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I enjoy a lot of horror movies. I don't think a horror film needs to be scary to be entertaining and enjoyable. I can enjoy the suspense, thrills, and fun of some horror movies, even if they aren't scary. Horror is definitely not the worst genre. I think westerns are the worst genre.

Horror is one of my favorite genres along with Westerns, War and True Crime docs.

I guess we’ll just agree to disagree on this one✌️

Horror is the best genre ever... by a considerable distance. I'm more of a horror movie fan than I am a movie fan to be honest. I'd say if you include rewatches in the tally that a good 80-90% of the movies I watch are horror.

You're approaching it wrong. Going into a horror movie expecting and needing it to scare you is a fools errand.


Why do I like horror?;
- Actual danger. I find most non-horror blockbuster movies to be too tame and safe. You just watch the actions unfold knowing all to well that in the majority of cases the good guys will win and nothing that bad will happen. It's basically 'action porn'. Choreographed stunts with no real consequences. Horror almost always has consequences.

- Tension. Most horror movies have a strong atmosphere. Foreboding doom. I find the lack of tension and suspence in non-horror movies an issue a lot of the time. They feel flat in comparison.

- A preference for dark entertainment. A lot of horror fans like 'aggressive' music like heavy metal. I'm one of them too, they're basically comorbid interests. I also have an interest in true crime. As a kid my favorite wrestler was Kane (followed by The Undertaker), my favorite Star Wars character was Darth Maul and my favorite LOTR characters were the Nazgul/Ringwraiths. My siblings and cousins liked Rey Mysterio, The Rock, Anakin Skywalker, Jar-Jar Binks, Aragorn, Gandalf, Legolas and the likes. I'm just wired different. I like brooding dark characterizations. I'm a bad boy appreciator. I was a Jason Voorhees fanboy from the age of 11. Oh and I was also interested in ghosts and the paranormal as a child.

- Morbid interest in gore. It is what it is. I enjoy a good butchering. You only really get gory kills in horror, some actions/thrillers can be brutal but it's rarer.

- Nudity. Historically anyway. Since graphic horror gets an R rating movie makers will often throw it some actual sex appeal. May as well make the most of your R rating. Sex sells. A good pair of breasts makes any movie better. Horror is one of the genres that contains the most nudity/sex appeal.

- Largely made for adults. I find many horror movies have a better maturity to them. You do get ones that are marketed for teens, but even then sometimes it's 'edgy' and dangerous teen content. Many non-horror movies are made as family entertainment. They feel childish in comparison.

I’ve said for years and years the problem with horror movies is they, 9 times out of 10, have horrendously annoying characters that the audience couldn’t give a flying fuck about. When the characters are unrelateable idiots who the normal person would never want to interact with in real life the horror is lost because you can’t put yourself in the persons shoes. It gets to the point where you are rooting for them to die already and you find yourself on the side of the antagonist, which is the exact opposite of what you want when you’re watching a horror movie if you’re trying to invoke fear.

Best Horror was in the 70’s because horror back then relied more on atmosphere than jump scares.

Halloween, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The Exorcist, and The Omen were all horror movie masterpieces.

The only 80’s horror I found scary was Poltergeist, and Serpent and the rainbow.

With that said though rom com takes the cake for being the worst genre of movies.

No one does horror like the Japanese.
Followed closely by Korea and Thailand.

I'm also rarely, if ever, truly horrified by horror. I'm too jaundiced for that. But - y'know - a good horror will at least build up some tension when it's seen under the right circumstances (Big enough screen, dark room, probably at night, &c).

Although I love, love, love some good blood-spatter and gore, I think the horror that works best for me is the psychological kind. I think a monster kept in the shadows is far scarier than one seen in the full glare of the light. Let the viewer bring their own imagination along for the ride and you'll have a better film.

So 'fear' is vanishingly rare for me. But I've seen plenty of films that provide 'eerie discomfort', whether they qualify as horror or not. Repulsion, Blue Velvet, Picnic at Hanging Rock... Just three films that immediately leap to mind that really got under my skin.

Too many horrors are formulaic. What Mark Kermode often refers to as 'quiet, quiet, BANG!' and other people call 'jump scares'... but heck, even the occasional jump scare can be good if the build-up is right. They're just overused. And often a bit cheap. But those films have their place too.

In any case, no, I don't agree that horror is the worst genre out there. I'd rather watch a mediocre horror than a mediocre comedy. And I'd rather watch a really effective horror (even accepting they're rare for me) over just about anything else.

You can say that about any genre. I rarely find a comedy today to be actually funny. Are they the worst genre b/c they fail at that goal with me? Other people laugh, so I'd say it isn't. You'd think horror would be a defunct genre if it were not meeting expectations for some people, but it isn't, so it must.