User blog comment:ChildofSolitude/What do you consider to be 'Scary'?/@comment-5736261-20130108163017/@comment-5736261-20130108165254

We've reached a point that gore is basically comedy. People go see movies not because of the story, but to see the crazy death scenes. They don't want to be scared, they want to be shocked. They want to laugh and say "That was brutal!" Which is fine, do what you want. However, I don't think it really works that way when written.

Yeah, I think pushing the realism of the horror can really make things scary. It's the "it could happen to me!" factor that gets people, even if the thing likely couldn't happen. If you make it feel like it could happen, then people get afraid. Jaws made people so scared of sharks that they're often killed on site even if they haven't done anything, and shark attacks aren't that common in the first place.

What made people afraid was the fact that the ocean is so vast and we know so little about it. It pointed out how vulnerable we are when we swim. Psycho showed how vulnerable we are in the shower. The Blair Which Project showed how vulnerable we are in the woods. People aren't afraid of a killer in his mom's dress or a witch in the woods, they're afraid of their vulnerabilities.