More of a general observation regarding horror movies

I am a big fan of horror movies, well more accurately movies in general. But one type of post/criticism that I read or hear far too often is that people dislike horror movies for “not being scary enough.” Then, more often than not, the person casually watched the movie in the middle of the day in a fully lit room with other people. That is no way to judge a horror movie or determine how scary it is. What do people expect to happen? For them to become overcome with terror and have their heart pound out of their chest, become lightheaded and their fight or flight reaction kick in just because they are casually watching a movie? They don’t actually immerse themselves in it and imagine it actually happening and experiencing it for themselves. So obviously the overall experience and appreciation suffers significantly. Clearly any grown adult will be able to have a horror movie playing in front of them and be able to “watch” it without being scared if they are actively trying not to be scared or allow themselves to become engrossed in the plot/characters/setting/emotions. That in no way can be considered a legitimate criticism of a movie or how scary it is. I am capable of being in the same room as an incredible piece of art without appreciating its greatness if I barely look at it, without actually taking it in and studying all of its aspects and the work that went into it, absent mindedly glancing it over while actively trying not to be impressed by it. Does that mean that the art is shitty and not good? And anyone who appreciates it is a jackass who lacks any taste? Obviously not. Basically what I am trying to get at is no one is impressed by anyone saying a movie is not scary. It doesn’t mean that you are mentally tougher or more of a badass who has experienced more real life scary situations and thus can no longer be influenced by horror movies. 90% of the time that means that the viewer watched it in the wrong environment, state of mind, time of day or went into it actively trying not to be scared of it. Clearly the impact of horror media portraying a sick killer in your house with a knife dripping in your family’s blood will not affect you the same way as if I had broken into your house at night and stabbed your family to death before flipping your bedroom lights on and screaming as I run towards you. Doesn’t mean that the fictional version is less scary, it just means you are not opening yourself up to the storyline and engrossing yourself in the situation. Sorry for the rant, it’s just my friend said he had on a horror movie that I told him to watch, while he was sitting on his living room couch at 3:00pm with his entire family home walking around the house doing their thing, on top of that his brother would casually watch 5 random minutes of it and laugh at how stupid and not scary it was as he passed through the room. Yet he believes that his viewing experience is an accurate representation of how scary/unsettling the movie was. That specific instance combined with countless others and posts about movies not being scary has really pissed me off lately, hence this post. I hope some other people agree with me, or ideally, those that watch horror movies (movies in general) in that bs manner will next time consider actually watching movies in the right way (environment/state of mind/giving it a chance/etc.) and seriously give them a legitimate chance to do what they were made to do while appreciating them.