What type of horror do you like?

[ThisAdamGuy]

It's the SPOOKY MONTH!!!

I've always thought there were two kinds of horror stories: fun horror and dread horror. Fun horror is like a haunted house. You get scared but come out laughing at the end. Movies like A Nightmare on Elm Street, Friday the 13th, and other movies where the killers have an iconic look or gimmick are fun horror. Dread horror wants to leave you disturbed. Movies like Hereditary, It Follows, and The Exorcist are dread horror. Occasionally you'll get a movie that's fun horror to some people and dread horror to others, like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre or Saw.

What kind of horror do you like better? I prefer fun horror, but dread horror tends to stay in my memory longer. That's probably why I watch fewer of them. Too much of that kind of relentless negativity would leave me depressed, but fun, gimmicky horror doesn't do that.

 

[RepresentingWrath]

I don't like horrors. If I have to choose, I really hate screamers and gore, so probably stuff with suspense and scary atmosphere. I don't know how it is properly called.

 

[Nolff]

I don't like horrors. If I have to choose, I really hate screamers and gore, so probably stuff with suspense and scary atmosphere. I don't know how it is properly called.

I thought PrincessSailus was one of the bravest...

I guess am more brave than her.

 

[RepresentingCaution]

I'll stick with cute pumpkins and things.

 

[Deleted member 84247]

I like atmosphere more than anything. I don't want jump scares. I want a sense of lingering unease. I want the atmosphere to be so depressing that it's scary by virtue of existing. Anything like that is what I want. It's like the feeling of investigating a horror mansion, but there are not necessarily bad guys inside. Instead, you can't leave the mansion when you enter. It has repeating hallways. It's dark, and you slowly go insane.

 

[Nolff]

I'll stick with cute pumpkins and things.

Oh, so that was things, not thighs.

Whoopsiee

I like atmosphere more than anything. I don't want jump scares. I want a sense of lingering unease. I want the atmosphere to be so depressing that it's scary by virtue of existing. Anything like that is what I want. It's like the feeling of investigating a horror mansion, but there are not necessarily bad guys inside. Instead, you can't leave the mansion when you enter. It has repeating hallways. It's dark, and you slowly go insane.

You ordered this, go cope with it.

 

[John_Owl]

I usually break it down into horror and terror. horror is fear of whats in front of you. That is to say, a tangible force that's out to get you. Saw, Texas chainsaw, etc.

Terror would be fear of the unknown. That is to say, more paranormal or psychological horror. Smile, Exorcist, annabelle, etc.

I'm personally more fond of terror horror movies, as Gorefest movies are just too predictable for me. I haven't been scared of them since I was like 10.

I also enjoy movies that kinda cross the line, like Final Destination. It's an unknown, intangible force, but it has a solid set of rules it follows.

 

[TroubleFait]

I really dislike horror, but some of my favourite movies could be described as horror movies.

Spoiler: Movie recommendations

Alien, of course.
Predator and Terminator aren't 100% horror but they use it.
Jurassic Park is more of a thriller (?) but it's still adjacent.

Then for lesser known but still excellent movies, Duel is fantastic and Sphere marked me. Duel is Spielberg's second movie, and Sphere is adapted from a novel from Michael Crichton. Michael Crichton wrote Jurassic Park and directed the original Westworld series, so he's good.

Anyway, as for what's great about these movies, they actually tell something. They're not just here to make you afraid, they have a message and they beg you to listen.

Tl;dr: fear for fear's sake is bad. Write great stories. If they're also scary, then all the better.

P.S.: the prologue from Jayke Cipher gave me goosebumps, I found it extremely scary. The web novel is kinda in infinite hiatus, but the prologue can stand on its own.

 

[MatchaChocolate69]

I enjoy all kinds of horror, from the more psychological to the more visual. I love zombies, gore, body horror, the most gruesome and disturbing things, but I also adore the more elusive horror, the hidden dread, the madness that slowly consumes a paranoid character. I love Lovecraft.

Let's say I'm not a big fan of typical American-made horror movies like Friday the 13th or Leatherface, but overall, I appreciate the genre as a whole.

 

[Navillus]

I personally like psychological horror the kind of horror that makes you question everything

 

[Comatoast]

Psychological, Specifically Hopeless Horror where the characters rise and fall only to realize their actions never actually mattered.

 

[BigBadBoi]

Currently I'm in a cosmic horror phase. I like any good horror however.

 

[RepresentingDesire]

I love cronenbergian horror, it's wonderful to look at and the most fascinating horror.
Eldritch horror is often missused and as whole as a description overused, like tentacles are not eldritch horror but still it's nice and the aesthetic can be nice.

 

[Fox-Trot-9]

I'm not a big fan of fast-food horror, like slasher or zombie/survival: those are just cheap overly glorified scare pranks taken to ungodly levels of insanity. Too much emphasis on the slut-shaming in slashers and too much mindless viscera in zombie/survival horror, not enough emphasis on the dread aspect. I really like psychological/paranoid horror, the kind of horror where everything is not as it seems, and I love the tension-building of mounting suspense and intense payout scenes of sudden horror/terror come upon suspecting/unsuspecting MCs and well-timed fake-outs, but not overly done to death. I tend to like my horror fairly clean with a good amount of blood and dread for sauce and seasoning, and I do sometimes have a fascination with food-focused horror, the kind that makes you squirm.

 

[QuercusMalus]

I like monster flicks. Alien, Predators, Leviathan, ect. My favorite character from LoTR was the Balrog, and they were the only reason I read any of the Silmarrileon. Lovecraft style critters are great. Things like Jaws, Meg, and Jurassic Park are okay, but the more alien the monsters the better.

 

[BouncyCactus]

I like the slow burn, dread terror one. The kind that slowly consumes you, festering from within. The kind that you feel when walk through an emptied house, knowing it is empty, yet still feeling that something is watching just out of view.

The kind of horror you feel when playing Minecraft in Peaceful mode, deep within a cave, yet, constantly checking your back to make sure that no one is watching.

 

[Toast2Venus]

The type that isn't scary just wholesome and fun horrors

 

[Bartun]

I like 'fun horror'. I don't like 'dread horror' movies simply because they're not scary for me anymore. I have grown pretty desensitized by now. especially after growing up with Liveleak and third-world cartel wars and gore doesn't really disturb me anymore. The only horror movie that has managed to keep me on the edge was 'Event Horizon'

 

[HungrySheep]

I like "dread" horror, particularly those with a mystery or some sort of weird fuckery involved. The original Ring was pretty good, and so was Shutter.

 

[MajorKerina]

Whatever actually manages to scare me but I'm still looking. Probably paying taxes horror fiction would be the only thing that actually got to me but for different reasons.

Stuff never goes hard enough to actually scare me.