Thoughts on horror stories/camp fire tales/creepypastas

[Unbeliever]

I've seen some fantasy novels that treat magic as if it were a science. That seems to make it a bit more plausible, and easier to suspend disbelief.

[trdsf]

I've seen some fantasy novels that treat magic as if it were a science. That seems to make it a bit more plausible, and easier to suspend disbelief.

I've seen a few like that, too, and those are generally the better ones.  One of the reasons Diane Duane is my favorite fantasy writer is because even though her magic system was functionally 'point and poof', it was approached in a surprisingly rigorous way.

.
.
.

Well, okay, and the other reason is because I've had a major crush on Dusty ever since "The Door Into Fire" was first published in 1979.  XD

[Baruch]

Multiverse idea comes from infinite series solutions (badly converging usually) from the equations of QFT.  Think of the Taylor expansion of the simple sine function ... it can be approximated by the sum of an infinite number of terms.  Each term is a simple polynomial, but the sum is not a finite polynomial.  In fact the sine function is an example of a cyclical function, of eternal return after a constant period.

On the other hand, you can take an infinite sum of those sine functions to approximate a polynomial of finite terms (Fourier analysis).  So from one POV, the function has finite terms, but from the other POV it has infinite terms.  If you imagine a representation made up of infinite terms (and you can choose to or not), and imagine each term is a "universe" then reality is made up of the infinite sum of those "universes".

But the point is, reality is the sum of these "universes", you can't entirely exist in just one of them, any more than you can exist in a changing 2d plane, or an unchanging 3d volume.  Though statistical dimension reduction attempts just that (as an approximation to real data).  All of these ideas are just variations on the story of Flatland, which actually predates Einstein's theory.

[Hydra009]

Just out of curiousity, why do horror movies interest you?  I just don't find fictional horror villains all that frightening.

It depends on the conception and implementation, but I find lot of horror villains to be extremely disturbing.

In Doctor Who, there's a shadow made up of swarms of carnivorous microscopic creatures.  (Pretty low-budget, but Doctor Who villains tend to rely more heavily on reframing ordinary stuff as enormous threats and let your imagination do you in than wow you with special effects)

The result?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=veV4EdTb344

J*S*S FUCKING ******!

[Hydra009]

Oh, and I find anything with Changelings/parasites to be EXTREMELY unnerving.

Everything from Star Trek TNG's episode Conspiracy (which mentally scarred 10 year-old me) to Marvel's Secret Invasion (the invasion itself wasn't scary, it was the sheer uncertainty leading up to it and the horrific backstabbing from people you trust, maybe even love - HE LOVES YOU - *massive explosion*)

Even the DS9 changelings are kinda off-putting.  Just imagine a team of them on Earth...

Except the MLP changelings.  They're cute.



14/10 Would stand by and let it genocide the cute citizens of wuvy-dovey land.

[Baruch]

Hostile parasites are bad, but I find cooperative parasites off putting ... Trill symbiont much?  It would be more like The Man With Two Brains.

[Cavebear]

for the same reason I find super heroes able to embolden, or comedians making me laugh. In terms of horror, I like at times to feel scared, or have something give me the chill. As someone who likes many different forms of fiction, horror is just one element of that, I can enjoy a story of a girl being demonically possessed as much as I enjoy seeing hulk smash loki about like a rag doll.

And just for the record, just cause someone is atheist, doesn't mean they can't enjoy fictional, fantasy, thrills and scares.

That is actually a very good answer!  I always like to see one that makes me think.  Also because I like Sci-fi and am never sure how to justify it.  You really got me when you mentioned Hulk smashing Loki around like a rag doll, too.  I CRACKED UP at that scene.  "Puny gods".  LOL!

I don't get enough of posts like these...

[Munch]

Funny thing is, I never use to like really scary stuff at one point in my life. When I was like 7-11, my brother did this thing where when my gran stayed round, she'd have my room to sleep in, and I had to sleep on a fold out bed in my brothers room. He always intentionally put on horror movies when in there, that he borrowed from an older friend of his, things like Childs Play, IT, classic horror movies, and I'd lay there under my sleeping bag peaking out to see the horror on screen.

This lead to me being so afraid of the idea of horror for some years, that even when for example the nightmare before christmas came out, and a friend wanted to see it with me, I didn't, thinking it would be a horror movie.

The irony now is i now love that movie, as well as loving horror, sort of like it finally caught up to me after spending younger years being to afraid to watch some of them. I count movies like the babadook, the shining, insidious, as some of my fav movies now, along with the avengers, x-men, lord of the rings and brokeback mountain.

[trdsf]

I am reminded of the time our department (internal tech support for a major midwestern bank) met for a matinee showing of 'The Blair Witch Project'.  We all looked a little shell-shocked when we leftâ€"I know I felt like we'd been in there for three or four hours, but I think most of that is because it's a movie without music so your ear is forced to be attentive at all times and that's tiring.  The movie didn't come home to land until several hours later when I went to bed.  When I tried to go to bed.  As soon as I turned out the lights, every normal sound that an apartment with one human and two cats in the middle of a large city makes suddenly sounded... deeply abnormal.

The lights came back on after about ten minutes.  I ended up staying up until it was physically impossible to stay awake any longer.  No monsters, no special effects, no gallons of stage blood... it just turned my own brain against me.  But... it's a trick that only worked on first viewing.  I've watched it since, and it just doesn't do it anymore.

Curious.

[Munch]

thats the curious thing about the different types of horror movies. There are different types of ones that will appeal to everyone in different ways, from psychological to shock to gore. The horror element is an aspect and part of it, but with a horror movie you can create the horror elements, without any real depth and story, or you can.

Think about something like insidious, which set up the world is was based in, how the spirit world called the further exists in that setting and how that builds on three of the movies around it and the associated characters, you have the horror elements like shock horror and slow scares, but you also have characters and an progressive story, and you may even care about the plot and characters.
In other horrors, it can have little developing characters and setting, and just exists for the horror element, to shock and scare, like Human Centipede 2, or evil dead, you don't watch them for the story, you watch them for the grotesque horror and shock value.

[trdsf]

thats the curious thing about the different types of horror movies. There are different types of ones that will appeal to everyone in different ways, from psychological to shock to gore. The horror element is an aspect and part of it, but with a horror movie you can create the horror elements, without any real depth and story, or you can.

Think about something like insidious, which set up the world is was based in, how the spirit world called the further exists in that setting and how that builds on three of the movies around it and the associated characters, you have the horror elements like shock horror and slow scares, but you also have characters and an progressive story, and you may even care about the plot and characters.
In other horrors, it can have little developing characters and setting, and just exists for the horror element, to shock and scare, like Human Centipede 2, or evil dead, you don't watch them for the story, you watch them for the grotesque horror and shock value.

Me, I'll pick the psychological horror almost every time, and when I don't, it's the camp horror of the Phibes movies or Theatre of Blood... well, really, almost anything Vincent Price was doing from the 50s onward.  Saw, Human Centipede... nope.  No desire whatsoever.  I can't say I've heard of Insidious.

I have also, thanks to the local Fritz the Nite Owl showings, become a fan of Michael Dougherty.  I quite enjoyed both Trick 'r Treat and Krampus, even though I went into both with no expectation of liking either of them (I was going for Fritz and the movie was the price I would have to pay), and ended up loving them both.  I can't wait for his Godzilla: King of the Monsters next spring.  But then, Dougherty has found a fantastic balance between horror and humor.

[Munch]

This is a good video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lIIA6QDgl2M

I've become a fan of Junji Itos work, not so much for the graphic imagery of his work, but just the nature of it, he works so hard on drawing something that fills us with dread and an uncomfortable feeling. Also as the guy in the video said, how Ito creates the sense of horror in his work, is in making full use of the medium he's using, its a comic, so you need to turn the page, the suspense is built on the page prior, and then the full horror hits you as you turn over, and its all from your own choice.
Thats how horror works, in this format anyway, kind of like how in a game, its our choice to open the door ahead, and face whatevers inside.

To me, Junju Ito's work is in the same method of horror as H.P lovecraft, subverting the normal and creating something in the realm of the uncanny, something our brain knows is horrible, but we can't fully understand or reason at it.

[Hydra009]

I am reminded of the time our department (internal tech support for a major midwestern bank) met for a matinee showing of 'The Blair Witch Project'.  We all looked a little shell-shocked when we leftâ€"I know I felt like we'd been in there for three or four hours, but I think most of that is because it's a movie without music so your ear is forced to be attentive at all times and that's tiring.  The movie didn't come home to land until several hours later when I went to bed.  When I tried to go to bed.  As soon as I turned out the lights, every normal sound that an apartment with one human and two cats in the middle of a large city makes suddenly sounded... deeply abnormal.

The lights came back on after about ten minutes.  I ended up staying up until it was physically impossible to stay awake any longer.  No monsters, no special effects, no gallons of stage blood... it just turned my own brain against me.  But... it's a trick that only worked on first viewing.  I've watched it since, and it just doesn't do it anymore.

Curious.

There's no witch; the two guys actually lured her out into the woods, got "lost", scared the bejeebus out of her over the course of a couple days, then murdered her.  The real threat isn't some supernatural horror lurking in the woods, it's man's inhumanity to man.

[Munch]

There's no witch; the two guys actually lured her out into the woods, got "lost", scared the bejeebus out of her over the course of a couple days, then murdered her.  The real threat isn't some supernatural horror lurking in the woods, it's man's inhumanity to man.

guess that's one interpretation of it.

[Hydra009]

guess that's one interpretation of it.

Film Theory has a pretty convincing case for it.  The film has a few things that don't make much sense unless it was a murder (Mike's blase reaction to losing the map, the 'mysterious' rocks, calling out where you're going in the house, hidden communication between the guys, etc)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YASj8IuQ_Yw