I am given to understand that sociopaths are incapable of understanding human emotional responses and can merely emulate them.

The whole point of fiction of any stripe is to elicit some kind of emotional response; happiness, excitement, sadness etc. Objecting to someone being frightened by a movie as illogical is absurd as claiming someone being made to feel sad by a book is illogical.

scott1328 wrote:I am given to understand that sociopaths are incapable of understanding human emotional responses and can merely emulate them.

Careful.

What has that got to do with watching a film?

Keep It Real wrote:

Scot Dutchy wrote:Well why are people scared of films?

Because people sometimes forget that films are fictional whilst immersed. Suspended disbelief I think they call it. Immersed is the key word - one feels part of the film - as if one is an invisible bystander in a scene. It is surprising to me that this needs spelling out.

Quite. It's the same with the best short stories, novels, plays, immersive computer games. They draw us in to their fictional universe and make the suspension of disbelief as easy as possible.

Scot Dutchy wrote:

Keep It Real wrote:

Scot Dutchy wrote:Well why are people scared of films?

Because people sometimes forget that films are fictional whilst immersed. Suspended disbelief I think they call it. Immersed is the key word - one feels part of the film - as if one is an invisible bystander in a scene. It is surprising to me that this needs spelling out.

But it is illogical. You know it is a film.

I bet you're fun to watch films with.

Suspension of disbelief isn't an exercise in logic. But neither does it involve an inability to distinguish fantasy from non-fiction. The point is to be able to willingly suspend disbelief when appreciating the piece of fiction. I have no belief that Theon Greyjoy actually exists somewhere, but I'll still wince and suffer vicariously when Ramsay Bolton (someone else who only exists in that fictional universe) is torturing him.

When I was about 8 I sneaked out of my bedroom to get a glimpse of the cool sounding movie my mum was watching. Sadly I caught sad movie right when a guy was getting his chest cut open. Now the film itself isn't that visual but the imagination is oh so good at turning the hints of a film into the gory details of the bad dream. It was a couple of more years till I watched Robocop 2 again. Oh and the G.I. Joe movie gave me some nightmares too, Cobra Commander turning into a snake being was freaky.

Scot Dutchy wrote:

scott1328 wrote:I am given to understand that sociopaths are incapable of understanding human emotional responses and can merely emulate them.

Careful.

What has that got to do with watching a film?

I am just pondering the possibilities of what it might mean that someone would fail to understand why people have emotional reactions to movies.

The whole fucking point to making or writing horror is to stimulate the experience of fear in the audience. The best horror uses this to make a comment on something, to communicate a perspective. The most commonly cited examples are George A. Romero's Dead series, but they are by no means the only great examples.

There are recognised tropes that rely upon this, of course. That's why we take them int account when writing horror.

And yet I've had nightmares that have had nothing to do with horror movies. Fuck, the one I referenced earlier in this thread was entirely related to a comedy show. Last night I spent an hour in a semi-fugue designing a new horror trope. I wasn't scared for a second, but the shit I was constructing was fucking horriffic.

Yes, Scott, people get scared by movies. Just as they get excited, annoyed, angered, romanticised, aroused, and made laugh. That's kinda the fucking point of movies. Or books.

Scot Dutchy wrote:

Keep It Real wrote:

Scot Dutchy wrote:Well why are people scared of films?

Because people sometimes forget that films are fictional whilst immersed. Suspended disbelief I think they call it. Immersed is the key word - one feels part of the film - as if one is an invisible bystander in a scene. It is surprising to me that this needs spelling out.

But it is illogical. You know it is a film.

Welcome to planet Earth. We do hope you enjoy your visit. While here you might like to study the creatures known as the human race, I'm sure you will find them quite fascinating.


I recall an episode of The Saint starring Roger Moore which featured a burglar (?) with his whole head covered such that you couldn't see his face or his hair. Being eight or nine years old (maybe even younger) I didn't understand what I was seeing and when I asked my dad he told me it was The Decapod ... Scared the bejebus out of me - had to sleep with my parents in their bed that night

That is your problem. I have never had that problem.

Enjoying a film isn't a problem.

Scot Dutchy wrote:That is your problem. I have never had that problem.

It's not a problem.

It would seem to me that being unable to empathize with people would be a bigger problem.

??

Amongst non-horror movies that are likely to induce nightmares, war films are perhaps the most likely contenders.
Sam Peckinpah's Cross of Iron (1977) tells the story of a WW2 German battalion facing off against the Russians on the Taman Peninsula.
This scene (text from Wikipedia link above) was rather uncomfortable to watch...!

When his battalion is ordered to retreat, Stransky does not notify Steiner's platoon, abandoning them. Making their way back through now enemy territory, the men capture an all-female Russian detachment. While Steiner is busy, Zoll (Arthur Brauss), a despised Nazi Party member, takes one of the women into the barn to rape her. She bites off his genitals and he kills her. Meanwhile, young Dietz, left to guard the rest of the women alone, is distracted and killed as well. Disgusted, Steiner locks Zoll up with the vengeful Russian women, taking their uniforms to use as a disguise.

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind would've given me nightmares as a kid if I had seen it then.

Watching "When the Wind blows" as a teenager made me really anxious and having bad dreams for weeks.

God, yes, me too. I probably saw it the same time as you did, on German TV.

The Pink Panther Strikes Again
The big laser at the end of the film making everything disintegrate. I must have been 4 when I saw it.

Scary.