Spin Off of the Scared Thread

[Clara Bow]

Now that I know how to make you all quake in your boots (mmmwwwaahhahhahahaha) I wanna know what books you will not read or movies you will not watch alone in the dark...
I can't read any true crime, especially my beloved serial killers, I can't watch Justice Files or anything of the like and I can't watch A Haunting. I do okay with the movies, though I won't watch the Exorcist (a favorite of mine)
Okay, now I'm hearing Stephen King noises in the house...I'm going on the porch to smoke and I gotta hit the hay....

[shadowfox79]

I love horror films, but won't watch any that involve torture. The current trend towards torture flicks is not to my taste - they stick in my head and make me depressed.

As to books, I have to admit they just don't scare me.

[Clara Bow]

I don't find torture flicks scary. Disturbing and slightly nauseating, but not scary. There seems to be some confusion over scary the difference between scary and gross. I was noticing that when I watched the Scariest Film Moments on Bravo. A lot of what they were picking as scary was just nasty. Hostel?? Please....I'm a future nurse and I can tell you that a lot of that is plain and simple horse puckey....

[Lunadiana75]

A Handmaid's Tale gave me nightmares.  Truly one of the scariest books I have ever read, because you can see it happening.  Shudder.  It gives me the willies just thinking about it.

Gollum.  To this day, any of the LTR versions freak me the *insert expletive* out.  Evere since I was a kid, Gollum has scared the stuffing out of me. 

[Slartibartfast]

True Crimes, CSI, etc. don't bother me at all.  I can't watch ANYTHING that's got a scary soundtrack, though - that includes Corpse Bride (supposed to be a kids' movie!), Fellowship of the Ring (at least the part with the ringwraiths), or Buffy the Vampire Slayer.  I admit it, so when I have to buy movies for my library I go to www.themoviespoiler.com and look up what the plot is :-)

[freakyfemme]

I *will not* watch Law and Order anymore, ever since Tanya and I saw the episode where a couple arranged to have their adoptive son (whom they claimed to love SO dearly) assassinated, so they could collect on the gargantuan insurance policy they'd taken out for him.  As soon as I found out what they'd been up to, and all their crocodile tears over their "precious child" had been fake and contrived, I was LIVID that any television producers would think that that was an okay thing to put on TV.  Then I found out that it was based on an actual headline.....what is WRONG with people?  It didn't bother Tanya at all, she thought I was kind of a sissy for being put off by it, actually.  Also, I don't like CSI that much, because of all the blood (although House is okay, sometimes), but I'd watch it with her because I knew it was all just make-believe.....but, as soon as I found out that Law and Order wasn't, I stopped watching it.  Also, I can't watch "Girl Interrupted" anymore, because the opening scene scares me.

[ehellion]

Now that I know how to make you all quake in your boots (mmmwwwaahhahhahahaha) I wanna know what books you will not read or movies you will not watch alone in the dark...
I can't read any true crime, especially my beloved serial killers, I can't watch Justice Files or anything of the like and I can't watch A Haunting. I do okay with the movies, though I won't watch the Exorcist (a favorite of mine)
Okay, now I'm hearing Stephen King noises in the house...I'm going on the porch to smoke and I gotta hit the hay....

I too can't watch The Exorcist or A Haunting. I can watch A Haunting during the day with Dh husband in the house, but that's it.

I have a fear of zombies, so when DH and I do our annual Zombie Movie Night in October, I have to make sure the house is on complete lockdown and my zombie arsenal is close at hand. (Yeah, a little paranoid and ridiculous, I know, lol.)

[Slartibartfast]

I *will not* watch Law and Order anymore, ever since Tanya and I saw the episode where a couple arranged to have their adoptive son (whom they claimed to love SO dearly) assassinated, so they could collect on the gargantuan insurance policy they'd taken out for him.  As soon as I found out what they'd been up to, and all their crocodile tears over their "precious child" had been fake and contrived, I was LIVID that any television producers would think that that was an okay thing to put on TV.  Then I found out that it was based on an actual headline.....what is WRONG with people?  It didn't bother Tanya at all, she thought I was kind of a sissy for being put off by it, actually.  Also, I don't like CSI that much, because of all the blood (although House is okay, sometimes), but I'd watch it with her because I knew it was all just make-believe.....but, as soon as I found out that Law and Order wasn't, I stopped watching it.  Also, I can't watch "Girl Interrupted" anymore, because the opening scene scares me.

To be fair, Law & Order is based on Urban Legends, rumors, and hoaxes as much as it is based on real life.  I was actually more impressed by CSI: Miami, for their ability to make storylines that kinda-but-not-quite follow recent crimes.

[MadMadge43]

I just want to say I am boycotting this thread. I couldn't sleep all night after I read the last one and I'm not doing that to myself again!  But hope everyone else is having fun with it.

[TF298]

I can't watch any Stephen King movies by myself in the dark.  I used to sleep with my porcelain doll when I was younger.  Then I watched Tommyknockers (I think that was the one where the porcelain dolls came to life and killed someone) and I put her on a shelf where she still is.  (About 15 years later)

Also Candyman.  I watched that once when it came out on video.  To this day, I can't walk into a room with a mirror unless the light is on first.  I *know* it is just a movie, but I just can't.

[Lynda_34]

My daughter accidentally watched the first Chuckie movie when she was about 9.  Sat up for the next week watching her toys at night.  (I didn't know at the time child caregiver who mean't well but was clueless at the movie rental place) My son and I have since bought her Chuckie memorabilia and just last Saturday I called her to tell her I was watching "Bride of Chuckie".  I find the movies hilarious.  She is 25 and still annoyed when I tell her about Chuckie.

[Ulla dances in a silly way]

Books usually don't get me. I can read anything alone at night. I did have some issues with one of Stephen King's short story anthologies (maybe "Night Shift") one night when I was about 16. I was babysitting very late at night, around 1 or 2 a.m., in a large, unfamilier house back in the woods. That was a fun night.

Lunadiana75, I love "The Handmaid's Tale." I agree that it's very frightening.

Now movies, I won't watch "The Exorcist" or "Rosemary's Baby" at all. Saw them both once (alone at night!) and never ever want to see them again. I won't watch "Seven" alone and I love that movie, same goes for "American Psycho" and "Silence of the Lambs."

-Ulla

[T'Mar of Vulcan]

To be fair, Law & Order is based on Urban Legends, rumors, and hoaxes as much as it is based on real life. 

So are quite a few episodes of CSI. The one about the frogman in the tree... straight out of an urban legend (and in the special features the producers even said so!). The CSI NY episode where the bride collapses and dies because of embalming fluid on the dress... urban legend. There are others but I can't remember which ones.

What I find interesting is that each CSI has kind of a "theme" to it.
CSI (Vegas) shows the weird/unique/strange side of people: furries, adult babies, murderous little people, transsexuals, overzealous fans, etc.
CSI Miami shows the excesses of people: how the rich sponge off the less fortunate or how people scheme and conspire in order to get rich or stay rich
CSI NY shows the 'humanity' inside the Big Apple: how people in weird costumes are just people; how people are trying to be happy, help others or get revenge for wrongs perpetrated, etc.

I love CSI. I go through phases of watching each one obssessively. My favourite characters are Warrick, Nick, Horatio, Danny and Mac.

[Alida]

With the exception of 'It', which I read as a very impressionable child, very few books have me keeping the lights on. 

Movies... ack. Nightmare on Elm Street!  I've left the room rather than watch it.  Terrifies me for some reason!

[Clara Bow]

I love Law and Order SVU, but there was an episode about a rapist getting into women's apartments (okay, so that's every episode) a year or two ago that scared the wadding out of me...something to do with raping disabled women.
The episode of ER where Carter and Lucy were stabbed and the subsequent episode where the docs were working on them scared me green. My husband works in a psych hospital and I was begging him to stay home the next day. I kid you not, I was near tears...