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This is a continuation on my brief investigation as to what makes some peeps susceptible to horror media, be them games, movies, or stories. Continuing to sniff for more perspectives, I asked the same kind of prompt to our site head, Dio. This was her response, which, in and of itself, was a two-part response:
"First, everything in horror scares me quite easily. I'm very easily spooked by anything from ghosts to zombies, and even sci-fi horror. The specific kind of horror that probably disturbs me the most is body horror, like things
that alter, mutilate or is related to scary things done to the human body. i just can't take that stuff, it’s too much for me. I'm not a gore fan, so I have to really be sold on the necessity of gore. I sometimes have a knee-jerk response of repulsion and rejection of body horror, so I've usually discounted such movies or media regarding it. I also have problems trying to work out things like the infinite size of space, but that's more like...a primal fear than anything else.
Attached to that is also the use of sound in horror. Sounds are pretty key in letting me think up scary things rather than seeing them outright; Makoto Shibata, creator of the Fatal Frame series is really big on imagining scary things instead of always seeing them to build fear. On the note of sounds, rising musical or sound
crescendos send me into fearful screaming me-mees. XD I can't take the rising crescendos; they scare the fuck out of me.
The second way to answer your question, of what gets me in horror, is actually tragedy. My favorite stories in horror come from things like Fatal Frame or Silent Hill, but mostly the former. I'm very fond of Japanese horror when it places emphasis on human tragedy. What strikes me as the best kind of horror story are the Fatal frame series (slightly excluding the 4th, as its story is nowhere near up to par with the others including Spirit Camera); its compelling in the sadness that the endings often bring that gets me.
More than being scared, it’s the cathartic feeling of loss, loneliness or tragedy that I love the most. In these stories, it’s a very simple human error that can set off terrible supernatural tragedies, and usually they are
through no fault of their own. J-horror has an over-arching feeling that terrible supernatural things happen as part of nature: uncontrollable, always present, and--sadly--never ending. These rituals can be calmed but always and only temporarily, so these tragedies that the ghosts and protagonists feel never ends. It’s the grace and strength in the main characters that is also compelling.
What makes the first 2 Fatal Frames so compelling and tragic are the endings. In the first game, the person you pursue to rescue ends up choosing to die, even after you have worked so hard to save them; Miku's true tragedy is not being able to tell her brother how much she admires his compassion that makes him stay behind to die with Kirie. Even more compelling still then are the twins from the second game. It’s tragic to lose
the person you are pursuing, but even more so when you are forced to kill them with your own hands. I think it’s what makes that game so moving in addition to the horror aspects.
In short, after all that babbling, I think the kind of horror that most moves me and makes me come back for more. Other kinds of western supernatural stuff doesn't always move me the same way as these stories do because they overly complicate their stories, or don't really deal with the tragic part well.
I hope that wasn't so off topic XD;;;;”
No Dio, not at all D:
Images are from: gameheavenonline.blogspot.com, amomentarylapsewithjoel.blogspot.com, and fatalframe.wikia.com
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