There are a lot of great reasons, but I would focus on the fact that horror movies reliably make people feel something. What that something is varies - fear, suspense, excitement, anxiety, humor, fascination, dread, sex, shock, repulsion, nostalgia - lots of stuff. But you feel something. Other genres can do that too, but I don't think any do it as broadly or consistently as horror.
I have a better question. When will all the "North America" Horror Blu-ray release threads be moved back to this forum section? So we come here to discuss horror movies and go elsewhere to discuss horror Blu-ray releases. Got it.
As a kid, I think I rewatched horror movies over and over to gain mastery of the things that actually scared me. As a (ahem) grown-up, I go to them for the aesthetics and the atmosphere and to watch how new folks play with genre conventions- the same reasons I go to westerns, films noir, sci-fi films, thrillers and action films- because they no longer have the power to scare me. I just like living in these worlds for a little bit and they hit my sweet spot when they're done right.
I like what Stephen King said about it in an extended interview with Eli Roth for that History of Horror series- and I have to paraphrase because I can't remember the quote exactly: "Even a terrible horror movie is the greatest f***ing thing I've ever seen while I'm watching it."
It's great to hear all your stories and reasons.
I was born in the late 70s and grew up in the 80s and 90s. So like many of you, I have a lot of nostalgia for video stores and renting curious looking VHS tapes in the horror and sci-fi sections. Which were my go-to sections aside from video games.
My nostalgia is more wrapped up in a combination of those two genres than just horror alone. As a teenager I watched at a lot of dystopian/post-apocalyptic sci-fi as well. I fell in love with filmmaking at a young age and a lot of my love for horror comes from making small horror movies with my friends on VHS and Video 8 camcorders. I'm from the Detroit area, so Sam Raimi was a local filmmaking hero of mine and Evil Dead was a great inspiration.
But I also remember as a teenager thinking that if I could one day own a small production company, something akin to a Full Moon, that would be a life well lived. I didn't need to be some big Hollywood filmmaker. If I could just spend my life making little horror/sci-fi movies with my friends straight to video, that would be awesome. Of course I had no idea back then how much things would change.
So I watched at lot of these kind of movies for their practical effects, makeup, props, and as well as all the others things I previously mentioned in the original post.
A few of you have mentioned that you were chasing that feeling of fear you first had.
That's interesting. We know fear is primal and helps us survive. It's why we can't look away from train wrecks and negative news headlines. Or brains constantly looking for potential threats. So I wonder if that's just stronger in some people than others and it attracts some people to horror movies more than others. I don't know.
A couple of you also mentioned the isolation/loner kind of persona associated with that genre. The sort of punk rock or heavy metal (or in my case Industrial music) of the movie world. That makes sense too. I agree. I was a filmmaking/photography/art nerd as a teenager and early twenty-something. Guess I still am. I had (have) some close friends that were (are) like brothers to me, but we weren't the popular kids. We were the kids in band t-shirts and combat boots making horror movies in the woods. Man I miss those days. Even those nights as a teenager sitting alone in my bedroom on the floor with a cigarette in one hand and clipboard in my lap drawing something while a horror or sci-fi flick was playing on my TV off the VCR. At the time they didn't seem great, but looking back, those were great times.
I've loved horror movies for a long time but increasingly find myself preferring thrillers or psychological dramas these days.
I feel like horror peaked with certain films and I'm rarely surprised, probably because I've watched so many. I prefer films grounded in real life as much as possible now. I think I grew out of slasher films but I can appreciate a few of them.
Horror does deserve far more love than it gets by the Academy Awards, along with the superhero genre. Maybe it's because some follow a trend and cookie cutter plots, but when there's real innovation. I thought Toni Collette in Hereditary deserved an Academy Award nomination.
Anyway, why is horror popular? I think many in this thread have got it spot on. It's a genre designed to make people, particularly young people, 'feel' something. Like a rollercoaster ride or ghost train. People like feeling scared on their own terms.
... It's not my favorite genre. Even though I do like some of it and I've made one horror feature myself. I think horror is a fun genre to make. Especially as a shoestring budget filmmaker. You don't need a lot to do it and you can often cross over into various other genres with it like comedy, action, sci-fi, drama, even period pieces. Audiences are usually pretty forgiving when it's bad, though not always. But at least compared to a lot of other genres. With the exception of maybe low budget sci-fi, which is my favorite genre (sci-fi in general) but I never made one. Even then it feels like people are more critical of low budget sci-fi than horror.
My biggest turn off to horror is gore. I'm not into it. I don't want to see people's insides. Which is probably why I prefer horror movies that are more scary (jump scare/supernatural) or fun than gory. Movies like the Friday the 13th series are fun and not super gory, and I love the other aspects of movies like that. The more campy aspects. The character interactions. Comedy. Sex and nudity. Stuff like that. ...
I would like to see your film.
Let me know how in a private message?
I'm been thinking about this. It seems like most collectors are into horror more than any other genre, especially on older formats like VHS, Laserdisc, but even DVD and Blu-ray, and I'm not entirely sure why horror above all else.
It's not my favorite genre. Even though I do like some of it and I've made one horror feature myself. I think horror is a fun genre to make. Especially as a shoestring budget filmmaker. You don't need a lot to do it and you can often cross over into various other genres with it like comedy, action, sci-fi, drama, even period pieces. Audiences are usually pretty forgiving when it's bad, though not always. But at least compared to a lot of other genres. With the exception of maybe low budget sci-fi, which is my favorite genre (sci-fi in general) but I never made one. Even then it feels like people are more critical of low budget sci-fi than horror.
My biggest turn off to horror is gore. I'm not into it. I don't want to see people's insides. Which is probably why I prefer horror movies that are more scary (jump scare/supernatural) or fun than gory. Movies like the Friday the 13th series are fun and not super gory, and I love the other aspects of movies like that. The more campy aspects. The character interactions. Comedy. Sex and nudity. Stuff like that.
I know horror by itself is a pretty wide genre. Encompassing a lot of different kinds of movies. So I get how that could be part of the draw.
What is your perspective on why horror movies are so popular with collectors?
Because horror is film making at its finest. Anyone can make a movie about some real life gangster or musician. Anyone can do a western or an action film. However, it takes a master to be able to make a horror movie. You have to perfectly build up the scare and then execute it with immense precision. You have to make sure you don't bore your audience because if the scare fails, the movie has failed.
Now I do agree that horror sometimes relies too heavily on gore, but the craftsmen who made horror what it is did it without exceisive gore, showing what could be done. What I find hilarious though is someone who will watch John Wick or The Equalizer without a care for how much violence there is in those complain that horror movies are too violent. That makes no sense to me.
Because horror is film making at its finest. Anyone can make a movie about some real life gangster or musician. Anyone can do a western or an action film. However, it takes a master to be able to make a horror movie. You have to perfectly build up the scare and then execute it with immense precision. You have to make sure you don't bore your audience because if the scare fails, the movie has failed.
Now I do agree that horror sometimes relies too heavily on gore, but the craftsmen who made horror what it is did it without exceisive gore, showing what could be done. What I find hilarious though is someone who will watch John Wick or The Equalizer without a care for how much violence there is in those complain that horror movies are too violent. That makes no sense to me.
I mean, i'm a giant horror fan and I totally agree that making a good horror film is incredibly hard (and probably one of the hardest thing to do) but it's absolutely ridiculous to think anyone can make a good action movie. There's a reason people like Jackie Chan in the 80's or Bruce Lee in the 70's were so much better at it than everyone else or why a movie like Die Hard is so damn good. It takes a master at crafting action to be able to pull it off. Really good action movies are rare. Ever wonder why Winter soldier was so much better than everything else the mcu churned out? Or why Casino royale's few action scenes had so much more impact than everything else in the other stuffed Bond movies? It's really hard and people don't understand how rare it is for filmmakers and action directors to pull it off.
Heck, how many times have you seen a good modern western movies? People don't churn out Unforgiven every week for a reason, it's a hard genre to pull off.
The talent and the craft it takes to make a movie like Police Story is absolutely insane and just as hard as pulling of the insane werewolf transformation in An American Werewolf in London. I have huge respect for both.
Yeah, it's WAY, WAY harder to make an action movie than a horror movie. You can easily make a horror movie on one set with no special effects, no one that can do stunts, and no explosions. Try doing THAT with an action movie. There are no action equivalents of something like Paranormal Activity. The only shoestring budget action movies that were any good required a massive amount of talent (ex, El Mariachi) and called for way more from the filmmakers and actors than it would have if it had been a slasher movie or something.
Horror is the genre most conducive to total lack of budget and talent that isn't drama or comedy. And if you make a terrible horror movie, people still will watch it, unlike those other two genres (unless you have a sweet Netflix deal and/or are friends with Adam Sandler).
Horror movies that DO take a lot of budget/effects are the exceptions. For every American Werewolf in London or The Thing, there's about a hundred Jess Franco movies.
Well, I'm pretty sure that everything that can be said about this topic has already been mentioned or covered by everyone else by now. "Sad to say."
However, just to put it all in my own words for anyone that is possibly interested, here's a few bullet points:
Horror explicitly attempts to evoke a strong reaction, response, or feeling of some kind from its viewing audience quite frequently. Most will probably say that they enjoy watching horror movies because they experience some form of fear, shock, or thrill that is ultimately safe and/or fun. However, not everyone is motivated to watch horror films just to simply be scared. Honestly, I haven't truly been frightened by a (fictional) film probably since childhood and I hold no real expectations or disappointments regarding being scared by one or not. Clearly there are many different factors at work here that influence people to continue watching horror films.
Horror has always been a genre that seems to just naturally attract all sorts of outsiders, misfits, nonconformists, iconoclasts, freaks, creeps, and weirdos within almost every and any given society or culture. In many ways, horror acts as a local and even global "social watering hole", sanctuary/safe haven, or agreeable touchstone for those whose interests are not necessarily popular or accepted by the majority/norm. (You know who I'm talkin' about here: the prudes, wimps, and squares of the world.) Especially at this point in time, Horror has almost become a community unto itself.
Personally, I have always considered horror films to be the cinematic equivalent to what Rock N' Roll/Heavy Metal/(Hardcore) Punk is to music, at least in terms of its overall attitude and aesthetics. There's definitely an overwhelmingly noticeable and undeniable overlap between these two fandoms as well, which clearly demonstrates something in regards to how some people's brains are just wired.
Perhaps my much beloved band F.K.Ü. (Freddy Krueger's Ünderwear) can elaborate on this concept more effectively than I...
By the way, don't be a f*ckin' poser, go out and buy their new upcoming album The Horror And The Metal (2024) when it gets released this February 09th by Despotz Records! IIII THRASH!
For many of us, we have always unexplainably been drawn to monsters and horror even as young (impressionable) kids. As a result of this, there's a very strong, personal, and seemingly everlasting nostalgic association with or pull towards the genre itself as a whole. I can't recall the first time I ever watched something like Alice In Wonderland (1951) but I can easily remember and describe in vivid detail exactly when, where, how, and the impact it had on me the first time I ever saw The War Of The Worlds (1953), The Blob (1958), Night Of The Living Dead (1968), etc., etc.... Whether it was at an actual movie theater, in a car at the drive-in, late at night on television at so-and-so's house, walking by a VHS cover at a video rental store, or even just seeing a single image in a magazine, we all have (and hopefully cherish) our own memories with horror films. I always like to put it this way: Some folks grew up watching Disney movies so they feel "all warm and fuzzy" when they see Snow White's first kiss yet again. I feel "all warm and fuzzy" watching people getting eaten alive by giant mutated ants or horny teenagers getting hacked-up to bloody pieces by a dude wearing a hockey mask. It's just the way it is...
There's also this forbidden, controversial, transgressive, confrontational, taboo-breaking, boundary-pushing, and "F*ck You!"-mentality element which predominates horror like no other genre. This can be very alluring, enticing, and exciting for many people. However, the impact or impression this aspect may have (or not have) on any individual can be greatly heightened or hindered depending on one's upbringing, societal environment, personal sense of morals/ethics, the time and place in history in which their life exists, and even what they may have already watched or experienced beforehand.
As for filmmakers, horror has proven throughout the decades to be quite a dependable, flexible, and opportunistic genre to work with. This applies to both the financial and the creative/artistic sides of the movie business. Even if you have very little money, limited resources, a small amount of time, embarrassing levels of inexperience, or simply lack talent, you still have a better chance at making a somewhat competent, profitable, and/or (at least) entertaining/intriguing film when compared with the majority of other cinematic genres. Horror fans are also considerably more tolerant and forgiving in regards to sitting through truly "bad" films. I openly admit that I absolutely enjoy watching most of the "terrible" horror films out there, sometimes even more than the actual "good" ones! (I guess I just find them all endearing in some bizarre way or another.)
As for the actual "collector/collecting" aspect in relation to horror films:
Let's just face the facts, people will literally collect just about anything and everything for any given reason. This isn't exclusive to horror films or horror fans either. I won't list any names here but I have seen plenty of users on this website alone who give off the impression that all they are interested in owning or even watching is anime. (The notion that "one person's trash is another person's treasure" seems to come to mind here but alas, I digress.)
Horror is a very visual genre with many easily identifiable and attention grabbing attributes which is great for marketing to consumers (die-hard fans, obsessive collectors, and general public novices alike).
Many horror films are also part of a niche interest to begin with, very obscure, or have achieved some level of "cult film" status with a devote following of fans. This can easily be exploited by producing limited-run editions or including other incentives such as slipcovers or whatever. This can instigate the "fear of missing out" phenomenon and persuade buyers, who may have previously been "on the fence" or completely uninterested in a particular product, to spend more of their money and spend it right away. Others might be motivated to purchase an otherwise unknown film in order to feel as though they belong to some sort of "special/secret club", so to speak. Some companies take advantage of this frame of mind as well by hyping up specific titles that shoppers may have otherwise had very little interest in.
Or, if you would prefer a less complicated and less cynical approach about all of this:
People love horror films because horror films are f*ckin' awesome.
So quit thinking so damn hard about it and just buy something to watch already!
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