6 and 9 for the horror ask meme! ( ͡⚈ ͜ʖ ͡⚈)
OH ho ho, thank you for asking!!!
6. What is your favorite genre of horror? (paranormal, slasher, etc.)
I'm a biiiig big fan of paranormal stuff. Psychological horror plus anything supernatural - I'm a massive Haunted House movie fan, for example. Anything that involves ghosts or supernatural entities, especially if we're talking dead children and ancient gods. Nothing better than creepy and/or dead kids. I also love both folk horror and religious horror a ton!!!! Be that your classic catholic demon frightfest or some of the fantastic stuff that's come out of South East Asia recently.
9. Do you have any pet peeves for horror?
Get ready for some Opinions (TM)!
Jump scares are overused and bad and if your movie relies just on jump scares to be scary it’s a bad movie (best example: The Nun). You know what scares most people about jump scares? The SUDDEN LOUD MUSIC. You jump in your seat as a literal physical reaction and it’s like. Eugh. FIlmmarkers, stop using my body (and my autism-induced noise oversensitivity) against me and start using my brain and heart against me! And if you do that I’ll grant you your jump scares. Hereditary has, I think one or two? And they are INCREDIBLY effective because they are used to sparingly and because the movie earns them by creating a perfectly dreadful atmosphere without them first. My beloved Lake Mungo has one slightly cheap jump scare but it gets a pass because the rest of the movie is fucking incredible. Seeing a character going down a dark corridor and knowing something will jump with a loud violin screech is not scary. Seeing a character going down a dark corridor and seeing faint movement behind them, a shadowy face perhaps that slowly materialises on the ceiling above them, fingers that slowly creep closer - THAT is terrifying. I’ll take Samara crawling out of the TV in slo-mo any day over boogieman hopping out of the closet as the former is much scarier.
On a second, slightly more hilarious note, I am so tired of Lovecraft discourse. Is every dudebro trying to rip off Eldritch monsters and holding Lovecraft up as the end-all of horror boring and annoying as fuck? Heck yeah. Was Lovecraft a horrible racist antisemite whose personal philosophies found their way into his writing and influence our thinking about ‘The Other’ to this day? 100%. Do I think nobody should use Eldritch monsters in anything ever because of this and its this always boring and badly done? Nah! Take 'em tentacle babies, be aware of the pitfalls, and have fun. Sheesh. (For Eldritch monsters being well done see: Bloodborne, The Void).
Ask me questions about horror!