Sad but true, I can’t watch/read horror.
by kimharrison on Jun.01, 2009, under Kim Harrison
Sad, but true, I can’t stomach horror in movies and books, and I avoid them like the plague, which some people find funny since I write about vampires, but really, that stuff scares the peas out of me. I think the last horror film I saw was Poltergeist. Yup, the one where the little girl says “They’re back-k-k-k.” It’s what, twenty years old, and I still can’t watch it. I know it’s tame to what’s out there now, but I still give oddly shaped trees a wide birth. And yet, in LOTR, I could happily watch a hobbit being eaten by one. (Maybe I just don’t like hobbits.) What keeps you up at night? Man eating trees? Hobbits? –Kim
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June 1st, 2009 on 11:46 am
Yup, same here. Any gore, and I’m outa there. I just had to write a scene for my latest book in which a character was killed, and I procrastinated for a week before fiuring out how I could write the scene in a way that I could stomach reading.
June 1st, 2009 on 1:02 pm
I’ve done that. I usually bribe myself to write the scene by going out and buying a plant to put into the ground, but I can’t until I finish. That hurries me up some.
–Kim
June 1st, 2009 on 3:02 pm
I looooooove to be scared!! If I cannot sleep or have to sleep with the lights on, then the movie or book was FANTASTIC!! Of course I usually have to watch a couple of hours of what I deem “happy tv”, aka Sponge Bob, afterwards so that I can catch a few winks, but oh well.
I totally have a system as to how to judge what scares the crap out of me though. I ask myself “How likely is this scenerio going to happen to me?” For example, after I watched The Grudge I determined that I am no where near Tokyo and have no plans to go there so that chic is not going to climb up and kill me. I slept like a baby. However, I literally did not sleep for SEVEN DAYS after watching The Ring. I did watch the video so in my mind that lady could totally crawl out of my tv and get me. I know, I know I am being an idiot but that did not prevent me from turning into a zombie for a week. Of course it did not help that my brother kept calling and leaving messages on my phone that stated “SEVEN DAYS” in a ghost like whisper. Gotta love family huh?
The gore does not freak me out. I become easily desensitized. No if it is psychological and the person does everything right and still bites it in the end, then we have a winner.
June 1st, 2009 on 8:13 pm
I have to acknowledge that one of the books I recently read and was NOT fond of (overrall) did a great job at unnerving me by presenting horrific elements in a matter of fact manner without gorey details.
The author scared me by showing the intent and control the bad guy exerted on the world around him. Ok, Dane and Morgan will kick me until I reveal exactly which book, so, it’s THE MAGICIANS. But there is a fantastic chapter in the novel which has a student in a classroom deciding to play a joke on his teacher by upsetting the podium. He errs, however, in casting his spell, and something malevolent takes the opportunity to cross into our world. The scene is pretty short. The room’s occupants are aware of this beast walking around them, but they’re immobilized - unable to move, speak, react, just wait. The details are actually quite scarce as to what the Beast is doing, but you come to realize time is passing, people are trying to rescue the students and get in the room, and nothing can be done to break the hold this Beast has on the occupants.
I think what is scarier than the visual depiction is the intentions the villains may have. The gore doesn’t usually bother me because it tends to be over the top.
Speaking of Poltergeist, I could never approve of a clown in my room again after that film. :shiver:
June 1st, 2009 on 10:54 pm
No matter what you say about The Magicians, I’m still really looking forward to it. There are way too many books in my “must read” pile these days….
which leads me to this…
Kim, what are your must-reads and/or books you’re looking forward to these days?
June 2nd, 2009 on 9:06 am
Hi, Dane.
My must reads? Mmm, let me start a new thread for that. –Kim