Ideal horror movie tormenter




















Let’s review the pro’s and con’s of the different types of horror movies bad guys:

Human-you-can’t-kill: Jason and Michael come to mind immediately. This is an interesting concept. They look like they should be able to be reasoned with because they’re human, but they can’t. And, worse, that kitchen knife only pisses them off more, but doesn’t kill them! No super powers here, other than invincibility. They seem to walk way way way too slow and yet they catch up to you. You can easily hide from them, but eventually they find you. You don’t have a lot of options to kill them, but honestly just poking their eyes out should pretty much take them out of business.

Vampire/Werewolf/Zombie: The romantic vampires will make you have an orgasm while they drink your blood—talk about the “little death! If they do the vampire the right way, he’s just feeding like in “30 Days of Night” and has no soul. That’s horrifying. They can’t be killed and they want you with a hungry focus. Good combo for terror, but admittedly, these monsters are very predictable. We know vampires, we know werewolves, we know zombies. There’s a little wiggle room, but not a lot. There’s just no mystery left in that marriage

Supernatural: We’re talking about ghosts such as in “Poltergeist” or “The Changeling,” of course, but in this category we can also include inanimate things that are animated such as “Chucky” doll and the ventriloquist doll in “Dead Silence.” As well, I’d include robots and computers in this category. Sure, they can’t be killed. Sometimes they present themselves as one thing and end up being something different. Can you really trust that doll sitting in the rocking chair? How do you know when you sleep at night there isn’t an invisible ghost nearby watching, lurking, waiting? This is a pretty good category because it can come in so many forms, it allows for a lot of creativity and it can’t be killed (unless you know some special spell or chant from a book of Necronomican…) It doesn’t have to follow the laws of physics either.

Monsters:
The dragons in “Reign of Fire,” Predator and Alien, the Creeper in “Jeepers Creepers” (my personal favorite monster); all improbable beings that can’t really exist. Because they live in the world of fantasy, we can’t really see ourselves plugged into the hero/heroine’s position. It’s another world in which such a thing exists and so we feel safely removed, sort of like playing “make believe” with GI Joe and Barbie as kids.

Conscienceless killers: Hannibal Lecter and Norman Bates come to mind as the more charming and unsuspecting ones. Then, there’s also the out-right freaky killer ones like your serial stalkers in “American Psycho” and “The Strangers.” They have a very personal agenda and a need to kill that consumes them. If you get in their way, you’re up for a fight. They get the most pleasure out of your terror, so you won’t find mercy. Still, they are killable, so there’s that hope.

Which category most scares you and why?

Comments

  1. Hmmm!!! The serial killers don't scare me; Freddie Krueger scares me. Don't know what category he'd be in, but I don't like nightmares...rarely have them, but I can imagine something like "nightmares' coming true...even if only psychologically. Sounds crazy, right?

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  2. Freddy Krueger, Jason and Michael Myers all used to scare me. I used to have dreams about them. (But not exactly nightmares. They never really chased me in my dreams, but I was there to watch them first hand torment others. So the dreams were disturbing and not pleasant.) I think it has to do with masks and covering up the face. Anything like that bothers me. Oh, and the Jeepers Creepers monster is a good one. I can see why it's your fave. Nice pick!

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  3. Mary;
    That'd be of a supernatural nature, probably. Honestly, nightmares are more scary than any movie because you get to be the heroine being chased.

    Court;
    Masks--so true. When someone puts on a mask, I act like a dog. I freak out. It's like they quit being human and take on another soul...

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  4. The supernatural catagory scares me the most. I don't care for the slasher genre, as I had an uncle who was brutally murdered when I was a teen, and I just think that graphic violence as entertainment is a bad thing. There is enough real horror in the world.

    Also, residual type hauntings don't scare me that much either - what frightens me, both in film, or real stories, or from my own personal experiences, is a ghost or whatever focusing in on me, or on humans in general. I have always thought that I wouldn't mind seeing a ghost, I just don't want one seeing ME...if that makes sense.

    I just rented Paranormal Activity. I had heard it compared to Blair Witch, which I saw in the theater immediately after it was released, before I knew anything about it, and I found it pretty good. So, I have not listened to any of the talk about Par. Activity, and rented it on ONDEMAND cable tv at 1am last week, alone. I probably would not have done so if I had known that the "entity" was demonic. That scares me more than regular ghosts. Maybe because on some level, one can avoid ghosts, stay out of old buildings etc, but one cannot avoid demons, they can go anywhere.. anyway,I enjoyed the movie, not the best I ever saw, but it had it's moments. You never really see anything. One of the creepiest things was just the lights going on out in that dark hallway. Little things like that stick with me. Not sure where the demonic falls in your catagories, maybe just w/ supernatural?

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  5. I would have to say conscious-less killers, most notably Leatherface from Texas Chainsaw Massacre. With the other categories, I can suspend my disbelief and whatnot, but with guys like Leatherface, Patrick Bateman, Hannibal Lecter, etc., those guys could actually exist in the world, and sometimes they DO exist. That's what scares me the most. That and Sharks.

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  6. Jennifer;
    Yeah, demonic would be in the supernatural category. Since I hunt ghosts and grew up in a super haunted house, I have no issues with sharing my space with the unliving, but I'd probably have to say the conscienceless killers would disturb me. They can be killed so they shouldn't seem so scary, but they could be close to you like the boyfriend in "Scream" and you'd be so vulnerable lying beside this person when they could kill you any minute, that kind of "sleeping with the enemy" scenario.

    Aaron;
    I'm with ya! Christian Bale in "American Psycho" reminded me of a guy I knew when I lived in LA. Jeez, it's creepy when you don't know who to trust but at some point your guard might be down, you might sleep in the next room, take a shower in his house... Sharks (I agree, "Jaws" was my favorite movie of all time and changed my life forever)

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  7. Hey! Love your stuff.

    Big horror fan here, too. What truly frightens me, however, are the subtle horrors, the ones that stick with you. The Prince of Darkness springs to mind. The Vanishing (the European version) is in that category, too, of the movies/concepts that make you walk away with your head still in the movie...

    Pearl

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  8. Pearl;
    You're awesome! "Prince of Darkness" is one of my cult favs! I also would add "Sauna" which is Scandinavian and is probably one of my fav's. I'm so glad you found my blog. I have a good blogging buddy who does reviews on lots of good horror movies that I depend on to keep me up on new reviews. His symbol is on the right hand of the screen--a stick figure dude.

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  9. Conscienceless killers to me are real and exist in society, which makes them more scary as to a killer bugs, your Jason and Mike Myers killers, vamps, werewolves and Chuckie dolls. These are crazy peeps with no conscience which to me makes for the worst type of monster there is.

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  10. Okay, Julie, so I can tell Dale you're not scared of him at all? Hee hee

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  11. The ghosts in Asian Horror movies scare me the most. Waaaah!^^

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