Philosophy Now Forum

Susan Hopkins is horrified, but in a thoughtful way.

https://philosophynow.org/issues/162/The_Exorcist_Believer

Ever since I had my first psychosis in 1991, I have had the worst time with horror movies. I don't like them. I don't like the emotions and fears they play on and bring out of me. So I avoid them. I feel like they feed on some primal instinct of distrust and fear and amplify it to absurd levels to the point of emotional paralysis.

I tend to get immersed in movies, absorbing their world and images. Perhaps that's why I don't watch them anymore. Maybe if I could step outside of them, not be drawn in, and see them as only the emotional provocateurs that they are, then I would have an easier time with them.

Gary Childress wrote: ↑Wed Jul 10, 2024 9:46 am Ever since I had my first psychosis in 1991, I have had the worst time with horror movies. I don't like them. I don't like the emotions and fears they play on and bring out of me. So I avoid them. I feel like they feed on some primal instinct of distrust and fear and amplify it to absurd levels to the point of emotional paralysis.

I tend to get immersed in movies, absorbing their world and images. Perhaps that's why I don't watch them anymore. Maybe if I could step outside of them, not be drawn in, and see them as only the emotional provocateurs that they are, then I would have an easier time with them.

Or you couId just watch other kinds of movies you like that don't affect you. I mean, there's no real reason to think you need horror films.

The first in the series really got to me.

If I watch horror, I prefer mood horror. Slow, feelings of the uncanny. I don't like shocks and I hate gore. But there is something magical about the uncanny mood. It Follows manages this well. Parts of the Shining. The first The Haunting. Parts of Hereditary, Let the Right One Come In - Swedish version, The Babadook ....

Iwannaplato wrote: ↑Wed Jul 10, 2024 11:11 am

Gary Childress wrote: ↑Wed Jul 10, 2024 9:46 am Ever since I had my first psychosis in 1991, I have had the worst time with horror movies. I don't like them. I don't like the emotions and fears they play on and bring out of me. So I avoid them. I feel like they feed on some primal instinct of distrust and fear and amplify it to absurd levels to the point of emotional paralysis.

I tend to get immersed in movies, absorbing their world and images. Perhaps that's why I don't watch them anymore. Maybe if I could step outside of them, not be drawn in, and see them as only the emotional provocateurs that they are, then I would have an easier time with them.

Or you couId just watch other kinds of movies you like that don't affect you. I mean, there's no real reason to think you need horror films.

I don't take in much of anything anymore other than discussions here and things people quote or else link to in those discussions. It's more interactive and more interesting to me, I guess. Literature and fiction kind of bore me these days. I don't see the same value in them that I used to. \_(*_*)_/

Gary Childress wrote: ↑Wed Jul 10, 2024 4:37 pm I don't take in much of anything anymore other than discussions here and things people quote or else link to in those discussions. It's more interactive and more interesting to me, I guess. Literature and fiction kind of bore me these days. I don't see the same value in them that I used to. \_(*_*)_/

I actuaIIy feeIy the same way about Iitteratur. I feeI it's not best for me to dive into another worId. This isn't some judgment of Iitterture, it's what I've needed, personaIIy, in recent years. Even creative endeavors, I need them to be interactive with others. So, the music I was doing and the writing I was doing have moved to the side and I do improv theater instead. It's what I need. Even though aII these interactive endeavors aIso have a great deaI of chaIIenges and frustrations.

Gary Childress wrote: ↑Wed Jul 10, 2024 4:37 pm I don't take in much of anything anymore other than discussions here and things people quote or else link to in those discussions. It's more interactive and more interesting to me, I guess. Literature and fiction kind of bore me these days. I don't see the same value in them that I used to. \_(*_*)_/

Me too! The amount of movies lately I get about 5 mins into and go 'nah'..it's like I have no motivation for entertainment.

I haven't read a fiction book in years - probably the last flight to UK.

RE: The Exorcist - and I know yer a bit of a gamer..

Have you ever played a high quality VR game - I mean - yer in that world man - once the eyes and ears are fully encompassed - you R THERE!!

I'm not into horror stuff in a similar reasoning as u, but sometimes I get the urge!

I watched this guy - beardo benjo play the first couple of chapters of The Exorcist Legion VR and I was "fuck that!"

Then it was on massive discount so I bought it. Well, it's pointless because the most recent headset I have is not AMOLED screen - the 'other type' where the BLACKS are not very black - so everything that should be contrasted black was more like a dark grey - charcoal..I only played shortly for that reason - it didn't feel REAL. I found the same with a Darth Vader game where most of the environment was in dark areas.
I could load it up on an old headset that is AMOLED - but there's all sorts of crap and a tethered cable bla bla so cbf. One day when a really compact AMOLED headset is released I will upgrade - and play the below m'fuka!!

Have a look...it's funny at the start of the video where beardo is going "I don't want to do it, I dont want to do it.." lol. He is so hesitant for ages prior to loading in from the Police Station - - and this guy is a big time horror VR fan.

LETS PLAY THE SCARIEST VR GAME // Chapter One - First Rites // The Exorcist Legion VR Gameplay
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=19zvNcGBsu8&t=568s

Gary Childress wrote: ↑Wed Jul 10, 2024 4:37 pm
I don't take in much of anything anymore other than discussions here and things people quote or else link to in those discussions. It's more interactive and more interesting to me, I guess. Literature and fiction kind of bore me these days. I don't see the same value in them that I used to. \_(*_*)_/

That's interesting! I now find myself more in the opposite camp and appreciate a good piece of fiction or some kind of non-fictional narrative to be considerably more thought-provoking and intelligent than most of the incessant, repeatable brain-dead crap available on philosophy forums; sometimes it's almost as if one is forced to see in the dark with a nearly depleted battery. Not least, it's the same themes over & over again.

Referring to myself only, it's much more stimulating to be interactive with one's own thoughts upon reading something which compels one to think rather than respond to the same silly posts which never cease to come up. Eternal recurrence makes it seem you're always waiting at the same bus stop before taking you to where you've already been many times before! Often too, I have no idea what the other guy is talking about being thoroughly out of tune to what is being responded to. I could go on but would end up where I started.

In effect, what bores me mostly are the endlessly repeatable fictions which exist on philosophy forums and each opinion becomes a fact.