As a horror fan who often dislikes horror stuff, the way I see other horror fans is not that they're delusional or that they don't acknowledge that what they're consuming is bad content, but that horror, aside from maybe romance, is the ONLY genre that is almost never done well. And because of that, they just kinda get used to subpar content. And when that happens, they lower their standards so much so that they enjoy the bad shit. Because they don't want to go into something and NOT enjoy it. That's insane. Nobody wants to dislike things. And with horror, the truly good shit is so hard to find that even when you can see it's so much better than everything else, you also know that you're not likely to come across that stuff often, and so you kinda just have to accept the bad with the good, because otherwise there's basically nothing. It also doesn't help that studios don't give a shit and have unfortunately realized that horror films can be spat out in a formulaic, surface level way for very cheap, and they can make like 10+ films a year and easily make profit off of it. If one film does bad, it's okay, there are still nine others. It's why Blumhouse just greenlights everything not worrying about budget or what's actually being made. They know they're going to get their money back regardless of what they release. It helps even less that often indie horror films are just very confusing. You're unsure of what's happening, and sometimes that's done with reason and those are some of the best indie films, but other times you're just confused when you shouldn't be. They don't feel like films, they feel like art projects. And films are art, but films are also films. They're stories. And you need to have some level of a coherent and understandable story even in the stuff that tries to reinvent the genre. I happen to be someone who wants to write. And it also happens that most of what I want to write is horror. So I'm absolutely ecstatic that you have people like Mike Flanagan coming in and just absolutely blowing everyone else out of the water because he doesn't focus on the scares, he focuses on the characters and the story. And when he does focus on the scares, he uses them specifically to enhance the characters and the story. It's why basically all of his stuff is loved, whereas James Wan, who is more of a horror aesthetics person, can make some stuff that hits and some stuff that doesn't. Thankfully, Hulu has a LARGE selection of horror films, so there's a lot of mainstream AND indie stuff to watch. And video games are basically where horror is being innovated upon the most now, largely with indie games, making them the new home of horror so to speak. Oh, and also, there's the stuff like Evil Dead or Child's Play/Chucky that is intentionally over the top and crazy, but you love because of the fact it does it intentionally but still manages to retain some actual quality. Edit: Fuck this comment is long. Have fun reading, I guess. Edit 2: Since you've brought them up, I think a lot of the common top horror films aren't that great. Exorcist is WAY overrated and basically every other film (and ESPECIALLY the show) is WAY better than the original, and that's because it's more drama than horror. And everything else is a slasher. And slashers are just the same thing all the time with the exception of Evil Dead and Chucky, because you're actively rooting for the slasher. You're rooting for the killer. With Ash it's because he's cool. With Chucky it's because he's fun. And you can maybe say the same of Elm Street because Robert Englund's performance is so good, and the kills are creative. But Halloween, Friday the 13th, and (in my opinion the most aggregious because it somehow understands what it's parodying but fails to understand why it's parodying it in the first place) Scream, they're all basically the same film. You get a bunch of surface level characters. Most of them die. All the ones you like die. But then ones you hate get the most development and survive, even in the sequels. I haven't seen Hellraiser or Texax Chainsaw yet, but I imagine they're just more of the same.
As a horror fan who often dislikes horror stuff, the way I see other horror fans is not that they're delusional or that they don't acknowledge that what they're consuming is bad content, but that horror, aside from maybe romance, is the ONLY genre that is almost never done well. And because of that, they just kinda get used to subpar content. And when that happens, they lower their standards so much so that they enjoy the bad shit. Because they don't want to go into something and NOT enjoy it. That's insane. Nobody wants to dislike things. And with horror, the truly good shit is so hard to find that even when you can see it's so much better than everything else, you also know that you're not likely to come across that stuff often, and so you kinda just have to accept the bad with the good, because otherwise there's basically nothing.
It also doesn't help that studios don't give a shit and have unfortunately realized that horror films can be spat out in a formulaic, surface level way for very cheap, and they can make like 10+ films a year and easily make profit off of it. If one film does bad, it's okay, there are still nine others. It's why Blumhouse just greenlights everything not worrying about budget or what's actually being made. They know they're going to get their money back regardless of what they release.
It helps even less that often indie horror films are just very confusing. You're unsure of what's happening, and sometimes that's done with reason and those are some of the best indie films, but other times you're just confused when you shouldn't be. They don't feel like films, they feel like art projects. And films are art, but films are also films. They're stories. And you need to have some level of a coherent and understandable story even in the stuff that tries to reinvent the genre.
I happen to be someone who wants to write. And it also happens that most of what I want to write is horror. So I'm absolutely ecstatic that you have people like Mike Flanagan coming in and just absolutely blowing everyone else out of the water because he doesn't focus on the scares, he focuses on the characters and the story. And when he does focus on the scares, he uses them specifically to enhance the characters and the story. It's why basically all of his stuff is loved, whereas James Wan, who is more of a horror aesthetics person, can make some stuff that hits and some stuff that doesn't.
Thankfully, Hulu has a LARGE selection of horror films, so there's a lot of mainstream AND indie stuff to watch. And video games are basically where horror is being innovated upon the most now, largely with indie games, making them the new home of horror so to speak.
Oh, and also, there's the stuff like Evil Dead or Child's Play/Chucky that is intentionally over the top and crazy, but you love because of the fact it does it intentionally but still manages to retain some actual quality.
Edit: Fuck this comment is long. Have fun reading, I guess.
Edit 2: Since you've brought them up, I think a lot of the common top horror films aren't that great. Exorcist is WAY overrated and basically every other film (and ESPECIALLY the show) is WAY better than the original, and that's because it's more drama than horror.
And everything else is a slasher. And slashers are just the same thing all the time with the exception of Evil Dead and Chucky, because you're actively rooting for the slasher. You're rooting for the killer. With Ash it's because he's cool. With Chucky it's because he's fun. And you can maybe say the same of Elm Street because Robert Englund's performance is so good, and the kills are creative.
But Halloween, Friday the 13th, and (in my opinion the most aggregious because it somehow understands what it's parodying but fails to understand why it's parodying it in the first place) Scream, they're all basically the same film. You get a bunch of surface level characters. Most of them die. All the ones you like die. But then ones you hate get the most development and survive, even in the sequels. I haven't seen Hellraiser or Texax Chainsaw yet, but I imagine they're just more of the same.
I agree 👍
Lie to themselves ... Isnt it logical to just accept its subjective lol smh