General Discussion

Body horror monsters my beloved

I love Bog from RHG and Luminax. They are cool monsters

Yesssss! One of my favourite niches to talk about!

Unfortunately most of my friends are not very into any kind of horror, which is a bummer for me since it limits who I can talk to. Luckily my boyfriend is at least always down for something spooky and scary, but I've yet to get him invested in the Eldritch nor Analog horror.
(had him watch a few parts of the Mandela Catalogue only for him to say "I am so confused, what is going on and why is it scary?")

Recently began playing The Sinking City, and as much as we all know by now how absolutely awful a person H.P Lovecraft was, I just get SO HYPED seeing anything inspired by the mythos.

I've done a few experiences from The Mysterious Package Company, my favourite being HASTUR. Honestly, the more eldritch/cosmic a horror, the better.

Just wish I had more people to geek out with.

@ChelleBelle

Your words hurt me because I’m the exact same, yowch. I feel your pain, I feel it… The urge to come up with these freaky things and ramble about them all and appreciate the horror and blasphemy of it all but having absolutely no one to talk about it with… It’s very disheartening.
It’s even the same with my music taste. I love listening to lyricless dramatic ost (ESPECIALLY monster Hunter tracks) and analyzing them and how they fit the creature etc.
No one else I know is the same ;-;

Even if Lovecraft was a horrible person it’s important to separate art from artist in this case! He’s long passed and without his works, no Matter what he was like, majority of spooky horror things wouldn’t exist today! His creations inspired so many special and scary and ghastly things that at this point if you look at anything remotely alien or eldritch or unknown horror you just KNOW there’s some influence there from his stuff.
Plus he’s totally gone and I like to think that seeing so many people of different background using his work as inspiration is driving him mad. He can’t do anything about it either <3

@QuetzalMuse Exactly! All the excitement wells up inside and has nowhere to go T__T
Tried explaining why I was so excited (and terrified) of a character I met in The Sinking City because right away I could tell which horrific being they were, and had to bite my tongue a lot to make it as simple as possible. Otherwise I would've been on the phone for 2 hours explaining why this particular horrible character is my favourite and where they originated and their stories etc etc etc. Always a sucky feeling toning yourself down because people have no interest or just do not get it.

Yes yes 100% yes! I absolutely agree with separating the art from the artist, especially once the artist has long been gone and in no way can perpetuate damage. He most definitely was integral to so much that we love and know as horror today. And yes, having it be reclaimed and transformed where he can do nothing about it is absolutely a great outcome for it all!

@QuetzalMuse

Oh no you're absolutely right! Body horror is very much grotesque creatures forming from limbs and heads and the lot. Very Dead Space, like you mentioned, or Resident Evil, The Thing, even things like The Fly and The Last of Us are up there as well. Though I also look at intense gore to be a genre of body horror, having things torn off or removed violently in ways that completely change the look of one's body. Saw is something I'd say is a body horror type film, having mechanisms and traps attached or inserted into the body that change the distort the person's figure in such an extreme that they aren't firmly recognized as being "human shaped" anymore. That could just be me, though, I enjoy both things so in my mind they tend to blend together and go hand in hand.

I also completely agree with jump scares. I never wanna brag or sound like I'm flexing but when it comes to jump scares I can usually smell 'em from a mile away. I do get caught by them on occasion but even those are pretty cheap feeling as they're just a flashy image with a loud sound. I like ambiance, aesthetics, feelings, things that build and linger that take time to get in your head and make you think. Tiny sounds and whispering voices you can't source are way scarier in the long run compared to a clown jumping out at you for a quick fix.

@ChelleBelle

I have the same issue. My partner actually surprised me last year with tickets to Smile which is the first time I've actually been with them to a horror movie in an actual theatre. Outside of that they don't really indulge at all, even with my persistence. They're much more of a "thriller" fan which is totally fine, the issue is though is that all horror are thrillers but not all thrillers are horror.

I especially feel your pain when it comes to analog horror! I love found footage type movies, like Blair Witch or Grave Encounters, but no one else can really get into them with me. They either dislike that things are crisp and clean or they're lost half-way through and it turns from "watching a movie" to "I'm gonna sit here for ten minutes and fill you in on what you watched".

@MrDrLemon

I just woke up so my brain is small but I will respond to the rest later (when I’m not half-asleep) but saw you mentioned found footage and have to say real quick that cloverfield/the cloverfield monster hits such a big spot for me.
I’m not… Well I wouldn’t say I’m not a fan of found footage, I love it! But uh… Would you believe me if I said I haven’t actually properly watched any horror movies before? Majority of everything I know comes from Dead Meat kill counts or Roanoke Gaming’s pathology/biology videos (as well as another channel I’ve forgotten who does ‘how to beat’).
The reason why is mostly because despite being insanely into horror, I actually have MAD paranoia problems (unrelated) and it actually makes it impossible to watch anything horror properly without being unable to sleep for nights. Yet I still adore the freaky and wonderful and cool of horror… So those videos essentially let me watch the movie without risking being up for nights!
I guess it sort of feels like cheating GJJGKGH… But I wouldn’t be able to get into horror movies any other way.
All of this ties back to found footage as it actually has the most impactful response on that paranoia, so I sometimes even watch those videos with caution. I’ve seen a decent chunk though!! I think the reason my reaction to found footage is so visceral is because of the fact it’s basically putting you right in the place of the person. You don’t get any cheatsy camera angles to see if anything’s coming, you’re just as vulnerable as the person recording.
I enjoy cloverfield more than most because I’m a sucker for giant monsters and just any horror related to creatures in general. Most of the time I’ll watch stuff about that because I’m a huuuuge biology nerd (albeit self taught with as much knowledge scrounged as possible) and those things just make me ponder… Also why Roanoke gaming is a channel I love since he analyzes that exact thing.

There we go! Of sound mind to add on to the above.

I did think it was more flexible like that, you're kind of right though. While it's differing opinions I can see why that sort of stuff would fall within the body horror vein. It makes sense! Though my thoughts on the definition remain more or less the same mostly for my own comfort, in that while gore can be fun sometimes I'm not really that into it compared to the solid body horror that is mutations and things, significant change from the form that the being lives with and won't kill them (or at least won't result in them succumbing to injury).

Isn't there a thing where the silence before jumpscares has a specific quiet frequency play and it causes tension in viewers, unnerves them? I feel like I've heard that somewhere before but it'd make sense since whenever I feel a jumpscare coming its not just a sort of 'hunch' thing so much as it is I can like... Physically feel something building. Idk how to explain it but even I can tell.
We could just be super desensitized to horror though, that stuff tends to be super predictable for the sake of bigger reaction from the audience.

Again it's why I love fromsoft games so much. Their horror is built through the environment, interactions and specific set pieces that are scattered throughout the place. The more you go digging, the more you realize how truly horrifying the entire premise is!! I love that it rewards your morbid curiosity.
It's also why I love movies that explore psychological horror though, more than other movies (but not more than monster horror, sorry brain-twisting horror </3). I like it when they can create their own offputting feeling and spooks through subtly and a growing unease instead of sudden noise and images.

i love spooky scary body horror monsters too

i think the ones in soulsborne are cool