Scary Movies

When I was a kid, I used to love watching horror movies. I would deliberately stay up late and watch old reruns of the Hammer Horror films. As time passed, and I grew older, I grew less fond of watching horror movies.

However, this isn't because I dislike the genre. The problem is that most Hollywood horror movies follow a very basic formula. Every time you hear creepy music, you know something is about to unexpectedly pop up on screen (be it ghost or pet). This pop up on screen is invariably followed by a loud screeching noise.

In short - most horror movies today are more about shock than actual horror. Granted, there are exceptions but most horror movies just don't feel very scary. To be honest, the old Hammer Horror movies probably aren't very scary either - but its amazing how easy it is to please a kid. I guess as an adult, its not so easy to be scared by a horror movie.

Anyway, the reason I brought this up is that I have recently been playing F.E.A.R. on my X360. You can read about my impressions of it by checking out my gaming blog (link on the right). Alternatively, you can go direct to my F.E.A.R. impressions here. Now, as I said above, most horror movies don't make me feel scared. In fact, I can't think of any horror movies which make me feel scared although there are several which make me feel a little creepy. However, F.E.A.R. is a genuinely scary game (also packs in lots of creepy suspense).

I've been thinking about this and I think its to do with the interactive nature of a videogame. You see, F.E.A.R. is a first person shooter. What this basically means is that you only see on screen what the character in the game sees. The idea of this is to put you in the game - make you feel as if you are the one firing a gun, dodging bullets etc.

However, in F.E.A.R., this also means that I feel as if I am the one creeping around in dark corridors, frightened that at any moment, Alma is going to pop out and blow me 30 feet through the air. And its amazing how scary that can be.

And guess what ... it feels just like being a kid again.