments? I love comments! Talk to me nerdlets!