What scares you? Discussing types of horror in fiction

[Bob Lovecraft]

Jaws was another one.  Someone told me about it when they were reading the book.  All that summer I didn't want to go swimming, not even in a pool because someone might have slipped a shark into the pool in the night.  Later I saw the film and then read the book.  In that case the film and the book strike more of the same chords (except maybe blowing up the shark, in that the movie was FAR superior).

Unholy Crap! I totally blocked "Jaws" out of my mind for this thread! But yeah, that movie has cut into my mind so thoroughly that it caused mental scars in the form of quasi-phobias. To this day, and I am just shy of 40, I cannot swim alone in any body of water. This includes swimming pools. It is a reptile/brain stem thing with me now. I just have images of a great white coming up at me from below and the last thing I see is the inside of its mouth and hear the crunch of my own bones. Even when I was in my late 20's and living in an apartment building that had a great big pool which was clear as a bell, I got the idea in my head of what would it sound like if a shark's stomach ever rumbled. After that, I could only swim widths in the shallow end.

That movie go me on the level of both gross and terror. Seeing a shark eating someone is bad enough, but never knowing what is under you in the depths of the water just freaks my shit right out. Thanks Spielberg, you evil fuck! Way to traumatize a child!

Bob

PS - I hated the book. Sorry, Inner Prop.

[Inner Prop]

PS - I hated the book. Sorry, Inner Prop.

Oh, no love lost.  I just meant that they both tried to use the same approach, but the movie did it so much better.

SPOILER ALERT!
If you haven't read the book, here's how it ends.  The shark is coming, it's going to get Brody like it got Quint and Hooper (that's right Hooper got et in the book but that was very rewarding because earlier he had had an affair with the Chief's wife).  So anyway, Brody was in the water and the shark was about to get him and (No Andre the Giant didn't smack the shark and pull Brody out, at least that would have been entertaining).  Where was I, oh yeah, so the shark dies, the end.

What do you mean, what happened?  The shark died, I just told you.  Apparently sharks do that.  They work themselves up and aren't really smart enough to know when they are exhausted so they just up and die.  That's what Benchley did.  Suddenly he had to get accurate with the shark knowledge?  Second or third worst ending to a book I ever read.

ADDITIONAL SPOILERS
The other worst endings:

1.  Benchley again with The Beast.  Suddenly when all hope is lost a Sperm whale eats the killer squid, UGH!

2.  Crichton's Congo.  [Oh, I just happened to remember that we packed a hot air balloon in our backpacks, so don't worry about the AK47 wielding army, or the killer apes or the volcano].

AND THEY MADE MOVIES OUT OF ALL THREE!!!!!!!

Sorry, hope I didn't "scare" anybody with my rant.

[JulieH]

I liked the Island - PIRATEESSSSSSS!!!!!!!

[Genus Unknown]

I, too, am unable to swim in any natural body of water (or a swimming pool at night), but that was the case with me before I ever saw Jaws. It didn't bloody well help though.

Also, Inner Prop, holy crap, that is a terrible ending. It doesn't even quite qualify as deus ex machina because there's no outside help that shows up. That's just Peter Benchley deciding "fuck it" and letting it peter out.

EDIT: Heh. "Peter" out. See what I did there? Because I didn't until just now.

[Bob Lovecraft]

Yeah, quite a disappointment. In fact, it was as bad as Robert Bloch's "Psycho". Sorry, just crap that got lauded after good movies were made of them. Kind of like a revers Stephen King (for a given value of "good" that is).

Bob

[BookGwen]

I, too, am unable to swim in any natural body of water (or a swimming pool at night), but that was the case with me before I ever saw Jaws.

<shudders>

The tiny BookGwen was taken to see Jaws by her dad. On what planet does someone think a TWO YEAR OLD should see Jaws? When questioned my father just says he was "young and stupid, I guess" and then hands me his coffee cup to get topped off.

Reading most horror doesn't scare me. It might give me weirder dreams than normal but it doesn't frighten me. The scariest thing I've read lately is Julianna Baggott's Pure. Not certain if this is going to be considered a spoiler or not but the descriptions of the survivors outside The Dome chilled me. And the heroine got off relatively easily compared to some of the others.

[Ruth - CthulhuChick]

I, too, am unable to swim in any natural body of water (or a swimming pool at night), but that was the case with me before I ever saw Jaws.

<shudders>

The tiny BookGwen was taken to see Jaws by her dad. On what planet does someone think a TWO YEAR OLD should see Jaws? When questioned my father just says he was "young and stupid, I guess" and then hands me his coffee cup to get topped off.

Reading most horror doesn't scare me. It might give me weirder dreams than normal but it doesn't frighten me. The scariest thing I've read lately is Julianna Baggott's Pure. Not certain if this is going to be considered a spoiler or not but the descriptions of the survivors outside The Dome chilled me. And the heroine got off relatively easily compared to some of the others.

My parents watched And Then There Were None and Ten Little Indians in front of me when I was 2. They thought I was too little to remember, but I totally remember a dead blonde woman. Not sure from which, just have this vivid memory.

[Eric Lofgren]

My earliest memory of watching a scary movie was when I was about 8, watching The Haunting (the original). Yeah, that movie left an impression on me for many years. My wife found a copy online recently and bought it for me. It still holds up well, to this day. Much better then the remake. 

[T. Kelly Lee]

My earliest memory of watching a scary movie was when I was about 8, watching The Haunting (the original). Yeah, that movie left an impression on me for many years. My wife found a copy online recently and bought it for me. It still holds up well, to this day. Much better then the remake. 

Why the hell did the remake go the "big EFX" route.  The scary thing about both the book and the original film is the fact you don't know whether the haunting is real or in everyone's head. 

I was at a ghost hunt in Edinburgh, Scotland once and there was a point where the whole group started to suffer from mass hysteria.  I never gave in, being a skeptic, but there were several points where even I started to doubt what was going on - not because I saw any ghosts, but because of the reactions of the other ghost hunters. 

[JulieH]

My biggest scare point in horror stories is loss of identity / loss of surety of one's own mind.  From Body Snatchers to Gaslight, the idea that my mind could be assimilated by something else, and i wouldn't be me any more - or, conversely, the idea that someone could deliberately convince me that I was crazy and make me incapable of determining reality any more - either of those scares the crap out of me.

But then, I am the sollipsistic center of the universe.

[Ruth - CthulhuChick]

My biggest scare point in horror stories is loss of identity / loss of surety of one's own mind.  From Body Snatchers to Gaslight, the idea that my mind could be assimilated by something else, and i wouldn't be me any more - or, conversely, the idea that someone could deliberately convince me that I was crazy and make me incapable of determining reality any more - either of those scares the crap out of me.

But then, I am the sollipsistic center of the universe.

Yes, that is an excellent kind of horror. I can't remember specific ones, but I think some Twilight Zone eps touch on that too.

[T. Kelly Lee]

My biggest scare point in horror stories is loss of identity / loss of surety of one's own mind.  From Body Snatchers to Gaslight, the idea that my mind could be assimilated by something else, and i wouldn't be me any more - or, conversely, the idea that someone could deliberately convince me that I was crazy and make me incapable of determining reality any more - either of those scares the crap out of me.

But then, I am the sollipsistic center of the universe.

Have you seen Jacob's Ladder, the film? 

[Bob Lovecraft]

My biggest scare point in horror stories is loss of identity / loss of surety of one's own mind.  From Body Snatchers to Gaslight, the idea that my mind could be assimilated by something else, and i wouldn't be me any more - or, conversely, the idea that someone could deliberately convince me that I was crazy and make me incapable of determining reality any more - either of those scares the crap out of me.

But then, I am the sollipsistic center of the universe.

I've seen that theme repeated a number of times, and I have to say that you are onto something. To me, the idea of not knowing if you are insane is the worse of those two, but they are still a duet of nasty. There was a movie a ways back that called "Disturbing Behavior" that freaked me out at the time. The assimilation aspect was mixed with the horrible attraction/repulsion I've always had about the "popular kids". When I look at it now, it is just cheesy and has plot holes big enough to fit Hastur through, but at the time, it really struck a chord with me.

Bob

[JulieH]

My biggest scare point in horror stories is loss of identity / loss of surety of one's own mind.  From Body Snatchers to Gaslight, the idea that my mind could be assimilated by something else, and i wouldn't be me any more - or, conversely, the idea that someone could deliberately convince me that I was crazy and make me incapable of determining reality any more - either of those scares the crap out of me.

But then, I am the sollipsistic center of the universe.

I've seen that theme repeated a number of times, and I have to say that you are onto something. To me, the idea of not knowing if you are insane is the worse of those two, but they are still a duet of nasty. There was a movie a ways back that called "Disturbing Behavior" that freaked me out at the time. The assimilation aspect was mixed with the horrible attraction/repulsion I've always had about the "popular kids". When I look at it now, it is just cheesy and has plot holes big enough to fit Hastur through, but at the time, it really struck a chord with me.

Bob

A yes, the movie adaptation of the Pied Piper of Hamlin.... (well, it's IN there, anyway...)

[Inner Prop]

Speaking of horror and what scares you, does anyone else have a part of themselves that they are so afraid of (or a fear so great) that they don't even want to admit it to themselves?

I think this might be better in the thread that was just started about the "Shambler in the Soccer Field" but I had thought of it while thinking of this thread.

I think I have such a fear, but of course I'm not willing to share it, since I'm not really comfortable even admitting it to myself.  I am willing to admit that there are things I purposefully don't think about.  I just won't entertain those thoughts in my head because they bother me so much.