I don't get it. horror games? Yeah those are fun horror music? Eerily fun to listen to horror movies? eeeh... Seriously why do people watch these? Is it because of the stupidity? Every horror movie seems to follow dumb characters getting into dumb, easily avoidable situations and most of them die at the end anyway, so any rooting you had for them goes out the window. Now I do realize there are horror movies/shows with actually smart characters who just happen to get very unlucky and have to survive, like TWD or something, but it's way too often where its the same formula of idiots being idiots and dying because of their idiocy. Also most horror movies seem to have really obvious plotholes while having like 2 whole scenes of exposition, and I don't get how that happens. Also if it's like a killer who's the "villain", their motivations just seem to be stupid and pointless, and sometimes they have no motivations and it's just some ordinary guy with no mental issues or anything going around killing people for no reason. I'm curious to see you guys' thoughts on these cliche horror movies.
I can't shed too much light on the appeal, as I'm not really a horror fan myself. But as I understand it, there's a schism between the 'high-quality' horror (The Shining, It Follows, Alien, etc.) and purposefully pulpy or borderline/deliberately comedic horror (Nightmare on Elm Street, Phantasm, Scream for an extreme example). The former are the ones that break the mold, seldom sticking to formulaic plots, and putting greater emphasis on their heroes and making the villain's motives and capabilities more complex, if not more clear. It sounds like you're describing the latter, which are almost more akin to comedy, but with less emphasis on making you laugh than making you jump or wince, while at the same time, not wanting you to take what's happening on the screen too seriously. Having idiotic, two-dimensional characters suffer absurd fates with poor special effects reminds the viewer that it's fiction and invites them to revel in the tragedy, not mourn it. It's horror distilled, yet made lighter and more palatable. That's how I've heard it, anyway.
I appreciate the ones that don't take themselves seriously as it seems as though those writers know what they're doing more than the ones that do take the movies seriously.
The one trope that I do have a issue with modern horror movies is the over-reliance on jumpscares. I know some horror movies that do have genuinely scary jumpscares, but otherwise they're just used as a cheap tactic to make it seem as if the movie is scary when it's just not. And especially when they're used not even for their intended purposes.
Cop-out scares are the worst offenders. They just edit in a orchestra hit or something and do a quick jump cut to literally nothing, and have the character get all shook. The only thing that actually makes people jolt about that stuff is the loud a$$ sound effects blowing out their eardrums.
