As you probably all know by now, I'm not much of a horror book reader. While I do admit that I kind of like that little jolt of adrenaline from being scared, I get most of my 'horror' from TV shows. (Not even movies because no. Just no.)
I don't really watch a lot of 'horror' but I have seen Sleepy Hollow which, let me tell you, is probably the scariest thing I've seen on TV. I've not gotten around to more than the first season, because I've heard the show goes steadily down hill. I also watched season one of Grimm before bailing because yawnsville. There is no way a show like that should be so boring! Watched and loved the first season of Supernatural. (Season two sucked and I never watched any more because that wasn't what I signed up for.) (I've also seen other shows that aren't horror, but have some of those aspects, like Falling Skies (a strange sci-fi/horror setup) and Teen Wolf.) (And Poltergeist: The Legacy which I remember not being scary at all, but I liked it.)
So, I'm no stranger to horror as a genre. But what's interesting is that I'm more likely to pick up a horror show than I am a book. I think a large part of that is my mind can come up with things that are horror all on its own. I used to be able to scare myself and - in truth - probably still could. Though I don't doubt it would take a lot more work.
Another reason though is because I get more attached to characters in books, usually, than ones in TV shows. There's something about that intimate, inside their head connection that makes it seriously suck when they die. Or get defenestrated. Or eviscerated. Somehow, character death sucks slightly less in shows than books.
The reason, though, that horror is not my go-to genre in anything, is because I don't like character death. (I mean, yeah, some people just need to die. Painfully. But it seems that those are never the people that die.) I like getting attached to characters. So much in the horror genre doesn't allow that, and even on the off chance I can find that, they get killed so quickly and messily that I start feeling like, why bother?
First and foremost, I'm a character reader. It seems that horror usually forgets the characters in favor of 'shock' tactics. Like how much blood can we spread around the set?
For the longest time I thought I wasn't into horror because I didn't like characters to die - but with a lot of the things I've been watching lately, and even some of the books I've read - the mortality rate is very high. So it has to be because those people I can actually get attached to. It seems like I can never even care about the people in horror stories enough to feel anything beyond boredom when they die.
What do you think of horror as a genre? Does the medium effect your feelings? (Say you can't watch horror movies but love horror novels?)
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Veronika · 437 weeks ago
One thing why I prefer horror books over horror shows and movies - though I love these two, especially the latter - is that I feel like most shows and movies use more 'standard' story ideas to bring in tons of viewers, while authors are more likely to pick new and unique ideas for a story. Of course this is not always true.
Great post, Amy! :)
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AmyAelleah 80p · 436 weeks ago
What you mention about the books over shows and movies I think fits a lot of genres. I think authors (and publishers, for that matter) can probably take more of a chance with something a bit different than the movie/tv industries can.