horror flicks

A while back I posted a comment about this on a Rogue's Gallery post, and it came up in conversation with the new guy at work while talking about movies.

Horror movies, why they scare me, and why they don't.

And no, not in a all horror movies kinda scare me and kinda don't way. But rather, how certain movies scare me, and others not at all. For example, the flicks that actually scare me are some of the creepy Japanese flicks like Ringu, Ju-on, and Ju-Rei.

So what is it about these movies that scare me? Well to a good degree it's the tension and suspense. These movies do a great job at establishing a mood, putting you in the characters shoes, not knowing a damn thing about what's going to happen or when it's going to happen. Drop the dramatic music for dead silence and some eerie ambient noise. No screeching violins. They build you up to the point where you can't take it anymore then hit you with a giant "what the bloody hell was that?". Which brings me to the second point, the wtf moments. Nothing is scarier for me then those moments where you kinda see something in the background, the glimpse of something that shouldn't be there, that perhaps even the character in the movie doesn't see. Particularly reflections, and I don't know why. But a good part of it is in the presentation. The subtle cues, the fleeting glances. I suppose that's what makes it scary, it slightly pulls it out of the context of the movie. Because it's not so direct, it makes it that much more believable.

Which brings me to the second half, why other horror films don't scare me. And I think this has two main components, context and disassociation. And thanks to the nice segue, I'll start with context. In a zombie movie, you can pretty much establish what's going to happen. The dead have come back to life, and they eat people. So when Bobby Jo's arm gets ripped off, it's not exactly a surprise. Exciting, sure. Bereft of suspense, not exactly. But, you know the zombies are everywhere, you know they can attack at any time. You know what the monster is, and you have a pretty good idea of when the attach is coming. Same things with slashers. You may not know what Jason Vorhees is , but you know what he's going to do, and how the victim is going to react. They follow a formula that you can adjust to.

So here's the question. The Japanese flicks follow a formula as well, so what makes them different? Which is, I guess, where the disassociation bit comes in. In Ringu or Ju-on, I'm somewhat forced to associate with the victim, whereas in the slasher, I'm free to disassociate, pull back and look at it some an objective point of view. In Ju-Rei, I'm the scared teenage girl, in Friday the 13th, I'm the camera. Why? That's a good question that I don't really have a satisfactory answer for yet. I need watch all these movies a few more times :) but I think a good portion of it lies in the presentation. Nightmare on Elm street is very upfront and somewhat surreal in it's violence, whereas we never really see what Sadako does with her victims. Perhaps it lies somewhere in the lack of information. Ju-on was wonderful about this (as opposed to the US The Grudge). It gave you just enough information to know that something very creepy, very evil happened in that house, but with only skillfully played hints at what exactly it was. And I still don't have any clue what was the prime mover in Ju-Rei. But that's not what made the movie scary either, to which I can only put the cause back to mood, direction and tension - insane levels of suspense.

Perhaps I'll look at this again after watching a few movies.