There are so many icons of horror movies that students love and hate. Photo collage courtesy of senior Aidan Field.
Horror movies are a huge part of spooky late night San Luis Obispo High School student and teacher activities like sleepovers and next month’s Halloween parties, but do people really like them? Or are they just too big of a tradition to miss?
“I have an uneasy relationship with horror movies. I don’t actually enjoy them! I detest the use of violence or torture just for the sake of shock and awe like in the ‘Saw’ movies. When I think of really good horror films, a few that come to mind are ‘Get Out’, ‘The Babadook’, ‘The Exorcist,’ and I have a really soft spot in my heart for the original ‘Scream’ movie. What sets these apart are that they are really well made films that are telling a story with a purpose,” said English and Film Studies teacher Meg Higdon.
In recent years, horror films have been a huge part of late night culture, whether at a sleepover with friends, or wanting to get into the Halloween vibes. For many people these movies are just plain unenjoyable and not fun to watch, even with friends. But lots of other people enjoy a good spooking.
“Horror movies are okay but they are scary and when they aren’t [scary] they are really bad. Some horror movies have good plots but the ones who [don’t] have good plots always get forgotten,” said freshman Jackson Kelly.
Horror movies serve a wide range for the scary factor, with many unique styles possible for the genre. Some horror movies are just plain violent and graphic and invoke more disgust than terror, but others (which seem to be more popular among the masses and SLOHS students alike) are more psychological and focus on suspense and intrigue over the visual type. An example for the more visually scary horror movies is “Saw” (2004), and an example for the wild psychological genre is “Get Out” (2017).
“Yes, I fully believe that no matter what genre it is, slashers, body horror, apocalyptic, or comedy. All horror movies are good. It just depends on the director and how they execute the plot!” said senior Neesha Nelson.
Personally, I do not like horror movies, as I think they’re weird and don’t see why anyone would want to be scared. For me I think horror movies can just be far too gory and just needlessly unentristing, only focusing on the scary bit of it and not on any of the stuff that makes movies good. There are some exceptions though as some movies in the genre can have good plots and acting instead of just horror.
In a 2022 YouGov poll of one thousand Americans, horror was found to be the most divisive movie genre, with 45 percent of Americans claiming they “like” the genre and 55 percent saying they “dislike” it.
The poll also stated that it noticed that the people who did not like horror movies disliked them very strongly.
I max out at around “Ghostbusters”, but no matter what your opinion is on the genre, the movie type is one of the most popular worldwide and will always remain an icon of spookiness and fearful fun.
For all SLOHS students, whatever your opinion on horror movies is, enjoy the Halloween season however you like.
Source: yougov.com
