|
|
Are you afraid of the dark (or scary movies starring Jodie Foster)?Do you cover your eyes when you see gore on TV? Do your friends make fun of you for being a big 'fraidy cat when you watch horror movies? Good news, it’s not your fault that you’re a wimp — it’s in your genes. Scientists in Germany have recently discovered that variations in the COMT gene in women can be the reason why some of us flinch at the sight of violence while others can find the entertainment value in it. The study, done at the University of Bonn, centered around the all-important COMT gene, which weakens the effect of the signaling chemical, dopamine, to the brain when emotions are involved. The women, who all had variations of the COMT gene, were shown a series of pictures that ranged from pleasant (babies, kittens) to neutral (pictures of hair dryers) to unpleasant (crime scenes photos).
The women’s responses to the pictures ranged according to the make-up of their COMT genes. In short, some women are genetically predisposed to deal with stress — and gross stuff — better than others. I don’t know about my COMT gene, but I can’t bear to see violence in real life or in the movies. In fact, two years ago, I went to see a special preview of the Thora Birch flick Dark Corners and my COMT gene and I had the bejeezus scared out of us. I liked Thora so in the un-scary Ghost World with Scarlett Johansson, so I figured Dark Corners would be a lot of fun. Wrong. Do the words “psychological thriller” instill trepidation in you? They do me. I admit it: I’m a wimp. And, my sensitive COMT gene and I paid dearly for it in the theatre that night.
I don’t want to give too much of the plot away, but I need to tell you the following so you will understand my experience. Thora plays two characters: a troubled dark-haired goth chick who works in a funeral home and a blonde suburban housewife. Dark-haired goth Thora always finds herself in the middle of the most grotesque violence. Blond Thora’s visions of that violence are seriously messing up her odds with in-vitro fertilization. Much to my friend’s amusement, I could only watch the scenes of the movie featuring blond Thora. Every time crazy dark-haired Thora came on the screen, I knew something disgusting and scary was about to happen. I did what any logical COMT gene-hindered women would do: I shoved my head inside my girlfriend’s arm pit, stuck my fingers in my ears and hummed loudly until she tapped me to indicate the scene was over. To this day, I don’t understand what happened in Dark Corners. I only watched half of the movie! I’ve had countless experiences like that — like, the time I got so nauseated I had to walk to the back of the theater while watching Jodie Foster in the rape scene from The Accused. (I didn’t barf); or any scene from The Silence of The Lambs . Am I lame for getting scared during Flightplan? A child was missing!
True story: when I was a kid, I hid behind a huge La-Z-Boy chair in my family’s living room when I watched that Brady Bunch episode where the Brady girls made the fake ghost to scare the boys out of the attic. Sure, they look sweet and innocent in this picture, but they made a ghost! And they rigged up the clothesline and flew him around the yard. It really was scary.
OK, I’m a mess. How about you? Do scary movies give you the creeps? Are you genetically sensitive? Or are you one of those freaks of nature who can sit unfazed through gory movies? Submitted by on August 12, 2008 - 3:00pm. |
|
Welcome to AfterEllen.com!
- Login
- Join Now!
News, Reviews & Commentary on Lesbian and Bisexual women in Entertainment and the Media
Totally
i am totally a Freak of Nature :D
When i was youger i used to swap the DVDs about in their boxes just so i could watch scarier movies !!! haha
LOVE THEM !!
Hi I'm Natazzz and I am a freak
Geez, thanks Gina.
Most horror, thriller or other gory movies usually do not bother me. I can watch anything like that and pretty much be unfazed, and even entertained.
Scary and gory is not the same as disturbing though...I do not really think there is anything scary or unwatchable about movies like Silent of the Lambs, but I do have a hard time watching something like the Accused. Two very different things.
- - - - - - - - - -
-Everyone is entitled to be stupid, but some abuse the privilege.
I blog, therefore, I am
dark corners!
I'm always looking for movies with funeral homes and such cause I'm a mortuary science major. So now I want to see Dark Corners. And psychological thrillers are way beter than the lame gore fest movies. But rape scenes do disturb me alot. I can stand regular violence and torture but not rape. That's just too much. I'll avoid a movie if I hear there are rape scenes in it.
I am my very own shade of grey.
I think...
The first time I saw Scream with my GF at the time, I laughed the entire movie.
Does that make me a freak?
I guess probably.
But I WAS a little thrown off the loop by Silence of the Lamb and I don't like the zombie movies. I do think though that feeling nauseous because of the irk factor of zombie eating human flesh is different than being scared by a psychological thriller where you mostly don't see anything really but are scared anyway.
And!
Most horror don't bother me,
Clowns are evil
Oh definitely....Clowns are an exception. I think they are evil.
In and outside of movies.
- - - - - - - - - -
-Everyone is entitled to be stupid, but some abuse the privilege.
I blog, therefore, I am
Clowns
Clowns
hooray!
All this time I thought it was just not having been desentitized as a child (no TV, saw very few movies) and it turns out I have a better excuse that won't make people roll their eyes over how sheltered I was?
I've learned to handle action-flick type violence, but I wuss out over the slightest gore and I always cower away when someone's hurt outside of an action sequence. Of course, I can also be overwhelmed by on-screen embarrassing or traumatic scenes of a nonviolent nature, so if there's an "extreme wuss" gene I probably have that one.
--
No boom today. Boom tomorrow. There's always boom tomorrow.
--Susan Ivanova tells it like it is
You mean you're also a cry baby?
I am. I used to laugh at my mom when I was younger because she cried at everything on the television. Anything sentimental or sappy, she'd be bawling. Then, a few years ago, I found myself tearing up during a Kodak commercial. And, now I cry over everything. Have you guys seen that video of the two British men who reunited with their "pet" lion that they released into the wild? I cried so hard, I was shaking. And then I snapped at my girlfriend for staring at me and I implied that she was cold.
But, I know it's me. I'm a baby.
Oh hell yeah.
I cry over all kinds of stuff in film. Especially if it's getting near the end of the movie, because I'm not anticipating what comes next so much at that point (which I guess might also be why I can handle action violence, now I think of it.) Even if I don't like the film or the characters whose emotions I'm crying over. The weirdest bit is that in real life I don't cry that easily.
--
No boom today. Boom tomorrow. There's always boom tomorrow.
--Susan Ivanova tells it like it is
Its not just you...
I’m not one to be affected easily by violent or gory films or TV; my girlfriend on the other hand can’t even watch Greys anatomy because she thinks it’s too graphic! Saying that we both cried like infants when a friend showed us the Christian the lion video on youtube that you referred to, in fact everyone I have shown this video since has cried or at least been moved to the extent where they suddenly had something in their eye which they had to "leave the room to remove" but that was mostly guys, they girls cried unashamedly. Let’s share it with the room and if you can watch this with no emotional reaction at all..well, you must be dead.
http://in.youtube.com/watch?v=adYbFQFXG0U
scary movies
The strange thing about me is that i love scary movies, however i'm a big weenie when it comes to blood. I usually cover my eyes like a big baby! Yet, i love the saw movies which are probaby the most gory movies i've ever seen....go figure!
well..
i'm an ABSOLOUTE wimp!!!! i like scary movies but only if i have my back up against something (like a wall) have a blanket and something to hug! i once (ok this has happened alot more than once) heard a noise and couldn't move like i just was to scared so i slept downstairs on my own with no blanket lol
my friend takes great pleasure in taking the piss out of me when i'm scared! she was the reason i slept downstairs once lol
LMFAO!
Crime scene pics
and gore movies don't creep me out. Pics of badly decomposed bodies doesn't phaze me anymore. (However, violence does get to me.)
_ _ _ _ _
"Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter, and those who matter don't mind." (Dr. Seuss)
Count Me In As A Scaredy Cat
I always had trouble watching anything remotely scary as a kid.
My examples include some spoilers of obscure stuff that's over 20 years old :p
Once, I was staying with my grandma overnight and she was watching the miniseries "Centennial". There's a scene where a woman goes crazy from a sandstorm and kills her whole family. I couldn't sleep that night.
I remember an episode of Kate and Allie where the kids were playing pranks on the adults with a knife and a bottle of ketchup only to witness a murder next door. I doubt it was really a murder, since it was a sitcom, but I shut it off halfway through the episode because I was terrified.
There was also a Halloween episode of Little House on the Prairie (yes, I had to watch it as a kid) where there are some pranks that seem pretty realistic to poor gullible Laura (and me).
These days, I still have a couple of random phobias (snakes, tidal waves) but I can watch most scary movies as long as I'm not alone. I can't handle anything remotely lifelike though- monsters and aliens are fine but serial killers are out, along with anything involving home invasion. But, I can't watch anything even remotely creepy by myself at night.
Case in point: I had to shut off the most recent episode of Ghostella halfway through, and I was still scared to do the dishes. :D
Freak of Nature
haha
I love thrillers the most!
the only thing that I watched that made me cringe, eyes to the floor creeped out was Final Destination 3...
(from now on if I want to tan, I'll lay out at the beach)
________________________________________________________
got Cloverfield? 1-18-08-underground.com does...Oh, I'm such a scaredy cat!
When I was little I used to cover my face when the Indians came riding over the hill in "The F Troop." For those of you who are too young to know - "The F Troop" was a cornie sitcom in the 60s. The Indians were a comical group of white guys. Still....it scared me.
I only watched "The Silence of the Lambs" once. Since then I've never been able to eat fava beans or drink Chianti.
freak of nature
My whole life I've never been scared of fiction no matter how creepy or gory it got. But on the flip side what DOES scare me is real life. like whenever I see pictures or documentaries of deep sea or outer space I get chills and I get so scared - of infinite unknown, i guess.
"When you stop talking, you start communicating." - Joss Whedon
Faces of Death?
Dude, no
My Faces of Death experience went like this: 10th grade. My girlfriend, who was obsessed with serial killers, true crime and anything remotely forensic, brings me to the house of a friend of hers. They put one of those Faces of Death videos on and I FREAK. Even worse than seeing a human hurt, for me, is seeing animals hurt.
After about 45 seconds, I storm out of the room, go into a bedroom I've never been in before and listen to the Eurythmics "Touch" album- the only one I could find - over and over until they finish watching the video and my girlfriend retrieves me from the room. She drives me home and I don't say a word. I'm furious.
I don't know where I am in this one
I used to watch all kind of movies, scaries, epics, suspense, horror, old movies, sci fi movies, love flicks, and the movies that drain my tears out of me..E.T. calling home anyone? I mean, I cried both times I saw it back in the 80s!
I thought I was strong enough you know, all Friday 13ths, all Nightmare on Elm Street's, I could watch them no problem back then..but today? I sort of look in the other way, play with the cell phone or get a popcorn/drinks refill when a bad scene is on...and this when watching movies with friends. If I'm going to to rent a DVD, I rather rent a stupid romantic comedy, some sci (except Alien Vs Predator (??), than Hostel or Saw. Perhaps I'm not into those movies anymore and if I have no choice, I tend to avoid those scenes lol
Maybe there is too much violence in this world for real that today it is too much for me to see it in movies. :-/
Mind's Eye
I'm an INTP, meaning I trust my mind's eye more than what I actually see. I tend to be more stressed out by psychological thrillers or horror movies that don't actually show the gore (Jaws or Psycho). What I can imagine is always much worse.
The Changeling scared the crap out of me, and there's zero gore in that. But any zombie flick will having me rolling on the floor laughing. I also burst out laughing whenever a character gets hit by a car. Maybe because it always happens so fast that I can't imagine what that feels like.
There's a difference in being disturbed by a visual and being disturbed by empathizing. And women do tend to be better at empathy. If I'm bothered by a visual, it's only because I can empathize in some way...feel the character's pain or fear.
I thought the violence in 300 was strangely beautiful because of the way it was stylized. But the characters didn't really show any pain or fear, but the feeling of rising above it.
Oh and, the only part of Silence of the Lambs that made we flinch is when she cut her leg on the storage door. Because I know what that feels like...thus empathy.
scary Movies
I never really got scared by those sorts of movies
I get freaked out by innocent things...things that look way to happy for an example (like it has been said before) clowns! I esp HATE dolls....I had a realy bad experience with a doll in my old house...which we think was haunted by the dead girl who died a very panful death in my room before we bought it! Lots of weird things happened in that house
Even so, scary movies dont scare me...there has only been one movie that has creeped me out and that was a Czech movie Little Otik which is about a woman who thinks a tree stump is her baby, but then the tree comes to life and starts eating people! I tink it was the stop-motion of the tree that creeped me out....you realy have to see it to understand
~Elvis Presley~
Give me a home among the gum trees
With lots of plum trees, a sheep or two, a kangaroo.
A clothesline out the back, veranda out the fro
I get scared...
Oh man, I get scared SOO easily! And I don't like gore. I think it's because I have a reaaallly overactive imagination, so whenever someone gets hurt I always imagine what it felt like. Ick.
On the other hand, I'm completely unfazed by anything sad. I can't remember the last time I cried at something fictional (I think I was pretty young, and it had something to do with a cute animal dying). For some reason, I can separate myself completely from that, but whenever something scary or icky happens I hide (well, unless it's comical or in the midst of fighting/action). A couple of nights ago I heard/saw some weird stuff late at night and literally hid under my covers. The idea that ghosts/scary stuff could be real terrifies me... yeahh, definite loser right here haha
"This is a tree on fire with love, but it's still scary since most people think love only looks like one thing instead of the whole world."
I love gore
what does that say about me?
Saw, Hostel, Final Destination movies are freakin' entertaining! Psychological thrillers are great also, but somehow blood makes everything more fascinating. The thing is that I catorgorize scary movies into gory and nonhuman. I can take as much gory as there possibly is but ghosts (The Ring(Jap), The Grudge(Jap)), zombies (I blame my brother for traumatizing me with BioHazard games), and everything supernatural freaks me out. My friends are mostly the opposite and their argument is that crazy killers are out there while ghosts and zombies are fake so why be afraid? It probably is the unknown factor that's scary. Does this mean I have half a COMT gene?
On a side note, those scary pop ups on the internet, you know the ones that start out innocent and sometimes they make you turn your volume up for a cute little song and a scary face pops up and screams at your face? Yea, those are fucked up scary.
RE:..
Quote from Katy- "On a side note, those scary pop ups on the internet, you know the ones that start out innocent and sometimes they make you turn your volume up for a cute little song and a scary face pops up and screams at your face? Yea, those are fucked up scary."
I know what you are talking about, I agree with you. I do not like "pop out scary" movies. However there are several times I can tell when a scary scene will occur in those types of movies. I was scared of "Chucky" from Child's Play movies for many years until around 4 years ago, I got the courage to watch again. The movies were not as scary as I had thought when little. Oh, I really like vampires and werewolves. I can get scared with werewolf movies at times but I still enjoy them, especially for the transformations.
The "real" scary movies like "The Exorcist", "The Exorcism of Emily Rose", etc. I am not scared. However, I was paranoid by the movies "Cabin Fever" and "Hostel". These two movies, I believe the situations could possibly happen.
Thanks for the article and question, Gina Vivinetto. Keep up with the entertaining and interesting work. :)
The Brady Girls
"Sure, they look sweet and innocent in this picture, but they made a ghost!"
Haha. I ROFLed.
My only fear...
Are ghost movies since I have experiences with them and want to avoid anything that can make me re-live those scary experiences.
*Buckles in fear*
Other than that I love gore, final desitination and Saw are my favorites! Zombie flicks bore me to tears unless it's Shaun on the Dead, I enjoyed that movie.
Shaun of the Dead
I love Shaun of the Dead well anything made by Simon Pegg like Spaced, Hut Fuzz, Dr Who, Black Books, etc. That man is a genius.
"As a girl, you're supposed to love Sleeping Beauty. I mean who wants to love Sleeping Beauty when you can be Aladdin?. I'm a tomboy from Nova Scotia. Ellen Page."
I'm kinda wimpy that way too!
I love all scary and gory movies!!!
I enjoy all kind of horror movies, they dont scare me. Saw, Hostel, zombies, ginea pig, Final Destination, Fredy Krugger, Friday the 13th, Alien, hounted houses, ghost in general, Chain Saw Masacre, The Hills Have Eyes they are my favorites. Also enjoy psychological thrillers. I dont feel bad when somone get killed in the most horrific way but when someone or something kill or hurt an animal I star craying like a baby I cant watch hurting animals in real life or ficcion.
"As a girl, you're supposed to love Sleeping Beauty. I mean who wants to love Sleeping Beauty when you can be Aladdin?. I'm a tomboy from Nova Scotia. Ellen Page."
Love, Love, Love
I have nothing but love for horror flicks and the likes.
Save for the ones with Clowns (still have a fear of them after watching IT), and anything to do with Insects and Spiders, those are just barf worthy because I simply hate spiders and insects.
The Way The Cookie Crumbles
No Borders AllowedIT
Haha, I totally remember watching 'IT' when I was like 8 in my friend's basement. All my childhood friends were boys. So gay. But anyway it scared the living bageezus out of me. I'm not afraid of clowns (despise them, but not afraid of them) but I still
am too terrifieddon't want to watch that movie!Other than that I'm more afraid of suspense than gore. I watched the new Texas Chainsaw Massacre alone in the dark and was literally screaming at the tv "Run, Jessica Biel, run!!" Although, I did follow it with "to my house! Run to my house!"
But still, it was scary.
smithsayswhat.blogspot.comAnother thing with horror flicks
The random TnA of large breasted women who die as soon as you see them naked. One movie that comes into mind is the Candyman series and B-rate horror flicks. There is blood and boobs, boobs and blood.
What is this!?! Oh well it's the virgin/whore complex of female characters in horror flicks.
"IT" scarred me, seriously scarred me from looking at clowns.
Another movie which is just as scary but is awesome is Showgirls [yes I have done it again]. What's scary was the acting and plot but it has Gina Gherson in it and Elizabeth Berkely touching each other!!!!!!
i'm afraid of the dark
Scary movies...
...is NOT scary to me :)
http://www.myspace.com/broken___wings
scary movies
the only thing that ever creeped me out was the texas chainsaw massacre. i only watched a quarter of the film because i spent the other parts of the film hiding under my covers xD but it sounded bad so i wasnt going to subject my eyes to that lol.
" i *Heart* Oy oy lady"
M.A.S.H.
yes the good Ol 4077 gave me NIGHTMARES when I was a kid. I was 8 when i saw the episode where hawkeye and honeycutt put a mannequinn in Major Houlihan's closet and when she went to sleep they pulled a cord and it fell on top of her scaring the crap out of her. So for MONTHS, I could not sleep with my back to a closet or door for that matter. At the age of 30 I still have some issues with closet doors... ISH! But as for horror on the whole, my girlfriend LOVES horror movies and all things blood and gore... I have gotten better... but some things still creep me out... Like the SAW movies... lol
¸.·´¯)It's true, we're all a little insane(¯`·.¸
Reformed horror movie junkie
I always thought the desensitization theory made sense. My siblings were 7 to 13 years older and my parents often made them take me with them when they went out "to keep them out of trouble." This did not deter them - they just threatened as only siblings can, to keep me from telling on them.
This often led to seeing horror movies at the $4/carload drive-in. I saw The Exorcist when I was 4, The Omen at the age of 7, Halloween at 9, Friday the 13th at 10 . . . you get the picture.
I used to love horror movies, but I think you can become re-senstized, too. In 1988, I witnessed one of the worst air show disasters in history (Ramstein Flugtag) in which a jet crashed into the audience, killing 70+ and injuring hundreds. Twenty years after seeing that real-life horror scene, I still can't take even the hint of gore in a movie. Then again, I still crave thrillers - I just can't take the graphic violence that usually accompanies them.
I think like many things genetics and environment probably play a role in this "preference."
Disturbed
I must be a strange woman because I usually don't get freaked out by stuff. The only thing that really messes with me is bugs...not any type of bug but centipedes. I freaking hate those things. Also the sight of decomposing bodies, animal or otherwise, makes me highly uncomfortable. I try to watch that show Bones but I can't really stomach some of the victims. And if you want to see something really messed up you should check the new video from Disturbed "Inside the Fire". Bothers me, but I like the song. Really disturbing:
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=m53lQhBalOQ&feature=related
Never met a pearl quite like you that could shimmer and rot at the same time through
cant call myself too brave though
although i can watch any kind of horror-gore movie, pysychological thrillers too without being fazed, i cant stand the sight of real footage of an on-going operation. seeing blood stains on floors and corpses in the news makes me flinch, but movies dont shake me one bit. i think i installed the idea in my mind from early childhood thats everything going on in that movie is hollywood effects, therefore i cant be afraid from whats not real.
but anything with sharks, crocs, or great snakes lurking under the water gives me the creeps.
I watch movies to be entertained..
so, if it's disturbing to me, I'm not entertained.. I'm disturbed. I remember the first(and only) time I saw the movie Seven, it bothered me so much that I could not shake it for weeks. I guess it wasn't so much the grossness or the gore (which is really boring, unless done right).. it was the ending. It just broke my heart. I suppose that's why I can't stomach watching any kind of real violence or those exploitative death videos. I can't help but think about the people in the videos and their families. How would I feel if someone was entertained by watching one of my loved ones die in a horrible way? Nah, can't do it.
Having said all of that, horror movies, especially good psycological thrillers, are my favorite genre.
My top 10 all time favorite scary movies (in no particular order):
Silence of the lambs
Excorcist (can't watch alone)
Wait until dark
Halloween (original)
Nightmare on Elm Street
Texas chainsaw massacre (original)
Phantasm
Hellraiser
Wolf Creek
Rosemary's Baby
Honorable mention:
The Sentinel (little known horror flick from the late 70s)
I'm not such a huge
I'm not such a huge fan of scary movies but now and then I like a good one. Ever seen Stir of Echoes? It's great =] scary as hell, but great =]
Yeah, rape scenes disturb me alot as do torture scenes, I mean I can stand some blood and gore and shoot outs/killings etc BUT torture and agony/cruelty really bother me. And excessive amounts of blood and gorey sounds, (bone crunching sounds make me sick) I cannot handle. Also, children in scary movies are often very creepy, lol.
"She only drinks coffee at midnight, when the moment is not right, the timing is quite, unusual..." Meet Virginia by Train =]
I love scary movies, but I